Football is back! The National Football League announced the 2021-2022 season would have an 18-week, 17-game regular season back in May of this year.
This will be the first season in the League’s history to have this amount of games. The NFL schedule has grown from 12 games to 14 games to 16 games to now 17 games in its 102 seasons of existence. According to the NFL’s Football Operations website, “Every team will play 17 regular-season games with one bye week.”
In their announcement of the 2021 NFL Schedule, they noted how the 17th game will work logistically, “The 17th game will feature teams from opposing conferences that finished in the same standing within their respective divisions the previous season. The AFC was determined to be the home conference for the 17th game in 2021.”
The 272-game schedule will consist of 32 teams playing six games against teams within their division, two games from the other divisions within the team’s conference, four games against teams within their conference in a different division, four games against teams in another conference and division, and the last game will be against the team from the other conference who finished in the same ranking the season prior.
The 2021 NFL season kicks off tonight when Super Bowl LV Champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, host the Dallas Cowboys at the Raymond James Stadium at 8:20 PM EST.
