There are four weeks of the 2022 NFL regular season still to be played, but the ’23 schedule with home and away opponents has mostly been determined. The NFL uses a rotation system to make sure each team plays one another at least once every four years. Flexible scheduling also helps showcase the best late-season matchups to the largest audiences, and the schedule-makers consider bye weeks and travel to maintain competitive equity.
The way the schedule has worked since the league expanded to eight divisions in 2002 is as follows: Each team plays its three divisional opponents twice, home and away. Each division is matched against an entire division in the opposite conference, rotating every four years. Each division is matched with an entire division within its own conference, rotating every three years. And each team plays against one team from each of the other intraconference divisions, corresponding with that team’s finish in the standings the previous year (first-place teams play against each other, etc.). Since the schedule was expanded to 17 games in ’21, the extra game comes against a team from the opposite conference, also corresponding with the previous year’s standings, with the bonus game coming from the division each team played in full two years prior.
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