Despite continued pushback from the NFL Players Association, the league and team owners continue to obsess over the aspect of expanding the regular season to 18 games. Not only does the NFL feel that the expansion is inevitable, but they also continue to believe they’ll be able to make it happen before the expiration of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, which added the 17th regular season game in 2020 and is set to expire in 2031.
The intentions of the league and team owners to respect of the wishes of the NFLPA are being made clear as they continue to schedule for the future. After owners met twice this season without finalizing a date for Super Bowl LXII in February 2028, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk believes they are “specifically (leaving) the door open for the possibility of an expansion of the regular season from 17 to18 games by 2027.”
In a season with 18 games, two bye weeks, and two weeks between the conference championships and the big game, it’s believed the Super Bowl would fall on February 27, 2028. Multiple factors — only one bye week, only one week between conference championships and Super Bowl, and the potential to start Week 1 on Labor Day weekend — could also put the Super Bowl in 2028 on February 20.
Per Florio, the recent turmoil and upheaval within the NFLPA, which saw a change of leadership over the course of months in the past year, have gummed up the gears on the league’s expansion efforts. New NFLPA executive director J.C. Tretter only took over by April 1, leaving the NFL very little time to negotiate a new CBA (five years early), land a successful vote from the players, and implement the expanded season for 2027.
As long as February 13, 2028, stays free of any Super Bowl reservations, though, it seems the league does not intend to let their early schedule dreams go the way of the dodo quietly. With their ability to increase the league’s international schedule and the aim to put one international contest on each team’s schedule per season, league leadership is working any avenues they can to try and mold the schedule to fit their desires.