How are fixtures decided

[kcccolts]

Daft foreigner question.

how are the week to week fixtures decided. There does not appear to be any rhyme or reason to them (but I am sure there will be).

[shakedownstreet]

Are fixtures crooked officials or is fixtures another name for games?

 

NFL Scheduling...

 

http://operations.nfl.com/the-game/creating-the-nfl-schedule/

[Coltsman1788]

7 hours ago, kcccolts said:

Daft foreigner question.

how are the week to week fixtures decided. There does not appear to be any rhyme or reason to them (but I am sure there will be).

We call them "schedules" in the States. I recognize the word "fixtures" from Premiere League so figure it's a common soccer (football) term in the UK.

 

The Conference schedule is set partially based on how a team finishes last season.  Thus a team that finished first last year will play the team from the other divisions that finished first in that particular Conference.  Each team also plays each team in it's division twice both home and away.  A team will also play all of the teams in another division within the same Conference on a yearly rotational basis.  So in all a team will play 12 Conference games in a season.  In addition, they will play four games against one division in the other Conference which is also determined on a yearly rotational basis.  Thus at the end of four seasons, a team would have played every other team in the NFL at least once.

 

Using the Colts as an example:

The two games against the other 2nd Place AFC Teams from last year are: vs. Jets; vs. Steelers;

The six divisional games (AFC South) are: vs. Texans (2); vs. Titans (2); vs. Jags (2);

The four games against yearly rotating division (AFC West this year) in same conference (AFC) are: vs. Broncos; vs. Chargers; vs. Chiefs; vs. Raiders;

The four games against yearly rotating division (NFC North this year) in other conference (NFC) are: vs. Lions; vs. Packers; vs. Bears; vs. Vikings.

 

Every year a team plays eight home games and eight away games if they do not have to play in London that year.

[kcccolts]

thanks for the information and apologies for the confusion about the topic. I have to say it sounds quite complicated and I was only asking as I had read somewhere this was the first time time colts and packers had played each other for 8 seasons.

For a league with no promotion or relegation that puzzled me slightly.

Thanks again for taking the time to answer.

 

[our_dbs_rock]

22 minutes ago, kcccolts said:

thanks for the information and apologies for the confusion about the topic. I have to say it sounds quite complicated and I was only asking as I had read somewhere this was the first time time colts and packers had played each other for 8 seasons.

For a league with no promotion or relegation that puzzled me slightly.

Thanks again for taking the time to answer.

 

 

Aside for playing in the Superbowl, an AFC team only plays an NFC every four years.  They will rotate between the four divisions (East, West, North, South) in a specific order each year.  Teams also alternate who plays the game at home (the exception being the two conference games that are against opponents who finished in the same position in their division, those games are pretty much random when determining who will play where).  So since they will only play a non conference team every four years and they alternate who is the home team, it makes it so a team will only play a non-conference team at home every eight years.