Schedule moving forward
Mar 30, 2021 15:06:38 GMT -5
Denver Broncos (Steve), Cleveland Browns (Kevin), and 2 more like this
Post by Cincinnati Bengals (Chris) on Mar 30, 2021 15:06:38 GMT -5
As you may or may not have seen, the NFL has moved to a 17-game schedule (Officially) today. While that may not resonate with you, what it means for our purposes is that, it necessitates that we join a growing number of leagues moving from a 12-game regular season, to a 13-game slate. This may come as a shock to you, but it is something that League Managers have been keeping an eye on for several years now, after the NFL floated that it was looking into the move, and it was expected that we would face this decision, if not now, in the near future. We have already run through various permutations, and think that it is both feasible, and will have a minimal effect on the league to do so.
So, as you may be asking, why is adding a game to our schedule, in conjunction with the NFL now doing so, a necessity? Well, chiefly for TV purposes, the NFL had begun to schedule more and more bye weeks in Week 13, the first round of our playoffs. As a result, teams were essentially dealt a first-round playoff loss at random when one of their QBs, RBs, or other impact players would not be available to them in a week in which all byes were supposed to have concluded. Understandably, that ruffled quite a few feathers with the affected members, as the league could only effectively say, there's nothing we can do about it, and we're sorry that this happened to you. While that's not the answer anyone wants to hear out of their league management, it was essentially true.
Now, the addition of the 17th game allows us to jump out of that, "Will they or won't they schedule my QB's (Or other important asset's) bye in Week 13," game of roulette that would eventually bite us all, as there is no logical reason that the NFL couldn't conclude all byes (As they already do) in 13 weeks (Or 12 weeks most years), without removing games from already precious time slots (The same reason they moved to Week 13 byes in the first place). After all, it's not like they added any more teams, so any forwarding of the bye weeks into Week 14 would likely be a one-time occurrence based on a natural disaster (Like the hurricane in Week 1 of 2017 I want to say? Maybe 2016?), pandemic or health crisis (Though, no bye weeks extended beyond Week 13 even in this year), or other unknown at present catastrophe. It also will allow us to compete with more teams on a yearly basis, and provide us with an additional separating data point to make it easier to differentiate between 6-6 (Most often), or similar record teams that were previously tied after Week 12 (The conclusion of our previous regular season).
Additionally, moving to 13 games will provide more realism in mirroring the NFL (Something we try to do in this league as much as possible). This means our Super Bowl will now be Week 17, just like our previous Week 16 one, relative to an 18-week schedule, to avoid teams shutting players down. We look forward to our first 13-game regular season with you all in 2021, and are glad to have each and every one of you with us through this journey.
So, as you may be asking, why is adding a game to our schedule, in conjunction with the NFL now doing so, a necessity? Well, chiefly for TV purposes, the NFL had begun to schedule more and more bye weeks in Week 13, the first round of our playoffs. As a result, teams were essentially dealt a first-round playoff loss at random when one of their QBs, RBs, or other impact players would not be available to them in a week in which all byes were supposed to have concluded. Understandably, that ruffled quite a few feathers with the affected members, as the league could only effectively say, there's nothing we can do about it, and we're sorry that this happened to you. While that's not the answer anyone wants to hear out of their league management, it was essentially true.
Now, the addition of the 17th game allows us to jump out of that, "Will they or won't they schedule my QB's (Or other important asset's) bye in Week 13," game of roulette that would eventually bite us all, as there is no logical reason that the NFL couldn't conclude all byes (As they already do) in 13 weeks (Or 12 weeks most years), without removing games from already precious time slots (The same reason they moved to Week 13 byes in the first place). After all, it's not like they added any more teams, so any forwarding of the bye weeks into Week 14 would likely be a one-time occurrence based on a natural disaster (Like the hurricane in Week 1 of 2017 I want to say? Maybe 2016?), pandemic or health crisis (Though, no bye weeks extended beyond Week 13 even in this year), or other unknown at present catastrophe. It also will allow us to compete with more teams on a yearly basis, and provide us with an additional separating data point to make it easier to differentiate between 6-6 (Most often), or similar record teams that were previously tied after Week 12 (The conclusion of our previous regular season).
Additionally, moving to 13 games will provide more realism in mirroring the NFL (Something we try to do in this league as much as possible). This means our Super Bowl will now be Week 17, just like our previous Week 16 one, relative to an 18-week schedule, to avoid teams shutting players down. We look forward to our first 13-game regular season with you all in 2021, and are glad to have each and every one of you with us through this journey.