NFL making flex scheduling inflexible

The Bears and Vikings could’ve made history in Week 12.

You have to look back to Week 6 to understand.

That’s when the Vikings beat the Bears 19-13 in an uninspiring game that saw neither team reach 300 yards of offense. The Vikings “improved” to 2-4, and the Bears fell to 1-5.

The teams’ next meeting would be in six weeks, and it had the makings of another dud, particularly if Bears backup quarterback Tyson Bagent was still playing for an injured Justin Fields.

As luck would have it, the NFL designated Week 12 as the beginning of the first flexible-scheduling window in the history of “Monday Night Football.” Surely, a Week 12 game not protected by CBS or Fox would pop up to save America from another Bears-Vikings slog.

Alas, before the deadline Nov. 15 to swap out the game, the league stood pat, saving the historic first flex for another matchup – to the chagrin of many football fans.

As it turned out, the Vikings’ victory over the Bears was the first of five in a row, putting them in the playoff picture. The Bears remain far out of it, but Fields is back and he can draw an audience.

So the NFL might get away with keeping Bears-Vikings in prime time, but the truth is the league gave itself little choice. Week 12 begins with the annual Thanksgiving tripleheader, and now it includes what’s expected to be an annual Black Friday game. There was nowhere else to turn.

For all of its flexing options, the NFL is facing more inflexibility this season because of more national windows, which also include 8:30 a.m. kickoffs overseas, two additional “Monday Night Football” games and the Christmas Day tripleheader. The NFL schedule has become so spread out that there’s less inventory available for Sunday afternoons, thus limiting the opportunities to flex.

The league has flexed two games this season, and neither were moved to prime time. It moved Lions-Buccaneers to 3:25 p.m. in Week 6, and on Tuesday it moved Panthers-Bucs in Week 13 to 3:05 p.m. Last season, the NFL flexed four games into “Sunday Night Football,” in Weeks 11, 14, 15 and 17.

“If we look back since we started flex in ’06, we’ve only averaged about 1½ flex games a year,” Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice president for media distribution, said when the schedule was released in May. “Last year was a little bit higher than that. There’s a few things that broke.

“Flex is an incredibly valuable tool for us when things do change in a year, but we’re also pretty judicious with how we use that. Our scheduling history would tell us it’s the exception, not the rule.”

With Monday and Thursday nights no longer immune to flexing, the league is proving to be even more judicious, raising the bar for a switch to prevent scheduling upheaval. That helps explain why Bears-Chargers in Week 8, a battle of two-win teams, stayed on Sunday night.

But keep in mind why the NFL created flexible scheduling. It wasn’t about moving better games into prime time. It was about moving “meaningless” games out. If you ask the league, it would argue that standard hasn’t been met this season.

Plus, this is a zero-sum game. If the NFL moves a game to a prime-time network and gifts an extra ratings point, the day-time network that lost the game likely lost that ratings point, as well. The networks are paying billions of dollars for these games, and the league tries to keep them happy.

Remote patrol

The IHSA football state championships will air Friday on The U (Ch. 26.2) and Saturday on CW26 (Ch. 26.1) from Hancock Stadium at Illinois State. Matt Rodewald and Mark Lindo will call the first two games each day; Dave Bernhard and Jack McInerney have the last two. Kacy Standohar will report from the sidelines for all eight games.

• Marquee Sports Network will air the 93rd annual Prep Bowl at 1 p.m. Friday from Lane Stadium between St. Rita of the Catholic League and Kenwood of the Public League. Alex Cohen and Henry Burris will call the game, and Karli Bell will report from the sidelines.

• The Notre Dame-Stanford game at 6 p.m. Saturday will air on the Pac-12 Network. Ted Robinson, a Notre Dame graduate, and Yogi Roth will call the game, which could be the network’s last as the conference nears collapsing.

NFL FLEX SCHEDULING PROCEDURES

NBC’s “Sunday Night Football”

Games may be flexed up to three times between Weeks 5-14 and at the NFL’s discretion during Weeks 15-17.

In Weeks 5-13, the decision will be made no later than 12 days before the game. In Weeks 14-17, it generally will be made no later than six days before the game.

ESPN’s “Monday Night Football”

Games maybe flexed at the NFL’s discretion in Weeks 12-17. The decision will be made no later than 12 days before the game.

Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football”

Game may be flexed up to two times between Weeks 13-17. The decision will be made no later than 28 days before the game.

Only Sunday afternoon games (or those listed as TBD) are eligible to be moved to Sunday night, Monday night or Thursday night.

Sunday afternoon games may also be moved between noon and 3:05 p.m. or 3:25 p.m.

Source: nfl.com