How the NFL makes the schedule: Everything that goes into the annual process

Every day I open the New York Times Games app and run through all my favorites: Wordle, the daily crossword, the Midi, the Mini, and Connections. If I've got time, I hit Strands, Pips and the Spelling Bee. I like puzzles, you see. But there's no way I'd sign up to tackle the NFL's biggest puzzle: the NFL schedule.

Making the NFL schedule is a chore and a half. In fact, it's like putting together a 272-piece jigsaw puzzle while also juggling a full set of bowling pins.

Who makes the NFL schedule?

The task of overseeing the creation of the NFL schedule falls to Has Schroeder, executive vice president of media distribution; Michael North, the vice president of broadcasting planning; and Onnie Bose, the vice president of broadcast operations. But they're just the humans involved.

How is the NFL schedule made?

The NFL uses the power of thousands of computers to look over every permutation of the schedule to find the one that balances all the factors. It's an impossible task, one that always results in some teams feeling screwed and others feeling favored. There's no way around it.

There are 18 weeks to stuff 272 games. Teams are locked into their division schedule, conference matchups and cross-conference games. Some will play internationally. Some will play on holidays. Some have to factor in shared venues and non-NFL events on the schedule. All of those factors have to be considered.

It's all too complex to sit there and put it together by hand, game-by-game, week-by-week. That's why the computers come in handy. They can relatively quickly create thousands and thousands of possible schedules, most of which are far from ideal. The job of the schedule makers is to whittle their options down to the one that works the best.

Determining who hosts

All 32 NFL teams play 17 regular season games. They all get one bye. Half of them host nine regular-season games plus one preseason game. The other half hosts eight regular-season games and two preseason games. Those hosting splits alternate every year between the AFC and NFC. In 2026, AFC teams will host nine regular-season games while the NFC gets eight.

Determining who plays who

Every team has a set lineup of opponents. That's why schedule release day is really only a reveal of when teams will be playing. We've known all along which teams will be playing each other because of the NFL's schedule rotation, which guarantee every team plays at least once in a four-year span.

The season schedule for each team includes...

• Six division games: Teams play each of their three division opponents home and away. Ex. Cardinals play Seahawks, Rams, 49ers twice.
• Four conference games by division rotation: Teams play the four teams from another division within their conference. Two of those games are at home and two on the road. The division is determined by a rotation. Ex. NFC West plays NFC East in 2026.
• Four non-conference games by division rotation: Teams play the four teams from another division outside their conference. Two of those games are at home and two on the road. The division is determined by a rotation. Ex. NFC West plays AFC West in 2026.
• Two conference games by division ranking: Teams play one home and one road game against equally ranked teams from the remaining two divisions in their conference. Ex. Cardinals (4th in NFC West) play Lions (4th in NFC North) and Saints (4th in NFC South) in 2026.
• One non-conference game by division ranking: Teams play one game against an equally ranked team from a division outside their conference that they aren't already scheduled to play. The division is determined by a rotation. Conferences alternate hosting. Ex. Cardinals (4th in NFC West) host Jets (4th in AFC East) in 2026.

Since matchups are based on a rotation and divisional ranks, the NFL announces them at the beginning of the year. The months that follow are all about putting those matchups together in a coherent schedule.

Determining when teams play

This is the tough part. The schedule makers have to figure out how all 272 of those games fit together across 18 weeks when you factor in matchups, road trips, holidays, bye weeks and international play. Each week can include between 13 and 16 games depending on how many teams are on their bye.

Once the schedule makers have the weekly matchups all set, there's still the task of slotting them all into the broadcast schedule.

Most NFL games are played on Sundays, but the schedule also has to factor in Thursday and Mondays each week, along with Saturdays late in the season.

Regular weekly slots include:

• Thursday Night Football at 8:15 p.m. (Amazon Prime)
• Sunday at 1 p.m. ET (CBS/FOX)
• Sunday at 4:05/4:25 p.m. ET (CBS/FOX)
• Sunday Night Football at 8:20 p.m. ET (NBC)
• Monday Night Football at 8:15 p.m. ET (ABC/ESPN)

Schedule makers also have to fill two Saturday games in Week 16, 17 and 18. Holiday games on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Christmas also come into play.

International games

There are nine international games scheduled for the 2026 season, some of them more exciting than others. Those essentially create a starting point for schedule makers because the logistics and travel to and from have to be accounted for. Teams won't be asked to travel the week before or after an international game. Ideally, their bye week can factor in on either side.

So these are the matchups around which the 2026 NFL schedule was built:

NFL teams are required to play at least one international game every eight years.

When all is said and done, we get an NFL schedule that checks all the boxes necessary. Whether your team got the short end of the scheduling stick or not, we can all appreciate the herculean effort of putting it all together.

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