If the season is shortened what would be your plan for the NFL schedule ?

The more time goes by, the more it seems inevitable that the season, if there's any, will be shortened.
I don't think playing in front of empty stadiums will give it a better chance for a full season because the players could infect each other on the field or inside their facility with all the personnel. Tests aren't specific enough right now (a test is positive in only 70% of infected patients)... So the situation will have to be under control first. And science tells us right now that it will take time. And only then, training camp will happen.
So right now it's a tough call. But nevertheless i thought about looking to plan a schedule in different scenarios (and that's why i think the schedule will be released a month later than usual as the NFL is working on scheduling for all those scenarios) :

1) starting the first week of september :
full season as usual and it may come with a shortened training camp and/or pre-season.
Probability : <1%

2) starting the fourth of october :
2a. shorten preseason to 2 games, 12 games season, keep one bye for each team, scratch the interconference games, 2x8 teams playoffs (division winners and best 4 other teams)
HOME : seahawks, rams, cardinals, eagles, redskins, packers
AWAY : seahawks, rams, cardinals, cowboys, giants, saints
2b. scenario 1 and the postseason / super bowl is delayed by a month from the usual calendar
Probability : 10%

3) starting the first of november :
3a. Shorten preseason to 2 games, 10 games season, scratch the bye, scratch IC games, play one other entire division as scheduled, 2x8 teams playoffs (division winners and best 4 other teams)
HOME : seahawks, rams, cardinals, eagles, redskins
AWAY : seahawks, rams, cardinals, cowboys, giants
3b. Scenario 2a and the postseason / super bowl is delayed by a month from the usual calendar
Probability : 30%

4) starting between the 8th and 29th of november :
4a. Scenario 3a and the postseason / super bowl is delayed by a month from the usual calendar
4b. Shorten preseason to 2 games or scratch it, 6 games season, scratch the bye, only play division games, 2x8 teams playoffs (best two teams in every division)
HOME : seahawks, rams, cardinals
AWAY : seahawks, rams, cardinals
Probability : 30%

5) After november :
season's scratched or scenario 4b and the postseason / super bowl is delayed by a month from the usual calendar
Probability : 30%

what do you think ?

Even if they shorten the season to division only games they would still makes us go play in New Orleans.

This is an interesting thread. Of course, I'd given some thought to a delayed season, but I really hadn't thought about what it might look like.

Seeing your proposals, the NFL is going to have a serious problem is deciding what games get cut. Inevitably, some teams (ie, us) will get short-changed simply because we play in a tough division and (presumably) division games will be the last ones on the chopping block.

If we get any games at all I will be surprised and pleased.

If there is a second wave the season is lost. Who would want to sit in a packed stadium in 5 or 6 months? As far as empty stadiums are concerned. you'll see how important fans are to the game, why bother. NFL owners can shout out for the season starting on time from their bunkers. Just have cable stations play games from the 50's to the present. Most of us are so sports deprived we won't know the difference between old and new games.

No plan as the season (games) will not be shortened. End of conversation

Originally posted by wailers15:
No plan as the season (games) will not be shortened. End of conversation

I wish I was as confident as you are. Unless we get a vaccine in record time I see no way they can play. Isolation will help keep the number of cases down but that doesn't mean we can go back to life as it was. That happened in 1918 with the Spanish flu and millions died around the world. (675,000 in the U.S. alone) Packed stadiums would be a petri dish for the virus and the states will never allow games to be played until they are sure there is no longer a danger. That means until there is a vaccine unless this virus miraculously disappears. Vaccines usually take from 2-4 weeks for you to build immunity. That means we have about 4 months (until about mid August) to develop a vaccine, adequately test it, manufacture a huge supply and administer it. Given the fact that after 2 months of this we have tested less than 1% of the population and still have shortages of a lot of items, I don't have a lot of faith that we will have a vaccine that quick.

No nfc vs afc till SB

14-game season: Start mid-September. Same schedules minus the two conference teams that finished in the same place as you last season.
12-game season: Start early-October. Same schedules minus intra-conference games (this would be a little weird, since neither conference would play each other until the Super Bowl, but it could make for a nice experiment)
10-game season: Start mid-October. Same schedules minus intra-conference games AND two conference teams that finished in the same place as you last season.

Have every team play two homes games in first four weeks (NO divisional games) and four home games in first eight weeks (if you play a division rival, you play them twice in that stretch) and a league-wide bye week for either Week 5 or Week 9. That way, there's an option for no fans in the first month or two of the season while still maintaining a balanced schedule in terms of homefield advantage.

These would all assume playoffs start in January with the same format as usual. I don't know how preseason would work. I suppose two games in empty stadiums would suffice.

Hard to to believe they're be a season at all at this point. Fingers crossed.

I read somewhere about pure speculation where the season starts in January and the SB is played in April.
I think it was a virologist who is a sports fan.

Originally posted by 5Jan2003:

I read somewhere about pure speculation where the season starts in January and the SB is played in April.
I think it was a virologist who is a sports fan.

Here's the thing though: Super Bowls are scheduled years in advance. They're huge events that can't easily (if even possibly) be moved.

I feel like all these plans to just shift the whole season and have the playoffs in the spring wouldn't work.

Originally posted by Fanaticofnfl:

Originally posted by 5Jan2003:

I read somewhere about pure speculation where the season starts in January and the SB is played in April.
I think it was a virologist who is a sports fan.

Here's the thing though: Super Bowls are scheduled years in advance. They're huge events that can't easily (if even possibly) be moved.

I feel like all these plans to just shift the whole season and have the playoffs in the spring wouldn't work.

A pandemic changes things. And if a SB needs to be pushed back, there's plenty of (money) motivation to make it work to a new timing.

Next years SB ticket price should drop significantly

Originally posted by blizzuntz:
Next years SB ticket price should drop significantly

NFL on location has already made tickets for SB LV available for prior customers at a cool starting price of 5700$ which is a 1000$ more than this year...
but you could be right ! It's worth the wait plus the niners are no sure thing to repeat as NFC representative...