How Is the NFL Schedule Structured?

To understand the NFL schedule, you first need to know how the league is structured. Every year, the NFL regular season kicks off on the first Thursday after Labor Day and runs through early January. The regular season schedule includes 17 games and one bye week per team across 18 weeks. Totaling 272 regular season games, the final slate is organized by a team of “NFL schedule makers,” including league executives, who use a combination of prior matchups, input from clubs and venue owners and extensive schedule simulations.

Picking a team’s regular season schedule starts with their home conference and division. Since 1970, NFL teams have been split into two conferences: the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). For the league’s 32 teams, each conference houses 16 apiece with four divisions of four. In both conferences, divisions are grouped regionally and labeled as North, East, South and West.

Which games make up the NFL Regular Season schedule?

The NFL’s regular season schedule follows a rotating cycle to keep divisional rivalries in the pocket while leaving slots open for fresh, cross-conference matchups. Here’s a breakdown of a team’s 14 unique opponents and 17 regular season games each year.

Divisional

Each team plays two games against every other team in their division: once at home and once on the road. In total, the regular season schedule contains six games versus home division opponents.

Inter-Divisional

Each team plays one game against all four teams in a different division within their conference. On a three-year rotating cycle, an entire division will face another division in the same season, adding four total games.

Inter-Conference

Each team plays one game against all four teams in a different conference and division. Similar to the inter-divisional matchups, the inter-conference games are waged between four-team divisional blocks that rotate yearly.

Additional Conference Play

Each team plays two games against in-conference opponents who were not already scheduled and held a matching divisional ranking in the previous season. The two additional conference matchups feature one home game and one road game.

The 17th Game

Each team plays one non-conference team with a matching divisional ranking from the previous season.

How Does the NFL Regular Season Schedule Affect the Playoffs?

Ultimately, a team’s final regular season record and division ranking determines their postseason fate, but their schedule also factors into their playoff chances. In the event of a divisional tie, the league can use the Strength of Victory and Strength of Schedule metrics as secondary tie-breakers. Strength of Victory ranks higher and measures the combined winning percentage of opponents a team has beaten, while Strength of Schedule expands to the combined winning percentage of all opponents in a season.

Finally, league alignments come back into play for the Super Bowl, where the conference champions from the AFC and NFC face off in The Big Game.

NFL Rule Changes to the Regular Season Schedule

Although every NFL season comes with new rules, that also can apply to the schedule itself. Ahead of the 2023 season, league owners voted to allow more flexible scheduling, or the ability to change the date or time of a week’s matchup for broadcasts like Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football. In its current format, games slotted for Sunday Night Football can be flexed twice between Weeks 5 and 10 and as needed between Weeks 11 and 17, while flex begins in Week 12 for Monday Night Football and Week 13 for Thursday Night Football. Gametimes for Week 18 are scheduled at the conclusion of Week 17 based on a matchup’s playoff implications.

Ahead of the 2025-26 season, the flex scheduling rule was updated to shorten the time needed to announce a Thursday Night Football matchup change from 28 to 21 days.

How to Get Tickets to the NFL Regular Season

Once your team’s regular season schedule gets announced, grab tickets via Ticketmaster. NFL tickets and resale tickets purchased via Ticketmaster are 100% verified, so you can stick to the play no matter what the schedule throws at you.

 

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