The worst-kept secret in professional football is expected to take place this week as the NFL holds its owners’ meetings virtually from March 30-31.
Look for the regular-season schedule to bump up a game from 16 to 17, says Adam Schefter of ESPN.
NFL is expected to expand the regular season schedule this week to 17 games. The league had played a 16-game regular season schedule since 1978, by far the longest stretch without a change in NFL history.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 28, 2021
In December it was revealed what the procedure would be for structuring the extra game.
Re: 17-game slate, the inter-conference rotation for '21 …
Full crossover: NFC East/AFC West, NFC North/AFC North, NFC South/AFC East, NFC West, AFC South.
1-game crossover (1 v. 1, 2 v. 2, etc.): NFC East/AFC East, NFC North/AFC West, NFC South/AFC South, NFC West/AFC North.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) December 28, 2020
New scheduling procedures with respect to the 17th regular-season game will “be an interconference match-up based on divisional standings” from the previous campaign, and “on a rotating divisional basis” in a fashion similar to current scheduling standards that annually see one AFC division play an entire NFC division, and so on. This change should mean the football-viewing world will see more marquee matchups across conferences that would traditionally be limited by the annual interconference divisional rotations.