damj Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 I was curious why we've played in KC 3 years in a row and why we played in TEN 3 years in a row from 2019 - 2021. You'll need your thinking caps on for this one. It has to do with how the schedules are structured ... it's based one 8-year and three 6-year cycles that overlap. The 8 year cycle are the NFC games. We rotate NFC divisions over 4 years (North, East, West, South from 2022-2025). We play 2 teams at home and 2 on the road. Over the next 4 years, we play divisions in the same order but switch home and away. Therefore, over an 8 year cycle, we play every NFC team home and away. We play other AFC divisions on a 6 year cycle. (North, West, South from 2022-2024 ... 2 home, 2 away, then switch the next 3 years). Again, we play every non AFC East team home and away over a 6 year cycle. Each year, we play 2 other out of division games against AFC teams who finished the same position (ie; 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th) in the other 2 divisions that we're not playing. These are determined by a six year cycle which are off set by one year: Out of division game 1: South, @North, West, @South, North, @ West). (2022-2027) Out of division game 2: @West, South, @North, West, @South, North). (2022-2027) What ends up happening is a 6 year cycle where we potentially can play 3 games against the same team on the road followed by 3 at home. Against KC, we played them in Buffalo in 2020 when we played the entire AFC west. The next 2 years, we both won or division, so we had @West (KC) in 2021 & 2022. in 2023 we play the entire AFC West, but this time we play in KC. The good news is that assuming KC and Buffalo keep winning their divisions every year, they have 3 straight in Buffalo (2024-2026). Because of this, we also played @TEN 2019-2021. We've also played @CIN in 2022 & 2023. We'll play them again in CIN in 2024 if we both end up winning our divisions in 2023 (or both 2nd, etc...) There's one additional 8-year cycle which determines the 17th game against another NFC team ... but that's not important. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgewaycynic2013 Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 Thank the heavens you didn't start singing 'Age of Aquarius'. 🤨 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damj Posted January 9, 2023 Author Share Posted January 9, 2023 1 minute ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said: Thank the heavens you didn't start singing 'Age of Aquarius'. 🤨 Damn! You blew my secret. That's my encore! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KDIGGZ Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 I read that entire thing and I still don't understand why. But I'll play them at Cheektowaga high school if we have to. The Bills won the last 2 of 3 there and the one we lost there was only 13 seconds left 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appoo Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 I don’t understand even after reading it (my fault not yours) but i feel better knowing that someone in the community understands why and is ok with it 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franco_92 Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 At this point the explanation has been made here so many times we should probably just make a permanent sticky thread at the top of the forum. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warcodered Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 Considering how it's gone the last couple of years in the regular season, to keep them humble. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franco_92 Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 Also, this is why we got Pittsburgh in Buffalo in 20, 21 and 22. We didn't notice that though because they were irrelevant 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleezoid Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 Seems to me, the 2 years where 2 teams win the division on the non-division years, those 2 games should alternate. (I know what I'm trying to say, I just hope I said that right) 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damj Posted January 9, 2023 Author Share Posted January 9, 2023 1 minute ago, arcane said: Also, this is why we got Pittsburgh in Buffalo in 20, 21 and 22. We didn't notice that though because they were irrelevant Right, and we don't mind getting 3 home games in a row. Bottom line, the way they set-up the schedules, we'll always get times where we play the same team 3 times in a row at home or on the road. It's not the league deciding it, it happens automatically Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aussie Joe Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 2 minutes ago, arcane said: Also, this is why we got Pittsburgh in Buffalo in 20, 21 and 22. We didn't notice that though because they were irrelevant Yes … now that you mentioned it …there seemed noticeably less attention about this from the Bills fans … 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damj Posted January 9, 2023 Author Share Posted January 9, 2023 4 minutes ago, Fleezoid said: Seems to me, the 2 years where 2 teams win the division on the non-division years, those 2 games should alternate. (I know what I'm trying to say, I just hope I said that right) They can't though, because it would create unequal numbers of home/away games or having teams play two teams from the same division. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleezoid Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 5 minutes ago, damj said: They can't though, because it would create unequal numbers of home/away games or having teams play two teams from the same division. I think I see now. But we all know when it's time for the Bills to get those 2 back to back home games from the same "record" games, we won't have the same record. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McMuffin Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 Yay we get to play in the Annual Arrowhead Invitational 😕 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smuvtalker Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 32 minutes ago, McMuffin said: Yay we get to play in the Annual Arrowhead Invitational 😕 Yeah, regardless of the results, I'm tired of visiting freakin Arrowhead every @#$_ year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsfaninChicago Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 That makes sense actually. Probably not the exact same system and some of them were playoff games but likely also why we saw a lot of Manning vs Brady games back in the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damj Posted January 10, 2023 Author Share Posted January 10, 2023 11 hours ago, BillsfaninChicago said: That makes sense actually. Probably not the exact same system and some of them were playoff games but likely also why we saw a lot of Manning vs Brady games back in the day. I think it's been this way since the league went to 4 divisions of 4 teams each, but you're right ... when teams consistently win their divisions, they'll play each other the next year 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damj Posted January 10, 2023 Author Share Posted January 10, 2023 12 hours ago, smuvtalker said: Yeah, regardless of the results, I'm tired of visiting freakin Arrowhead every @#$_ year. Same here! I'm looking forward to getting them here for 3 years in a row. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoCal Deek Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 Very impressive, but why do we play in KC every year? 😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Generic_Bills_Fan Posted January 10, 2023 Share Posted January 10, 2023 15 hours ago, damj said: They can't though, because it would create unequal numbers of home/away games or having teams play two teams from the same division. Was just gonna say that…every team needs one home division placement type game and one away one(ignoring the extra nfc game for simplicity) the years you play a certain entire division you don’t do a division placement game against that division and those divisions rotate. this year we had division placement games against AFC West and AFC south and next year we have division placement games against the AFC south and AFC north and play the entire AFC West. the last two seasons we had two division placement games in a row against the AFC west which led to us traveling to kc both times so the division placement stuff lined up right for every team. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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