By Sammy Strobel
Assistant Sports Editor

As the 2021 season approaches, the NFL has announced an addition of a 17th game to the regular season. The announcement was made on March 30 after the virtual edition of the NFL’s annual league meeting.

In a prepared statement regarding the announcement, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said, “The CBA [collective bargaining agreement] with the players and the recently completed media agreements provide the foundation for us to enhance the quality of the NFL experience for our fans. And one of the benefits of each team playing 17 regular-season games is the ability for us to continue to grow our game around the world.”

Cbssports claims the biggest change will be the interconference alignment for the 17th game. The change consists of teams playing five interconference games instead of the usual four, and the AFC teams will get the home game for this season, then rotating to the NFC the following season. 

During the 2021-2022 season, teams from the NFC East will play one additional game against a team from the AFC East, the NFC West will play the AFC North, the NFC South will play AFC South and NFC North will play the AFC West.

This is the first significant regular-season schedule change since 1978 when games played expanded from 14 to 16.

Due to this expansion, the preseason will consist of three games per team instead of four.
The 17th matchup for each team is listed on nfl.com.