NFL's Plans for Extending the Regular Season Affects NASCAR

For years, there has been talk amongst the NFL and its owners to expand the regular season from 16 to 17 or 18 games, and eliminate a couple of the preseason games that even diehards can't stomach.

Today, the topic came up on the CBS pre-game show, and according to insider Charlie Casserly, the owners are moving forward with plans to have an 18-game schedule as early as fall 2010.

Of course, the players, who are probably going to get involved in a heated labor dispute with the owners in the near future, will have to approve any changes to the schedule, and I am not so sure these guys will want their bodies taking a beating for another two full games a year. This is a brutal sport.

My opinions on the subject aside (I think it is just a ploy by the NFL to increase their already sky-high revenues and haphazardly move games overseas without any concern of how players will be affected), Casserly outlined the proposal on the table.

The league would cut out two preseason games, and in their place have two extra weeks off between the preseason and regular season. As a result, the 17th and 18th games would be added to the end of the current regular season, which would usually fall on the first and second weekends of January. The Super Bowl, which is already the first week of February, would be pushed back to the third week of the month for the first time.

Now NASCAR fans, I know what you are thinking: the Daytona 500 is the third Sunday of February. So yes, the NFL's revamped schedule proposal could ultimately cross sport lines and have an effect on how NASCAR constructs their yearly schedule. Certainly, the sanctioning body will not want to have their Super Bowl going up against THE Super Bowl.

They could go back to the old way of doing things and start at high noon (I miss those days), but that would end up sacrificing ratings, especially on the west coast. That way, the race would be over in plenty of time for people to get ready for the Super Bowl.

Of course, all Brian France sees is dollar signs, and if it means a loss of ratings or money, forget about it.

What is NASCAR to do? They may not even know about the NFL schedule proposal, because after all, it is in its very preliminary stages. But they will obviously have to shift their obligations.

Moving up the Daytona 500 a week could be an option, since the NFL has a week off between the conference championships and Big Game. This is typically a very light weekend on the sports front, and would give FOX an opportunity to plug the race during the NFC championship game seven days before the green flag flies (currently, the conference championships are four weeks ahead of the Daytona 500, so any cross-promotions probably do little good in drawing extra attention from viewers).

An off weekend could follow, before continuing on to the second race of the season, which currently is held at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. Of course, there are very few off weekends during the Sprint Cup season, and moving one of them to after week 1 of the season may not be too popular.

At the same time, the preparation for Speedweeks and the 500 is draining, and teams could benefit from a week to collect their thoughts before heading to the Left Coast.

While the NFL's proposed addition of two games to their regular season schedule is far from becoming a reality and will likely face many roadblocks along the way, this is something NASCAR fans and the sanctioning body (assuming they can actually read or understand the news) need to keep a close eye on.

The sport already has to contend with the NFL during their 10-race run to the championship, and it would be uncharted territory for the tables to be turned.