[Los Angeles Times] How the NFL master schedule used to be built — assembled by hand on a giant pegboard.
Posted May 10, 2022, 1:29 PM UTC
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When you're about to flip because the NFL execs keep coming in to make sure the cowboys get max exposure
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I saw a documentary about this. Some couple used to do it for years and years.
Or actually was that about the baseball schedule? Lol. I can’t remember which. But this little old couple was in charge of a major sports league schedule for years and years and years. And it was incredibly complicated. Too complicated for computers for a while because of things like teams couldn’t play each other on holidays if they did the previous year. There were just so many factors it was just insanity. It seemed like a nightmare
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Wasn't that the couple that did the MLB schedule? Or did they do both?
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The MLB schedule. I think I just was thinking of them
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NFL's schedule seems fairly easy compared to the NBA's or the MLB's
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Yeah. I would think that the NBA and NHL would be the hardest because there are so many conflicts in those arenas.
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Without question. Even setting volume aside, the days are all in consistent timeslots aside from exceptional circumstances, which makes it easy for the stadiums to block off those slots until the schedule is finalized. Can't really do that when literally any day for 9 months could be a home game. Add in the volume considerations due to how many more games those leagues play, and it's not even a contest, I would imagine.
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There have definitely been documentaries or programs on this. In the past, I think schedulers figured out the home schedule for Met Life because it was shared by two team to ensure there is no conflict. Now, I'd guess they do LA's stadium too. Then it goes from there.
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Do they talk about concerts and other events that happen at arenas like that? Do musicians make their schedules around the sport tenants?
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I would imagine music concerts are second fiddle to a game from one of the major sports leagues.
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Wel yea, I’m just talking scheduling. Like, if Coldplay is planning tour…and some of their concerts are in nfl domes, I wonder if they have to change the date of the concert or they wait to book the concert till the nfl releases their schedule.0
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I'm guessing that's a much easier work around for the NFL as opposed to the NBA since 90% of NFL games are going to be on Sundays. Stadiums would just never schedule anything on a Sunday during the fall, and try their best to avoid Mondays and Thursdays too if they can.
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I would imagine they use machine learning.
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I found the video. Cant find the video, but yeah they have a program where they put in all of the rules (SB champion at home week 1, DAL/DET at home Thanksgiving, never on the road more than 2 weeks in a row, blocking out shared stadiums and shared parking lots, etc.) and it generates a few schedules that a team has to manually review and meet with Goodell and such.
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Sounds a lot more digestible. I think they also might input other noteworthy info for things like potential matchups for the primetime slots so you don’t get Panthers/Jaguars on SNF.
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There was a very niche rule in the late 90s and early 2000s where Randy Miss was required to dad-dick Dallas in a prime time game
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never on the road more than 2 weeks in a row
I'm pretty sure that isn't true. I know the Steelers had this 2-3 years ago. Thought maybe it was split up by a bye in between.
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Yeah, that particular example happens every so often. They try to give those bad experiences a negative score that rolls into the score of each team's schedule. I found the video.
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You don't need machine learning but there are advanced algorithms to solve these kinds of optimization problems.
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As a data scientist, I would hope they use machine learning, it’s a billion dollar industry and could lose millions in revenue because of an unoptimized schedule.
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Eh not every computational task is primed for heavy duty machine learning. On the flip side you can phrase many algorithms as ML if you want but it is a bit odd.
Also I think you need to be careful about what they're optimizing. The objective here is to find a balanced schedule that works for the teams. There are a few constraints thrown in, but it isn't about prioritizing "good" games if that makes sense. This isn't really a money making thing, its just a task that is difficult to do so heavy computing can help.
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No need, the algorithm just needs to accept a few parameters and it’s good to go
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I imagine that works in a static environment but there are human variables here including team preferences, audience, viewership, etc. which machine learning could adapt to. But who knows!
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The algorithms usually keep that in mind, it's not like these are simple algorithms, they are just as hard to create as creating a neural net I imagine
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I doubt you need machine learning. Seems something that is easily doable with python.
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Machine learning isn't quite needed here. That's more used for predictive analytics, this could be done with a simple python or Java program. All a programmer would have to do is get a list of constraints, find out how to turn those into logical conditions, and code it. Nothing too crazy
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Someone posted, I think, an SI article about the schedule making yesterday. Apparently they use super computing to generate schedules based on factors they input.
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You definitely would not need a super computer to run the scheduling algorithm they use
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https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/aws/the-nfl-teams-up-with-aws-to-create-2021-schedule?_amp=true
I think you are underestimating how many different factors they have to account for.
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It is actually a very difficult computational problem. Also the term "super computer" isn't always as extreme as it sounds.
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There are many factors that justify having a computer that can compute millions of schedules. Also the NFL wants to make the most money and will miss out on profits if they do not optimize it correctly. The schedule that the NFL is going to release next week is the schedule that they believe will make them the most money in the long run. Pretty poor take if you understand basic arithmetic/factorials. This is why you are not in charge of running the NFL brother.
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It’s a lot more complicated than that. There are quite literally trillions of possibilities, if not more.
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It’s probably just run on a Mac you and wouldn’t need a super computer.
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Nah this is just a linear programming problem. An intro to optimization class is probably good enough to make the schedules.
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This is essentially how I create my fantasy football league's schedule each year because Yahoo is too dumb to make a division-friendly schedule.
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Yes, why are there no websites that let me apply custom factors for schedules?
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Oh no ... I can see foresee Kornacki blowing his load explaining this process to viewers at some point this season
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Part of me thinks it should be done a bit more systematically so that division games are in the first 6 weeks and then the last 6 weeks so that you don’t get some dumb stuff like the browns playing the ravens last year in 2/3 weeks. If they can set who you play that way then the schedule should be able to be set in a similar fashion.
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I've just always felt like you should always have at minimum 2 games (not just weeks) in-between playing the same team twice in the regular season.
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Very similar to how I play battleship
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That's so cool. Personally, I really like making schedules for things like this, so it's cool to see their how process is/was.
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The late commissioner Bert Bell, the one before Rozelle used to sit at his kitchen table with a glass of Pepsi and build the schedule on a couple of pieces of paper.
The NFL doesn't need a computer to do this.
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Bell had no qualms about scheduling teams in the same division to play their two games in back-to-back weeks. He often had the weaker teams play one another early in the season and the stronger teams face each other early in the season. His goal was to have as many teams as possible in playoff contention coming down the stretch to increase fan interest, which in turn increased attendance and TV ratings.
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That was really cool to watch.
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They showed the segment and interview with the guy before (I don’t remember what it was part of?) but it was really interesting
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Looks like the way we used to do our fantasy draft boards back in the day except we used different colors of stickers
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That's honestly fascinating...and very true to the NFL origins lol.
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Linking a tweet that links to an article is peak r/nfl.
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Didn’t the couple in charge of this do an AMA last season?
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Huh? Sure they may have needed a scapegoat with the Gruden stuff to hide any of the other owners.
But what else has the nfl done to y'all?
Your own coach caused the initial problems. Your own players put you in turmoil. Your own owner caused the most recent shit.
What'd the NFL do?
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Raiders usually get the Chiefs after the Cheifs bye week. I think thats happened 3 years in a row
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Andy Reid after a bye week is a different monster
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Basically 2 bye weeks in a row
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I believe they were being sardonic
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That sounds kind of fun actually.
It is, a good pegging session is a blast if it’s done right
Factos 👍🏼👀
Pause
Resume
Decades of pegging leads to easier peg planning
Phrasing
He said what he said
Schedudoku
Try creating a schedule for a ten team fantasy league from scratch and you will see how much fun it is
I mean a few years ago I created a 10-game schedule for a 20-player board game league and enjoyed doing it. I would imagine I could use most of the same principles for a fantasy league and maybe even just edit the same spreadsheet.