8 game season planned.....

So the NFL have drawn up contingency plans in case the lockout remains in force, sounds worrying to me.
They say they can play an 8 game season if the CBA is agreed by mid October - WTF ? It's early June, just get around a 'kin table and get a deal done FFS !
Now whilst this cannot be good news I am trying to keep a semi positive view and I reckon the planning that goes into an emergency schedule must take some weeks to finalise, so perhaps this has been a while in the making and the talks from last week will yield some entirely more positive news....

I can't believe they let this one slip...

I think the league and owners are fully aware of how annoyed the public are on this one.

Might not have been leaked by mistake mate.
Predicting the fan reaction wasn't difficult, could be a useful weapon for the league to exploit in negotiations....

While I completely agree with the thoughts of both Grizzly and Pr4wn it would also be negligent of the NFL if they didn't have numerous contingency plans in place. I'd be amazed if they don't have plans ranging from 16 games to none and everything in between. It just so happens that this plan is the one that the media has got hold of.

Were any details about who teams would play leaked? I'm on my phone so I can't look.

I agree with GB1919 I imagine the league have numerous contingency plans in place so they can be prepared whenever the CBA is agreed.

http://www.arrowheadpride.com/2011/6/6/2209552/kansas-city-chiefs-schedule-nfl-lockout

Doubt there'll be too many interested in the Chiefs schedule but attached anyway. Absolutely diabolical that you can have division winners and post season berths decided when not every team in the div plays each other - we avoid the Chargers altogether!
Makes me think even more that this is a stick to threaten the owners with.
I'm sure if you do a google search you'll get your teams proposed schedule - the mood is very clear in the States, walk away and follow college, the damage to the NFL could be deep and far reaching.....

I'm not enormously well informed on college football (yet), but would it not suffer if the NFL suffered too. Realistically how long would the scholarships be funded if players weren't making the NFL and providing publicity for the college, donating to their college etc. Also beyond being able to play for an extra few years after high school what are the benefits for the players if there is no incentive to play for at the end of it?

It seems to me that for college football to succeed it needs the NFL to succeed.

Well, the Skins do well in strike years, so I'm hoping this happens!

But seriously, an 8 game season will be over before it gets going and as stated here, some teams will get an unfair advantage from it. I say lock them all in a room until they sort this out. No toilet or meal breaks!

GB1919 wrote:I'm not enormously well informed on college football (yet), but would it not suffer if the NFL suffered too. Realistically how long would the scholarships be funded if players weren't making the NFL and providing publicity for the college, donating to their college etc. Also beyond being able to play for an extra few years after high school what are the benefits for the players if there is no incentive to play for at the end of it?

It seems to me that for college football to succeed it needs the NFL to succeed.

I don't think there's any doubt on the long term future of NFL, what the lockout will do is drive away some US fans in the short term but they will return, it may take a year or two but they will return. The loss for the NFL as discusse before with the globalisation of the sport - new overseas fans will drift away and there's no guarantee they'll come back, I would estimate any loss of football could send the sport back to where it was 10 years ago) by popularity/viewing figures.
No question in my mind that the whole college/draft/pro process won't change, my guess though is that there'll be a few less dollars to go around from 2012....

I wasn't suggesting the end of the NFL just that the two are very closely linked. If the labour dispute means the NFL regresses 10 years then there will be an impact on college football so the people rubbing their hands in glee should maybe think a little more long term. The scenario I described above was obviously apocalyptic but anything in between where the NFL is now and no NFL will cause a knock on effect to colleges.

10 years ago the NFL was on an upward curve - viewing figures were up , ad revenue was up, everyone associated with NFL was upbeat about the future, so if this lockout takes the game back (in viewers and income terms) to where it was at in 2001 it isn't a disaster, it just means you're average 10th pick 'chip on his shoulder' WR who wants $30m guaranteed over 5 years is likely to have to settle for something less, and whilst the owners won't be upset (stadiums will still sell out, people will still buy beer and hotdogs) there'll be plenty of holdouts.
Most people only look to the 'now' without a view on the future, my guess is a large number of the hundreds of thousands of European fans that have been created in recent years will disappear for good, Autumn/Winter Sunday evenings are full of alternative sport

But Grizzly, as I've mentioned before, I don't think that the NFL or the players have truly grasped what a loss that would be to the sport.

They've made huge gains over the last few years and I thin that NFL football is on the verge of breaking out in term of popularity in Europe.

They both could be making a very unwise decision by prolonging this lockout.

Pr4wn - you've answered your own question, they could be on the verge of breaking out, they aren't there yet, and as I said players are interested in the 'now', not the 2015 or beyond scenario.
WHat they fail to realise is that a big issue in this CBA is the contribution the league makes to retired players which will of course go up if revenues increase, sadly players appear too stupid or selfish or both to appreciate that....

Don't seem to be able to find the Browns schedule on my phone atm so I'll find it next week but if we miss either the Ravens or the Steelers I can't complain too much if we miss the Bengals I might complain.

Some of this needs to go back onto the lockout thread. This was started to ask about the idea of an 8 game season. in the last 2.5 hours, Derby is the only one to bring the thread back to the original topic.

My fault!

In reference to the 8-game season, I really can't see how this is going to be close to being fair.

Sounds to me like there is only one solution

.

'I really can't see how this is going to be close to being fair..'

Exactly, can you imagine winning the NFC South without playing the Saints ?
The schedule I saw has us not playing the Chargers !

As I said, perhaps it was deliberately put out there to inflame things, especially as there are more talks starting today

For Chargers fans the ideas of an 8 game season must be terrifying. The way they start seasons they'll probably end up 1-7. For teams that start quickly they'd be rubbing their hands in glee.

Yeah true - mind you the genius that is Norv may hastilly arrange 10 pre-season games instead of camp !

Funny that there's nothing on NFL.com re this, and it has been out there since Monday.
You would think they'd be quick to play down rumours/reports of the 8 game schedule if they were innocent, you'd also think they'd want to respond/deny any 'leak' talk as it reflects on their internal security, but no they say nothing.....

Maybe they don't know its out there...

GB1919 wrote:I'm not enormously well informed on college football (yet), but would it not suffer if the NFL suffered too. Realistically how long would the scholarships be funded if players weren't making the NFL and providing publicity for the college, donating to their college etc. Also beyond being able to play for an extra few years after high school what are the benefits for the players if there is no incentive to play for at the end of it?

It seems to me that for college football to succeed it needs the NFL to succeed.

It would have a huge impact, already a number of College teams in the bigger markets are sounding out the idea of playing regular Sunday games in place of the NFL games, as most teams play on a Saturday in college football it is sometimes only the bigger teams that will be shown on newtwork television but those teams that play would play on a Sunday would have a larger market, also the TV companies that have paid the Billions fo the NFL TV rights will not be too happy as they need advertisers to fill the slots during commercials to pay for th NFL.

Roger Goodell has already gone on record sayin that there is huge decrease in traffic on NFL.com as well as less money spent on merchandise, and the NFL drafts viewing figures were somewhat down over recent years.

IMHO there is a 3rd party to date that has been silent over the lack of games and you can bet these executives will start to be getting twtichy, and that's is TV, as well as Radio NBC, CBS, ABC, Direct TV and ESPN along with sirrus radio has spent Billions on the NFL for the right to broadcast games, they will not be too happy there will be no NFL season and if there is a loss of a whole season you can be sure they will be looking at ways to recoup this money. Nobody likes to spend Billions and nothing in return or their money back.

On the TV thing, I'm amazed they entered into an agreement that went beyond the current CBA, surely paying in advance for a product that might not exist when you sign the cheque seems very strange to me, especially when it comes from organisations who are usually commercially aware....

I think they done this one year in the 80s, maybe '81. Think it was a year when the Redskins won, 8/9 game regular season, no divisions just the best 8 teams in a conference made it to the playoffs.

Twas the 82 season were the Skins won

Leedscowboys wrote:Twas the 82 season were the Skins won

Yeah it was the 82 season: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_NFL_season

Dave wrote:

Leedscowboys wrote:Twas the 82 season were the Skins won

Yeah it was the 82 season: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_NFL_season

They were the team on Americas Game last week.

Yeah, great show. That was the year I picked up on the NFL, hence the team I picked. see my post above.

Grizzly - I think they signed on the basis the CBA would be re-done before this year, which it really should have been. Whilst I agree in principle, the TV people also think years into the future when dealing with something like this, and work on the basis that whatever hiccups happen, the NFL (for that matter, NBA, NHL, EPL et al) won't suddenly fail and disappear.

The problem here is that the NFL has a monopoly on pro football and regardless of any other leagues in existence, it will still be in operation for many years to come. Had there been some form of competition for its audience, we'd never have gotten to this mess.