Jump to content

Mike Brown ‘We have lost some of our hold on our fan base", opposes 18-game schedule


Recommended Posts

On 7/25/2019 at 3:38 PM, AmishBengalFan said:

I don't like the idea of an 18-game season, but a lot of what the NFL does I don't care for, so let's assume it's gonna happen.

 

The only way I see the NFLPA going along with it is if the preseason is cut down to 2 games.  I could get behind that as a fan and a season ticket holder.  Preseason would still start in early August, but the regular season would start 2 weeks sooner than it does now, meaning it would still end around New Years and the Super Bowl would still happen in very early February.  Instead of 4 (preseason) + 17 (reg. season) + 5 (post season) = 26 weeks of football, it would be 2 + 19 + 5 = 26.  They might possibly throw a 2nd bye week in to make it 2 + 20 + 5 = 27, but that would be the extent of it.

 

Scheduling would be another matter.  If both extra opponents come from your conference, well, there are only 6 teams you don't already play against in a given year.... none of whom finished in their division where you finished in your division last year, so the extra games would add imbalance to the schedule.  A lot of 1st place teams playing 4th place teams?  Bleh.  Besides, the networks would weigh-in here and would probably force the league to make the 2 additional games non-conference ones.  As it is, each AFC team plays only 2 home games against NFC teams, and vice-versa.  This means FOX gets a game from New England only twice a year, CBS gets into Chicago and Dallas and Philly only twice a year, and that's before games get picked for Thursday or SNF or MNF.  If the 2 additional games were non-conference, every network would get into every stadium one additional time per year....  And with there being 12 non-conference opponents to pair up against, the pairings can be done with an eye to parity (1st plays 1st, 2nd plays 2nd) to ensure that the schedules remain balanced.

 

Since the non-conference pairings rotate annually, it would be trivially easy to pair conferences in a manner that eliminates any possibility of teams meeting in back-to-back years.  For example, in 2019 the AFC North plays the NFC West.  We play a different division every year, so playing any teams from the NFC South (2018) or NFC East (2020) would be off the table, leaving us the NFC North.  Each team plays 2 games agaisnt that division, with 1st and 4th place teams from your division playing 2nd and 3rd place from that other division - one at home, one away.  For the AFC North in 2019 the extra games might be:

(1) Ravens at (2) Vikings / (2) Stealers at (1) Bears / (3) Browns at (4) Lions / (4) Bengals at (3) Packers

(3) Packers at (1) Ravens / (4) Lions at (2) Stealers / (1) Bears at (3) Browns / (2) Vikings at (4) Bengals

 

Cumulative record of extra opponents:

Ravens (10-6) play Vikings + Packers (14-16-2)

Stealers (9-6-1) play Bears + Lions (18-14-0)

Browns (7-8-1) play Lions + Bears (18-14-0)

Bengals (6-10) play Packers + Vikings (14-16-2)

Bears (12-4) play Stealers + Browns (16-14-2)

Vikings (8-7-1) play Ravens + Bengals (16-16)

Packers (6-9-1) play Bengals + Ravens (16-16)

Lions (6-10) play Browns + Stealers (16-14-2)

 

All eight teams play games against teams who are all within 3 games, cumulatively, of each other (Best = 18-14, worst = 15-17)

 

Just pick-off the division from the other conference you played 2 seasons ago, and pair teams based on order of finish.

Your plan maintains symmetry, and I like that a lot!  So, if they're going to do it, they should do it the way you laid it out.  I still hope they leave it at 16, though.  They've already over saturated the product, and this will take it a step further.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Bleeds Orange said:

Your plan maintains symmetry, and I like that a lot!  So, if they're going to do it, they should do it the way you laid it out.  I still hope they leave it at 16, though.  They've already over saturated the product, and this will take it a step further.

Over saturated?  Reagular season lasts 4 months and 16 games. Full season 5 months.  NBA season is 6 months long with 2 month playoffs!  MLB is 6 months long with 1 month playoffs. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, SF2 said:

Over saturated?  Reagular season lasts 4 months and 16 games. Full season 5 months.  NBA season is 6 months long with 2 month playoffs!  MLB is 6 months long with 1 month playoffs. 

 

NBA postseason is so watered down as a result.  Basketball is really my favorite of the major sports, as far as the sport itself goes.  I'm a lifelong casual Rockets fan but just can't get excited for much NBA brand basketball. Pistons were fun to watch during their runs & I tuned in to watch Lebron's early career. Other than that,  I'll watch some NCAA tournament games every year and that's about it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 "Casual" is the point: relaxed interest...i.e entertainment. Not the NFL vice-grip headlock on one's time/money for that 4-month span. It occupies each moment--compresses and demands all attention. And that is just Sunday's, Monday's, and Thursday's...Saturday has the NCAA version of the same vice-grip.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Le Tigre said:

 "Casual" is the point: relaxed interest...i.e entertainment. Not the NFL vice-grip headlock on one's time/money for that 4-month span. It occupies each moment--compresses and demands all attention. And that is just Sunday's, Monday's, and Thursday's...Saturday has the NCAA version of the same vice-grip.

 

Outside of maybe a bowl game I haven't really watched NCAA football in years.   As for Bengals game, sometimes I get out of work at 6am on Sunday, so getting up for a 1pm game is an effort.  Haven't done that in a while, either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, SF2 said:

Over saturated?  Reagular season lasts 4 months and 16 games. Full season 5 months.  NBA season is 6 months long with 2 month playoffs!  MLB is 6 months long with 1 month playoffs. 

Comparing the over saturated to the extremely over saturated doesn't mean it's not over saturated.  As LeTigre implied, NBA and MLB games are not "events", but rather months-long background noise.  You catch some of the games, and miss some, many, or most of the rest, depending on your level of commitment.  That the NBA plays 82 basketball games over months on end to seed a 16-team, two-month long tournament whose final four teams are predetermined before it begins, is an absolute joke and not worthy of anyone's attention.  MLB took a step in that direction with it's expanded playoffs in 1995.  I can rattle every MLB postseason qualifier 1960-1993 (an era with two to four qualifiers per year) off the top of my head.  Now, I can't even tell you who made it last season or the year before.  

 

The longer the NFL season becomes, the less significant each individual game becomes.  Instead of asking fans to devote 16 Sundays to a "can't miss" event, you're asking them to invest 18.  How far can you take it before people reach a point of not even trying to watch them all, and end up watching fewer than they were before?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Bleeds Orange said:

Comparing the over saturated to the extremely over saturated doesn't mean it's not over saturated.  As LeTigre implied, NBA and MLB games are not "events", but rather months-long background noise.  You catch some of the games, and miss some, many, or most of the rest, depending on your level of commitment.  That the NBA plays 82 basketball games over months on end to seed a 16-team, two-month long tournament whose final four teams are predetermined before it begins, is an absolute joke and not worthy of anyone's attention.  MLB took a step in that direction with it's expanded playoffs in 1995.  I can rattle every MLB postseason qualifier 1960-1993 (an era with two to four qualifiers per year) off the top of my head.  Now, I can't even tell you who made it last season or the year before.  

 

The longer the NFL season becomes, the less significant each individual game becomes.  Instead of asking fans to devote 16 Sundays to a "can't miss" event, you're asking them to invest 18.  How far can you take it before people reach a point of not even trying to watch them all, and end up watching fewer than they were before?

 

Yeah I agree, particularly about background noise.  Baseball is just part of the summer soundtrack.  Some games I pay more attention to but a lot of the time it's what's on the radio while I do other things.  I would still miss it a lot & also have more respect for MLB than the other pro leagues.   NFL is trending the other way.  Said it many times but the NFL needs to go through that scandal/reform thing that every other pro sports league has endured.  The corruption from sports gambling is undeniable & it has to be rooted out periodically. 

 

Anyway I'm still excited but it seems like my team is either low-effort dysfunctional or getting headhunted & fucked over by consistently biased bad calls when they're not.  I really hope Taylor can set a different tone but the musty smell of nepotism in this organization is a lot to overcome.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, High School Harry said:

The idea of an 18 game season is ludicrous when out best offensive player can't make it through the first practice with out an injury.

It wasn’t even a practice, it was an exhibition practice. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, SF2 said:

It wasn’t even a practice, it was an exhibition practice. 

 

And probably intended more as exhibition than practice, at that.  Someone should've told DreSwagYolo, last spotted arguing with the MRI machine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...