Doc Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 Believe what you want. Done trying to convince you that it's not some conspiracy theory against just one team. There's plenty of reasons why and it's not going to change because fans or one writer gets their panties in a bunch over it. Speaking of conspiracy theories, are you still looking for Jimmy Hoffa too? Time to put it to rest. No, what you're saying is that it's a conspiracy theory against small market and/or losing teams. Like that's any better. But if that's the tack you want to take, fine. But the next time you feel you're getting screwed, keep quiet and tell yourself you somehow deserve it.
CodeMonkey Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 The point is, fair is fair. If the Bills have a more favorable schedule, or more precisely, a less unfavorable one, it theoretically helps them win more games. And a more fair schedule can most certainly be attained. There are far more complicated programs in existence than one that would need to make an NFL schedule. If I understand you correctly, you are suggesting that not just draft order be biased based on the teams previous season standings, but the Bye-Bias and strength of schedule as well (as in the lower in the standings the team is the easier the schedule is made the next season)? That's an interesting concept. But I would think the draft bias would be enough to achieve parity if a team didn't have it's head up its ass. Plus as mentioned before, the primary concern of the NFL is making money, not achieving parity.
Doc Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 If I understand you correctly, you are suggesting that not just draft order be biased based on the teams previous season standings, but the Bye-Bias and strength of schedule as well (as in the lower in the standings the team is the easier the schedule is made the next season)? That's an interesting concept. But I would think the draft bias would be enough to achieve parity if a team didn't have it's head up its ass. Plus as mentioned before, the primary concern of the NFL is making money, not achieving parity. How are they not making money if they give teams fair schedules?
McD Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 What's the name of the program? As far as I've read, the NFL does take into account revenue, viewership expectations, advertising revenue, etc., when making these considerations. It is not simply a "how fair of a schedule can we make" question. Nor should it be. Business is business. The Bills put a **** product on the field for the last 13 years. Why shouldn't they be relegated to less attractive play times? They need to earn their way out of it. I don't think you understand his point here... he's not asking to have more favorable play times... he wants a schedule without having to play 5 teams coming off a bye. Pretty simple.
Luxy312 Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 No, what you're saying is that it's a conspiracy theory against small market and/or losing teams. Like that's any better. But if that's the tack you want to take, fine. But the next time you feel you're getting screwed, keep quiet and tell yourself you somehow deserve it. Go back and read it again. Not saying it's a conspiracy, but just the opposite. I'm saying live with the schedule and stop whining about it as fans before the season even starts. You (among others) are the ones moping in the thread yelling "it's not fair...it's not fair". I'm saying it is and for many reasons.
Ralph W. Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 (edited) I don't think you understand his point here... he's not asking to have more favorable play times... he wants a schedule without having to play 5 teams coming off a bye. Pretty simple. You have to find it funny every year people can't help but complain about the schedule. Even though schedule is the least of the worries. Not like the Bills are like other teams who will have a Thursday and multiple Monday night games so they have less time to prepare. Edited June 19, 2013 by EJ3
Luxy312 Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 I don't think you understand his point here... he's not asking to have more favorable play times... he wants a schedule without having to play 5 teams coming off a bye. Pretty simple. I do understand. I just asked him for the name of the program (which he said exists) that would allow the NFL to factor all of the things that they need to into scheduling. It's a fair question and a simple one. What's the name of the software package that can do this? I'm guessing that the NFL looks at a lot more than any program he could possibly be talking about. Simple question that has a simple answer. How are they not making money if they give teams fair schedules? Wow. You seriously need to look at the economics of the NFL. It's not just about "making money" but maximizing the opportunity to do so. As I said before, you don't take two teams that were 2-14 the year before and put them against each other on MNF. Extremely idiotic business decision to do so. The NFL (and appropriately so I might add) schedules to maximize revenue and at the same time meet the terms and conditions of the agreement with the NFLPA.
Doc Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 I don't think you understand his point here... he's not asking to have more favorable play times... he wants a schedule without having to play 5 teams coming off a bye. Pretty simple. You'd think. Go back and read it again. Not saying it's a conspiracy, but just the opposite. I'm saying live with the schedule and stop whining about it as fans before the season even starts. You (among others) are the ones moping in the thread yelling "it's not fair...it's not fair". I'm saying it is and for many reasons. It's not fair in any sense of the word. And as I asked CM, screwing a team like the Bills WRT scheduling doesn't make the NFL more money. You have to find it funny every year people can't help but complain about the schedule. Even though schedule is the least of the worries. Not like the Bills are like other teams who will have a Thursday and multiple Monday night games so they have less time to prepare. A MNF game gives you one less day to prepare and rest for the next team. A Thursday night games gives you 3 more days to rest and prepare for the next game. And while not the most of their worries, it is a gripe. I do understand. I just asked him for the name of the program (which he said exists) that would allow the NFL to factor all of the things that they need to into scheduling. It's a fair question and a simple one. What's the name of the software package that can do this? I'm guessing that the NFL looks at a lot more than any program he could possibly be talking about. Simple question that has a simple answer. I can't give you the name of the software, because it doesn't exist, but I can give you the name of someone who can develop it: OC.
nobody Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 The Bills are not doing anything every other team has probably done. I'm sure every team in the league has complained about their schedule some time in their history. Having media members criticize the Bills for it is amusing. I'd guess that some media in every town must have done the same when each team complained. But you would also think that there would be at least equal amounts of media who would piggy back off the team and criticize the league.
McD Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 yes, because the Bills are the only team in the history of the NFL ever -- since the days of Adam and Eve and they played football with lambskin because pigs were not considered kosher -- that have ever complained about the schedule as being unfair. it happens to just one team, and that team happens to always be in Buffalo. and it happens to this one team because the NFL has a long-standing agenda to screw Bills fans and its franchise and Roger Goodell himself monitors this board on an average 15.2 hours per day getting his kicks in seeing how one poster after another expresses their conniptions over how "unfair" the league is to the Bills. Goodell, in fact, has weekly gatherings in his office, during which guests wet themselves with unfiltered glee over the hand-wringing that takes place on this site. but, of course, i digress. to your point, the Bills are a business and have complained they have difficulty selling out games late in the season. the NFL has met that desire. now in terms of NFL parlance, money usually trumps winning, and the two don't always go hand in hand. the fans might see that differently, but they're not the ones negotiating with Jairus Byrd. ... ah, forget it. if you can't appreciate how difficult it must be for a schedule-maker to put together a schedule for 32 teams, taking into account travel, Toronto games, warm vs. cold-weather teams, division play and all that ... then well ... continue on ... i won't stop you. jw and i got work to do. All you did here was ramble about nothing important (too much Red Bull/coffee?). Not only that, but I feel that your response was a bit beneath you as I've seen some pretty decent posts from you. If you've read my posts I never said there was a conspiracy theory against the Bills, I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that they can eliminate the discrepancies in the schedule... that's all pretty simple. You talk about a schedule for Toronto like it's a big deal... you schedule the Bills 8 home games and then make one of them an NFC game in Toronto.... how damn hard is that? I mean it's not like its ONLY 2 hrs away (oh wait, it is!), and what is that in flight...? 20 mins? I can see the guys in the NFL scheduling committe now... "how in the HELL do we schedule that damn Toronto game?" "Holy hellfire Batman its... its IMPOSSIBLE without completely bending over backwards for the Bills... we have to take hotel space into consideration... oh wait it's Toronto, plenty of that... we need to think about weather... oh wait it's in a Dome..." ****, some to think of it, this Toronto game is pretty easy to schedule for!" The money aspect, I already discussed (that you seemed to have ignored) in my previous post. I could care less about Prime Time games... those should go to the better teams because it is a money generating business. The only thing that I've had any contention with is the fact that there are some teams that will have to play 5 teams coming off bye weeks and those teams are negatively impacted by those games. No conspiracy theory here, and there's nothing to do about it this year, but I don't think it's a problem to bring up and try to rectify for future scheduling. Just make it as fair as possible.
Jerry Jabber Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 What should have been validated is how many times this has happened to a team in the NFL, say over the past 10 years, 15 years, 20 years (however long "bye" weeks have been around). If there is some statisical proof that this has happened to the Bills significantly higher than any other team in the NFL, then Chris Brown has a valid complaint. If this is just an anomaly, then the complaint is not valid. If it continues to happen, then Brown has a valid complaint. Without previous statistical data to back up Brown's claim, his complaint is invalid.
CodeMonkey Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 (edited) How are they not making money if they give teams fair schedules? Better, more popular, teams playing during prime hours means higher TV ratings which translates to more money (via future TV contracts) as well as licensed products purchases etc. Taking this into account would be a higher priority to me if I were the NFL than worrying about if some teams play more teams off their bye than others. The fact that there even is a bye week, which extends the season by one more week (for extra TV) shows that. If there were no bye weeks at all, having "fair" schedules would be that much easier. But the NFL, like any good corporation, wants to maximize profits so the bye stays. Edited June 19, 2013 by CodeMonkey
Luxy312 Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 Better, more popular, teams playing during prime hours means higher TV ratings which translates to more money (via future TV contracts) as well as licensed products purchases etc. Taking this into account would be a higher priority to me if I were the NFL than worrying about if some teams play more teams off their bye than others. Exactly on point and exactly what I've been saying. I can't give you the name of the software, because it doesn't exist, but I can give you the name of someone who can develop it: OC. Now you're speculating even more on what's possible. Nice thought, but doesn't pass the smell test.
McD Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 Exactly. Are you old enough to remember all the late bye's the 90's superbowl teams had? They were dinged up and got an extra week to heal and make a playoff push. How can that not be good for a Buffalo team that sends half their guys to the emergency room every season? LOL. I of course had to hit up Pro Football Reference to check your facts... From 1990-1992 there was a single bye week. In 1993 there were two bye weeks. Here's where the Bills bye week was each year. 1990 week 6 1991 week 9 1992 week 7 1993 weeks 3 & 7 Those aren't really "late season" byes.
CodeMonkey Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 I can't give you the name of the software, because it doesn't exist, but I can give you the name of someone who can develop it: OC. Now you're speculating even more on what's possible. Nice thought, but doesn't pass the smell test. Quite frankly the easiest way to make it fair would be to eliminate the bye week entirely. It's only purpose is to extend the TV schedule by a week. But scheduling software like this could be done by any third year computer science student. I suspect the NFL could afford that expense if they wanted to. But, they don't want to. Their mission is simply to make as much money as possible. And their current scheduling method works just fine for that.
BuffaloRebound Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 It isn't hard to add a constraint to a scheduling/decision matrix that divisional opponents can't play each other coming off more rest. It's not a conspiracy by the NFL. Point the Bills are making is that NFL doesn't attempt to control for this and it would be very easy to do. Any MBA student could do it.
Doc Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 Better, more popular, teams playing during prime hours means higher TV ratings which translates to more money (via future TV contracts) as well as licensed products purchases etc. Taking this into account would be a higher priority to me if I were the NFL than worrying about if some teams play more teams off their bye than others. The fact that there even is a bye week, which extends the season by one more week (for extra TV) shows that. If there were no bye weeks at all, having "fair" schedules would be that much easier. But the NFL, like any good corporation, wants to maximize profits so the bye stays. Again I said that prime time games should go to the more popular teams. And the bye week extends the season, meaning one more Sunday of football, meaning more TV revenue But again those have nothing to do with screwing teams by having them play numerous teams coming off byes or Thursday night games. Now you're speculating even more on what's possible. Nice thought, but doesn't pass the smell test. You may have a point. We can land a rover on Mars but creating a program to schedule NFL games is still likely decades away.
CodeMonkey Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 (edited) Again I said that prime time games should go to the more popular teams. And the bye week extends the season, meaning one more Sunday of football, meaning more TV revenue But again those have nothing to do with screwing teams by having them play numerous teams coming off byes or Thursday night games. Making a schedule, be it manually or done by software, comes down to what parameters are more important than others. Good, popular, large market teams playing in prime time is a high priority. What teams play more or less games against teams after their bye, is a much lower priority. So if a team needs to get "screwed" on the after-the-bye parameter in order for the overall schedule to put the better teams in a position to drive up profits, then so be it. With a relatively small number of teams and a very small number of games, the likelihood of this happening is increased. It's a pretty simple scheduling concept. Edited June 19, 2013 by CodeMonkey
BuffaloRebound Posted June 19, 2013 Posted June 19, 2013 (edited) Making a schedule, be it manually or done by software, comes down to what parameters are more important than others. Good, popular, large market teams playing in prime time is a high priority. What teams play more or less games against teams after their bye, is a much lower priority. So if a team needs to get "screwed" on the after-the-bye parameter in order for the overall schedule to put the better teams in a position to drive up profits, then so be it. With a relatively small number of teams and a very small number of weeks, the likelihood of this happening is increased. It's a pretty simple scheduling concept. Agreed but the randomness of teams like Kansas City and Buffalo being on the opposite ends of the spectrum in regards to playing teams with more rest suggests that NFL doesn't use that as 1 of its parameters. Edited June 19, 2013 by BuffaloRebound
Recommended Posts