The one thing I hate about the Rams game already...

DaveXA said
Certainly. Of course, they could have flipped the Falcons/Chargers and Rams/Saints start times or run either of the games at one of the other 7 start times this week being there were the 3 start times on TG day and one Friday and the four start times today and tomorrow. But, this is how they drew it up. So, idk.

Any other start time other than noon Sunday either flattens the extra rest advantage on the Saints’ side or extends that of the Rams’. Usually the best thing to do is to put the Saints on the road Thanksgiving week and be done with it, but maybe they try not to do that too many years in a row, and when the Saints were more of a prestige team we could benefit from those SNF/MNF draws, like the 2009 Pats game.

DaveXA said
Not doubting you, but I wasn't aware the league was told that.

I’m speculating, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Flipping the Dome from Tulane games wasn’t as hard due to lower attendance, but Bayou Classic had an announced gate over 63K, and with the Battle Of The Bands also being in the Superdome on Friday (cheaper tickets + more roaming the concourses between action) that’s two days’ worth of cascading housekeeping efforts. I can’t imagine there being an easy way to pull that off quickly.

DaveXA said
Where do you get 1/272?

Up to 16 contests per week (which get dispersed due to bye weeks but is always the ceiling), each team has to play 17 games. 17×16=272

DaveXA said
A lot of this is determined before the season and the schedulers don't know how a given team will do during the upcoming season. I'm sure there are metrics they use, fan base size, viewership, ticket sales etc that factor in setting the schedule. I'm not saying it's all arbitrary. But I am saying that it wouldn't surprise me that there is definitely some occasional arbitrary decision making going on at times. If the league has an agenda with some teams, they can and do do what they want. It's not that hard.

They can but I don’t imagine it happens too often. Back in 2014 the Saints played a Sunday night home game against Green Bay then had a Thursday night road game against Carolina four days later. The team complained before and amongst this happening and it hasn’t happened to the Saints since. I can check some other time for all teams since 2015 but I do think this was a pretty significant “oh sh*t” moment for the league schedule writers.

DaveXA said
And as I stated, people can come to their own conclusions either way. We all won't come to the same conclusions, and that's perfectly fine.

I appreciate the research. I definitely learned a bit from the discussion. :9:

Who dat!

This was a pretty cool video too.