Current Rule: 9.1 - The regular season will consist of 16 games. The schedule will require everyone to play home and away games against divisional foes, six games against other conference teams and four inter-conference games against all the teams in one division of the other conference. The inter-conference game schedule will rotate every year so that each team will face every team in the league at least once every three years (assuming no movement from division to division due to realignment).
Proposed Rule: 9.1 - The regular season will consist of 17 games. The schedule for weeks 1-16 will require everyone to play home and away games against divisional foes, six games against other conference teams and four inter-conference games against all the teams in one division of the other conference. The inter-conference game schedule will rotate every year so that each team will face every team in the league at least once every three years (assuming no movement from division to division due to realignment).
9.2 - Opponents for the 17th regular season game will be determined by APCFB Power Rankings. The top two teams ranked 1 and 2 will play each other on a neutral, domed stadium site (e.g., Superdome, New Orleans, LA). The remainder of the week 17 paired opponents will be determined by successively lower Power Rankings and play their games at the same neutral, domed stadium (e.g., Superdome, New Orleans, LA). Therefore, teams ranked 3 and 4 will play each other on a neutral site, with paired opponents trending downward in Power Rankings until teams ranked 23 and 24 are paired together. The team with the highest Power Ranking will be listed as the Home team.
Explanation: I’d like to retain the historical 16-game regular season rotation and create a simple mechanism for adding the seventeenth game. There are some positive features with the proposal: 1) the historical league 16-game regular season rotation can be preserved without change; 2) the league commissioner’s workload to implement the 17th game would be minimal; 3) the deliberate pairing of similar strength teams at season’s end could lead to some interesting strategies; 4) there is some level of uncertainty who the week 17 opponents are although the Power Rankings are fairly stable after week 8; and 5) all games played at the same neutral, domed stadium site will not be influenced by home field advantage or weather elements.
While this would potentially make some week 17 game more interesting, I've already modified the KRFL schedule template to add a 17th game as an Inter-conference game.
It will be played the 5th game of the season. Each division is matched up with a division in the other conference. The teams finishing in 1st place the prior season play each other. The teams finishing in 2nd place the prior season play each other. And so on. The divisions who play each other are rotated on a three year rotation. The Conference which has the home game is rotated each year.
