Call it luck of the draw, but NFL schedule-makers hit the jackpot this season with the cross-divisional rotation.
The NFC North, the best division in football last season, had games against the AFC North and NFC East on the schedule.
“That’s probably a best-case scenario, not just for FOX but for the entire league,” FOX Sports president, insight and analytics, Michael Mulvihill told USA TODAY Sports.
The 12 intra-divisions in the NFC North alone could be anchors of a late-Sunday or prime-time game every week, Mulvihill said. Add in the Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, Washington Commanders, Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens from the crossover group, and that’s a lot of heavy hitters. The fortunate situation also adds depth to a Sunday slate and makes the early afternoon window stronger, Mulvihill said.
Conference splits should benefit everyone
Fans of a certain NFL age – OK, it wasn’t that long ago – may remember when the conference loyalties of NFL broadcast partners CBS and FOX were well-defined. CBS had the AFC. The NFC belonged to FOX.
Technically, it was the away team that designated which package the game went to, with a certain amount available to be pulled into the prime-time pool. That changed during the league’s latest media rights deal that began in 2023. Now, every game operates as a free agent, with guarantees in place to ensure CBS retains a brand with the AFC and the same for FOX and the NFC.
But don’t be shocked when the Detroit Lions-Green Bay Packers Week 1 matchup is on CBS (4:25 p.m. ET). Or that the Bengals and Buffalo Bills are playing on FOX in Week 14.
Mulvihill said the format was a creative fix when the imbalance between NFC viewership and AFC viewership was less balanced. But the emergence of teams such as the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills as national brands helped the conference regain parity in that respect.
This year, FOX asked the NFL to balance the cross-flexing to “make sure that we were getting as much from the AFC as we gave back with the NFC,” Mulvihill said. He believes the league heard him and helped reward FOX with that Cincinnati-Buffalo matchup and the chance to air the Super-Bowl rematch in Kansas City between the Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles (Week 2). They’ll also be in Buffalo for an Eagles game in Week 17.
“We’ve probably gotten more this year than we ever had in the past and that was important to us,” Mulvihill told USA TODAY Sports.
As far as the league’s priorities, NFL executive vice president of media distribution Hans Schroeder said those switches are done at the ‘right time of the year’ with the goal of delivering the premier matchup to ‘the biggest audience we can get it to.’
The league sees that as an advantage – and for the partners, who also benefit from the flexibility, in Schroeder’s eyes.
‘And we don’t have to worry about what partner it’s on,’ Schroeder told USA TODAY Sports.
FOX goes ‘variety’ over Cowboys for late Sunday window
The Cowboys and the 4:25 p.m. ET Sunday game on FOX are synonymous. But in 2025, Mulvihill said the network is trying to give the showcase window a different sine.
FOX requested three home Cowboys games for the slot (which averages nearly 25 million viewers), down from six last season.
Mulvihill said the goal is to elevate the Eagles and Detroit, and they hoped to have stronger AFC presence. Jayden Daniels and the Commanders were also another strong viewership option to help offset a drop in Dallas inventory.
“Candidly, I think we hear from fans sometimes that they get a little worn out with FOX’s 4:25 window so heavily reliant on the Cowboys,” Mulvihill said.
He added: ‘I think we’re going to benefit from some of that added variety.’
How did Aaron Rodgers’ indecision impact 2025 NFL schedule?
The Pittsburgh Steelers, a team that hasn’t had a losing season since 2003, don’t have their schedule fortunes come down to the signing of one man – even if it is a starting quarterback.
‘Certainly Aaron Rodgers, Hall of Fame quarterback, makes a difference,’ Schroeder said.
“But Pittsburgh’s been incredible (for) a long streak. Mike Tomlin’s an incredible coach.”
Schroeder noted the presence of one of the NFL’s best defenders in T.J. Watt.
‘They seem to play a lot of great football late into the year’ every season, regardless of whoever the quarterback is, Schroeder said.
Streaming vs. Broadcast
More than 85% of the NFL’s games are available for free over-the-air (OTA) broadcast television. But the embrace of streaming continues with the introduction of YouTube as a game partner, with the streamer showing the Week 1 matchup from Brazil (for free) between the Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers.
YouTube, like Netflix’s Christmas games, bring in an international audience.
“That’s really exciting for us,” said Schroeder, who said the league will continue to be strategic about balancing platforms.
Broadcast remains the bedrock, Schroeder said. But for example, every Sunday night, the NFL is on Peacock in addition to NBC and delivering for fans who are not cable subscribers.
“We still think the foundation of the NFL fan experience is watching games for free on Sunday afternoon,” said Mulvihill, countering the narrative that the league is moving to streaming. “We’re happy to keep as many games on broadcast as we can.”
Piecemeal release of schedule here to stay
Annoyed by the NFL’s three-day rollout of the schedule, starting with a trickling of international and prime-time games before the schedule release broadcast on NFL Network? It’s not going anywhere.
Finishing the schedule in mid-May lets the team inside NFL headquarters on Park Avenue time to factor in trades and the recently completed draft, while being sensitive to the business activities of their broadcast and streaming partners who held important advertising Upfronts in New York this week.
‘It all sort of comes together well, we think, in trying to make this the sort of bigger tentpole in the NFL calendar,’ Schroeder said.
Fans have known the matchups for months. They’ve even known where the game would be played (for the most part). But they don’t know when.
“There’s just so much more to our schedule now,’ Schroeder said. ‘We think there’s an opportunity to tell that story and engage with our fans in a time of year where there’s not a lot of NFL news. We think this can be a bigger platform, similar to what the draft has become.
“We think there’s a lot of interest and excitement – so how can we make this more engaging for our fans?”