Well, isn't the whole "flex schedule" meant to at least partially fix that? I mean, they want the prime-time game to generate ratings, and there are three sure-fire ways to schedule to that, when you are scheduling before the season starts:
--"Popular franchises"
--"large market franchises"
--last year's playoff teams (especially when done as "rematches.")
It seems like they've combined the three when doing it, generally putting less emphasis on "last year's playoff teams" (unless they are also one of the other two) because of how varied the league has become (this year's playoff team may stink next year). Wasn't there a part of the TV contract that allowed for "flex scheduling" to enable a potentially "good matchup" for the prime time game, if say the original schedule ended up pitting a 8-2 team vs a 1-9 team? Or didn't that happen?