I've been doing some thinking on the way the NFL makes its schedule.

The process for assigning teams opponents is fantastic. As you may or may not know, ever since the League expanded to 32 teams, there has been a rotation system in place that has every NFL team playing every other NFL team at least once every four years and playing in every other NFL Stadium at least once every 8. In fact, right now I know 14 of the 16 opponents the Redskins will be facing next season: the Cowboys, Giants, and Eagles twice, and the Bears, Packers, Lions, Vikings, Patriots, Jets, Bills, and Dolphins. The other two opponents will be whoever finishes in the same place as the Redskins in the NFC South and the NFC West - if the season ended today, that would be the Cardinals and Buccaneers.

What isn't known until the schedule is released in April, though, is what order the Redskins will play them in, when their bye is, and how many opponents they are playing coming off a bye.

As you probably remember, the Redskins stood at 5-6 after 11 games last season before sweeping their way through the final 5 weeks to finish at 10-6 and clinch the last playoff spot. What you probably do not remember if you are not a Redskins fan but definately DO remember if you are one, is that the final 3 games that season were against the Cowboys, Giants, and Eagles, in that order. That the Redskins had to finish the season by sweeping their divisional rivals to get into the playoffs made the berth all the sweeter, and is one reason that that season will go down in Redskins' lore even though it ended in the Divisional Round of the post-season.

The point is, there is no reason there couldn't be similar stories every season. Why not make it universal that the last three weeks of the NFL season be against divisional opponents? Baseball does this as much as it can - take a look at who your team has played in the last few serieses of the recent seasons past. I think you'll find, more often than not, they play teams that are in their own division - the very teams they are trying to beat out for a playoff spot. And if you'll remember, in the 2005 season, the Chicago White Sox had to beat the Cleveland Indians to hold off the Tribe and clinch the division. How much less satisfying an ending would that have been if the White Sox won the division by beating, say, the Devil Rays in a three-game set, while the Indians could only scoreboard watch during their session with, say, the A's?

And that's not all. The Redskins last season had their bye week in week 3. By the time the playoffs rolled around, the Redskins had been playing for 14 straight weeks. This season, the Cowboys had their bye week in week 3. What of they have to play Philadelphia or Carolina in the playoffs, two teams who had their bye weeks last week? It's an unfair advantage, and it's due entirely to the scheduling process.

And speaking of unfair advantages, the Redskins have played two games against teams coming off a bye this season, with a third game against one (the aforementioned Eagles) coming this week. That's three teams who have had an extra week to prepare for the game plan the Redskins will offer. Since there can only be an average of one such game per team, that means at least two teams won't have ANY such games this season - quite a disadvantage in a League where playoff spots often come down to tiebrakers.

My idea is a complete compartmentilization of the schedule. Stay with me, as I run you through my idea:

The first two weeks of the season should be against the "unknowns" - those teams who finish in their division where you finished in yours. Because these are the only two games where the schedules for each team in a division differ, after the first two weeks all 4 teams in every division will have differing versions of the exact same schedule ahead of them.

The next 4 weeks should be the interconference games. In other words, this is where the Redskins would play the Pats, Jets, Bills, and Phins next season. This way, by the time the Super Bowl rolled around, it will have been almost 4 months since an AFC team played an NFC team, putting more drama into the game. Baseball does this, as well - all the interleague games take place before the All-Star Break, save for rescheduled rainouts - and even then they try their damndest to get them in before the Midsummer Classic.

The next 4 weeks are the weeks where every team gets their bye week - in 4 8-team chunks, two divisions at a time. It would also be the time where each division goes through its first round of intradivisional games. That way, all the bye weeks are taking place in a short span, and no team in any division is playing more teams coming off of bye weeks than their divisional opponents.

Weeks 11-14 would be the weeks where each team plays the 4 teams in the slated division within their conference. That leaves weeks 15-17 as the 3 weeks where you would play the second round of divisional games.

That's my entry for today. Tomorrow look for this week's college ball primer - it'll be flippin' sweet!