Since the 2002 season, the NFL schedule has had a perfect parity. That was the year the NFL reorganized into two conferences of 16 teams with four divisions of four teams in each conference.
Each team played a 16 game schedule over 17 weeks. Each team played six games against the other three teams in the division.
On a four-year rotating basis, a team played four games against the teams in a division of the other conference.
On a three-year rotating basis, a team played four games against the teams in a division of their conference.
Teams played their remaining two games against the same placed team in the remaining two divisions of their conference.
So, every team played four games against teams that finished first in the division the prior year, four games against teams that finished second, four games against teams that finished third, and four games against teams that finished fourth. Every team had eight home and eight road games. On the surface, there was an appearance of parity.
A team would only play one game per week and time slots were consistent from week to week. No other American sports league could duplicate this format.
This coming fall, the owners and players have agreed to expand the regular season to 17 games.
Each first-place team will play the first-place team from the other conference in the division that they did not play in 2020 or will play in 2022. Second place teams will play second-place teams and the same for third and fourth place teams.
They did make it fair where all American Football Conference teams will have this additional game as a home game.
A thought for the extra game was to play them on neutral fields in cities, without teams (i.e., St Louis) or in foreign countries (i.e., London, Mexico City, Toronto). The two 2021 London games are not matches created by the 17th game. We’ll see if this concept is implemented in 2022 and beyond.
For now, first-place teams will have a more difficult schedule, and fourth place teams will have easier opponents. There will be a better chance for a worst to playoff scenario. For fantasy league owners, you’ll be able to expand to a 15-week regular season or stay at 13 weeks and start late or finish early.