Revised NFL Schedule Will Impact Hawaii Events And Possibly The West Coast Swing

Major changes to the NFL regular season and playoff structure were presumably anticipated in the pending PGA Tour media rights deal. Which, presumably, is an $8 billion over ten years deal that will presumably be announced at The Players.

Full NFL membership voting is around the corner and ratification would mean a 17-game schedule, a possible Labor Day weekend start (and perhaps why the Tour Championship vacated that weekend). The Super Bowl could eventually move closer to President’s Day (if not the Sunday prior), impacting a key stretch of West Coast games and undoubtedly influencing whether NFL players will be able to tee it up in the Crosby. Now this is getting serious!

(Though that is not why some players, including Russell Wilson, are opposed.)

While a 17 game schedule won’t happen until 2021 at the earliest, the NFL seems prepared to expand the playoffs for the 2020-21 season. Jeremy Schilling has been following this and explained today how early season tournaments, already drawing small audiences when going up against NFL games, will suffer continuing to insist on weekend finishes. In the immediate future, the Sentry Tournament of Champions appears to be most in line for increased competition with the expanded playoffs.

IF NFL goes to expanded playoffs this yr, with a 3 & 3 Sat-Sun of Wild Card Wknd format, the @pgatour will need to go back to the drawing board to figure out how to give @Sentry_TOC a proper finish. The @SonyOpenHawaii & @theamexgolf are already being hurt by 6-10pm ET Sun slot.

— Jeremy Schilling (@jschil) February 26, 2020

After the schedule goes to 17 games with a second bye week looking unlikely, the NFL season start week will determine if the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am’s traditional date becomes Super Bowl weekend.

Schilling discussed this, with ESPN.com’s Bob Harig chiming in, making the fair point that fields won’t get worse due to this news.

Again, presumably all of this has been anticipated and the next media deal starting in 2022 will have forecasted these changes with planned date shifts, some Monday finishes or other ideas we have not thought about. Presumably.

In case you were wondering, the Premier Golf League has proposed four events in odd hours for American viewers, with two of those falling during the NFL playoff run and one U.S. event to start the season in mid-January.