NFL Scheduling

I know, I've been missing out on picks. Its been a loooong few weeks.
Anyway, I wanted to go through the rules for making an NFL Schedule because they were talking about it on the radio and someone asked why the Giants had such a hard schedule. It wasn't much harder than any other NFC East team, because essentially, except for two games every team in a division has the same opponents. The Giants got killed because they came in 2nd in the NFC East last year...here's how.

The first 6 opponents are divisional..
Giants had Dallas,Philadelphia and Washington (one home,one away).

Then, each NFC division goes head to head with another NFC division. This year the East played the West. So, Philly,Washington,Dallas and NY all played San Fran, Seattle, St.Louis and Arizona.

Then, each NFC division goes head on with an AFC division. This year it was East vs. East.

So, for 14 games every team in the NFC East has the same opponent. This makes tie breakers that much easier.
Now, the last two games are based on where you finished the year before. The Giants were 10-6 and 2nd in the NFC East..the two NFC divisions left were the North and South. The second place teams last year were the Packers(North) and Saints(South). Since the Eagles won the East they got the winners of those divisions last year, the Bears and Falcons.

I can tell you all but 2 of the Giants opponents for the years, just depends on who's home and who's away. The NFC East plays the NFC South next year, and the AFC North. So, NY will have to face New Orleans again and if the Giants win the East this Sunday it means they'll have to face the Packers again next year as well as the 49ers.
People were claiming that Indy could go 16-0 next year because their schedule will be so soft, but that's not true. Only two games will be guaranteed to be against division basement dwellers.

I will do picks and playoff scenarios later in the week.
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