Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
Vic Fangio Would Eliminate Divisions in Proposed NFL Schedule Change
There have been rumblings of adding games to the schedule dating back to the previous CBA that was codified following the NFL lockout of 2011. NFL owners and the Players Union were able to come together at the 11th hour and agree to a CBA in time for the season to be played in its entirety but one issue left in the wind, and one that would have to be reexamined in 2021 when the current agreement expires, would be to add one or two games to the regular season schedule.
As it stands, the NFL schedule includes four preseason exhibition contests and 16 regular season games. Each NFL team gets one bye week during the regular season.
There are two conferences — the AFC and NFC — with four divisions each. As for the playoff seeding, current NFL rules dictate that the winner of each division is not only guaranteed a playoff game, but also a home game in the postseason. From there, two non-division-winning wild card teams earn their way into the playoffs based on record.
Six teams from each conference get into the playoff tournament.
What inevitably happens is that due to the current rules, you'll see 8-8 division winners play host to a 12-4 wild card team who finished No. 2 in their respective division, but four games ahead of the opponent they now have to travel to face in the playoffs. Think back to the 2011 season as the quintessential example of this when the 8-8 Broncos who won the AFC West played host to the 12-4 Pittsburgh Steelers who finished second in the AFC North.
Is it fair? Not exactly. What the current structure does is place a premium on winning the division. However, if Denver Broncos head coach Vic Fangio had his druthers, there would be no divisions in the NFL.
“Since the league went to 32 teams, which was when the Texans came in in 2002, my ideal suggestion, which has never been put forth in front of anybody important—I don’t think there should be divisions," Fangio said earlier this week when asked about the idea of the NFL schedule moving to 17 games. "I think you’ve got 16 in each conference. Everybody should play each other once. That’s 15 games. Then if you want a 16th game, you play a natural rival from the other conference—Jets and Giants play every year, Eagles-Steelers, Texans-Cowboys, etc., play every year. Then keep it at 16 games, but you’ll avoid the problem that’s going to happen this year where probably an 8-8 team is hosting a 12-4 team."
It's an interesting idea but unlikely to ever pass muster in the NFL's Competition Committee. But either way, despite Fangio's call for an innovative change to the way the 16-game schedule is played and how opponents are decided, he wants the schedule to remain at 16 contests per season.
"You’re going to get the six best teams in each conference," Fangio said. "The divisions always float. There are some that are easy some years, some that have a bunch of good teams, that switches back and forth every couple years. I just think that’d be a good way to avoid it, but I’m not for 17 games. I think it should stay at 16.”
Fangio's not wrong in that there is an injustice to a 12-4 team having to travel to play an opponent with an inferior record. But again, that's why winning the division is priority No. 1 for NFL teams and it's also why and how such passionate rivalries have been created throughout the storied history of the league.
"I just don’t think divisions are going to get you the best six every year," Fangio said. "You want the best six? Do it like they do in college. One through—you play everybody once.”
As for that inter-conference rivalry game, if the NFL were to heed Fangio's idea, how would that get decided? According to Fangio, it would come down to geographic proximity.
“I guess it would be Arizona, right? Aren’t they the closest geographically?”
In Fangio's vision, the Broncos would no longer play each division rival twice per year, because there'd be no AFC West. In that alternate football universe, wouldn't that be the death of rivalry in the NFL?
“We’ll play them once a year," Fangio said. "It doesn’t hurt the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry, Alabama-Auburn. They only play once a year.”
Maybe Fangio will one day present his idea up the chain of command to president of football operations/GM John Elway and importune him to take it to the NFL's Competition Committee. While it's fun to imagine how the NFL would look under such a radical change, it's got a snowball's chance in heck of ever becoming reality.
Follow Chad on Twitter @ChadNJensen and @MileHighHuddle.
