How are American football schedules worked out?

Answer 1

There are 2 conferences the NFC and AFC. Each Conference has 16 teams.

The 16 teams are broken into 4 divisions. (in each conference)

Each team plays the 3 other teams in their conference 2 times. (6 games)

Each teams plays every team in a non conference division. (for example 1 year the AFC East teams play the NFC East teams, the next year they'll play the NFC West) This adds another 4 games.

You then do the same thing against a Conference division. (Jets play the entire AFC West this year- 2008) (4 games)

The final 2 games teams play against the other 2 divisions in their conference, the teams that were in the same place as them last year. (The Jets were 3rd in the AFC East last year, so they play the Titans who were 3rd in the AFC South last year, and the Bengals who were 3rd in the AFC North)

These calculations result in the 16 games that compose a teams NFL schedule.

I don't know how they figure out the home and away games, other than each team plays 8 home and 8 away, and each divisonal opponent teams play once at home and 1 away.