http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4015357

With a collective bargaining agreement coming up in the next few years, one of the changes the Commissioner is going to be pushing for is an expanded season. I think it makes a ton of sense given that with offseason conditioning programs and various different offseason camps and training camp that there really isn't a need for a long preseason to get the players into "football" playing shape or to integrate them into a team. These players work out and work with each other so much during the offseason that professional football has become a year round way of life.

My suggestion would be to forego the idea of 17 games with the extra game being a neutral site game. I think the scheduling would be a nightmare and the logistics of finding sites and getting them set up would be ridiculous. Go immediately to an 18 game schedule with an expanded playoff of 8 teams per conference. Make the season 20 weeks long with one idle week during the season and one off week for the league before the playoffs start.

Scheduling would be as such with each team playing the following:

-2 games each vs. division opponents (6 games total)
-1 game against each team in a division within the conference rotating, like now, yearly (4 games total)
-1 game against each team in a division in the other conference rotating, like now, yearly (4 games total)
-1 game against each equal seeded team in the other 2 divisions in the conference(1st vs 1st, 2nd vs. 2nd, etc.)(2 games total)
- 1 game against each of two teams from the previous year's scheduled non-conference division with the teams being decided as follows. Each team will play the like seeded team in that division and all 1 seeds will play all 3 seeds and all 2 seeds will play all 4 seeds as their last game. (2 games total)

As an example the Pats would be scheduled, based on this year's results and the divisions played this year as:

Miami -twice
Buffalo -twice
Jets - twice
Baltimore - 2-seed
Indianapolis - 2-seed and regularly scheduled rotational in conference other division opponent
Denver - 2 seed
Tennessee - regularly scheduled rotational in conference other division opponent
Houston - regularly scheduled rotational in conference other division opponent
Jacksonville - regularly scheduled rotational in conference other division opponent
Carolina - regularly scheduled rotational out of conference division opponent
Tampa Bay - regularly scheduled rotational out of conference division opponent
Atlanta - regularly scheduled rotational out of conference division opponent
New Orleans - regularly scheduled rotational out of conference division opponent
San Francisco - 2 seed out of conference divisional opponent from prior year
St. Louis - 4 seed out of conference divisional opponent from prior year

After the regualr season ends all 16 teams get another week idle. Then natural 1v8, 2v7, 3v6, 4v5 playoff format with reseeding each week based on results and no week off before the Superbowl. That way all offseason events can be scheduled as always and there's not the hassle if adding the two teams in the conference of figuring which teams are played in conference and ensuring a team only plays their divisional opponents twice during the regular season. Also done the way it is with the extra two teams added, one game will be against a like seeded team from the previous year, which if the team is bad/good is theoretically pitting the team against another bad/good team and another game against an opposite seeded team meaning they will be playing either a good team if they were bad or vice versa.

Just one man's ideas. I think the expanded season makes sense for everybody from owners to players to advertisers to fans. The last two preseason games have become nothing more than a protect your vets so they don't get hurt type thing anyway. Might as well make those games count and make those players play.