In this article, I’ll be diving into how the NFL schedule is created, giving you an inside look into the process that shapes the regular season. From understanding how teams are matched up, to why certain games are scheduled on prime-time TV, I’ve broken it all down step by step. By the end, you’ll have a clear understanding of how the league designs a fair yet exciting schedule that keeps fans on the edge of their seats each week.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of the NFL video transcript on how the NFL schedule is created, presented with points:

1. Overview of the NFL Schedule Creation Process

• Teams and Games: The NFL schedule consists of 18 weeks, 32 teams, 272 games, and 576 slots. For each team, there are nearly 1 billion options, and hundreds of trillions of possible combinations overall.
• Despite the complexity, the goal is to find the one perfect schedule.

2. Key Figures in the NFL Scheduling Process

• Howard Katz: The primary authority on the schedule. He is responsible for evaluating schedules and deciding what “feels right” for the NFL.
• Mike North: Plays the role of the “scientist,” operating the computer systems and analyzing schedules. He focuses on the technical aspects.
• Team Contributions: The team working on the schedule includes Charlotte Carey, Blake Jones, Nick Cooney, and others who contribute different perspectives, forming a cohesive system.

3. Initial Data Setup

• The process begins once the NFL season ends, around January 4.
• They feed the 272 matchups into the scheduling software to start from scratch.

4. Structure of NFL Games

• The matchups are based on a combination of rotations and the previous year’s standings.
• 6 division games: Each team plays three division rivals twice (home and away).
• 4 intra-conference games: Teams play four games against teams from another division within their conference.
• 4 inter-conference games: Teams face four opponents from a division in the other conference.
• 2 intra-conference games by standings: First-place teams from one division face first-place teams from another, and so on.
• 1 additional inter-conference game (since the expansion to 17 games): This game is played against a team from a division that the team isn’t already scheduled to face.

5. Complexity of Schedule Creation

• The expanded 17-game season has increased complexity, multiplying the solution space to almost infinite.
• Finding the best schedule is compared to searching for the best grain of sand on a beach, but the difficulty level has grown to searching in the Sahara Desert.

6. Mathematical Challenges

• When selecting 10 Sunday Night Football games, there are 3.6 million possible combinations.
• The additional 16 games from the expansion to 272 games make the process exponentially more difficult.

7. High-Profile Matchups

• Special matchups like Patrick Mahomes vs. Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady’s return to New England are strategically placed on the schedule to maximize excitement and fan engagement.
• Placing these games in the right time slot and network is crucial, as these are considered once-in-a-lifetime events.

8. Historical Scheduling Methods

• Val Pinchbeck, a legendary schedule maker, used to create the schedule manually with tags on a board. Each tag represented a game, and Val used colored pins for nationally televised games.
• Val would spend hours staring at the board, working by intuition, often while eating pistachios—his unique method of inspiration.

9. Transition to Modern Scheduling Methods

• Today, the NFL uses advanced software built by Optimal Planning Solutions and powered by AWS (Amazon Web Services) to automate much of the process.
• The software mirrors the manual methods pioneered by Pinchbeck but allows for faster calculations and analysis of infinite combinations.

10. How the Software Works

• The system involves 3,000 AWS computers working simultaneously, each working on a different schedule permutation and sharing results in real-time.
• The optimizer, Gurobi, takes all scheduling rules and tries to find feasible solutions from the infinite possibilities.

11. Key Considerations for Scheduling

• Competitive Fairness: Teams shouldn’t face too many tough scheduling challenges, like three-game road trips or back-to-back away games.
• If a team faced a three-game road trip in a previous season, it’s less likely to happen again due to penalty points assigned to such situations.
• Television Partners: The schedule must balance the needs of broadcast partners, ensuring a strong lineup for Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, and Thursday Night Football.

12. Daily Iterations

• Each day, thousands of computers search through different schedules, checking each permutation against the rules and aiming for the lowest penalty score. This helps ensure minimal dissatisfaction for teams and TV networks.

13. AWS and Cloud Computing’s Role

• AWS’s cloud computing power allows the NFL to run numerous simulations simultaneously across multiple computers, making the process faster and more efficient.
• Each AWS cluster focuses on different sections of the schedule, adjusting variables to test numerous combinations.

14. Scoring the Schedule

• A negative base scoring system is used, where penalties are assigned for undesirable scenarios (e.g., too many away games in a row, bad prime-time matchups, etc.).
• The goal is to create the lowest penalty score, ensuring the most balanced and fair schedule possible.

15. Finalizing the Schedule

• After weeks of refining the schedule, the final product is presented to Roger Goodell, the NFL Commissioner, for approval.
• The scheduling team works to ensure that the final version is something they are proud of and meets the expectations of all stakeholders (teams, fans, broadcasters, etc.).

This process highlights the incredible complexity behind the NFL schedule, from balancing fairness to satisfying broadcast partners, all while ensuring that the best matchups are presented at the most opportune times.