From www.nfl.com The NFL has its plan for eliminating those not-ready-for-primetime matchups that too often sneaked onto national television.The league plans to hold off scheduling Sunday night games in 7 of the final 8 weeks,just as playoff races start heating up,to ensure the best games are played on NBC.The league has long wanted some kind of flexible scheduling,but could never implement one until now.For weeks 10-15 and week 17,the final regular season weekend,all Sunday games will be listed with start times of 1PM or 4:05-4:15PM EST.The league must then announce which match will be played Sunday night at least 12 days before the date of the game.The lone exception is the season finale on Dec. 31,when the switch must be made no later than 6 days before the game.Only Sunday games are subject to the flexible schedule that is part of the NFL's $3.6 billion contract with NBC for the Sunday night package.CBS and FOX has the option to protect 5 games (for each respective network) in the 7 weeks of flexible scheduling,but can't protect more than 1 game per week.So,if Indianapolis is playing Pittsburgh in a late season game and CBS does not want it moved to Sunday night on NBC,it has the option to keep the game.Week 16 is Christmas weekend and no game will be switched.Teams will be told by the NFL office as soon as they are not under consideration to have a game moved.And,unlike in the past,teams are allowed to play in consecutive Sunday night games.To make the system more flexible,up to 3 teams each season will be allowed a bonus 6th primetime appearance.All the others will be limited to a maximum of 5,including the Monday night ESPN package and the late season Saturday or Thursday games on NFL Network.The NFL has often moved games from early afternoon to late afternoon on Sundays to get a top matchup in a better viewing slot.It did so 8 times in 2005.The flexibility remains.In recent seasons,the league has faced lower primetime ratings because of poor late season matchups.It also has seen surprisingly successful teams shut out of primetime because the entire schedule is released in April.
