Friday, January 6, 2012

Does the Bye week determine who the next Super Bowl Champion is?





In 1990, the NFL introduced a bye week to the schedule. Each team played sixteen regular season games over seventeen (eighteen in 1993 and 2001) weeks. During the season, on a rotating basis, each team would have the weekend off. As a result, opening weekend was moved up to Labor Day weekend. (The league had an odd number of teams (31) from 1999 to 2001. During that period, at least one team had to be given a bye on any given week.)
Since the 2002 season, the league has scheduled a nationally televised regular season kickoff game on the Thursday night after Labor Day, prior to the first Sunday of NFL games to kick off the season. The first one, featuring the San Francisco 49ers and the New York Giants, was held on September 5, 2002 .Since 2004, the NFL has indicated that the opening game will normally be hosted by the defending Super Bowl champions as the official start of their title defense. Thus, under this scheduling system, the earliest the regular season could begin is September 4, as it was in the 2008 season, due to the 1st falling on a Monday, while the latest possible is September 10, as it was in the 2009 season, due to the 1st falling on a Tuesday.

But I have always wondered if it matter when your bye week was. Does an early bye week give you the opportunity to right the ship early or is a late bye week an advantage since a team has played a majority of their schedule and now can take a well deserved rest?
Here is a look at the teams that played in the super bowl since 2002 and when their bye week fell.

YEAR

AFC TEAM

BYE WEEK

NFC TEAM

BYE WEEK

WINNER

2002

OAKLAND

WEEK 3

TAMPA BAY

WEEK 10

TAMPA BAY

2003

NEW ENGLAND

WEEK 10

CAROLINA

WEEK 3

NEW ENGLAND

2004

NEW ENGLAND

WEEK 3

PHILLY

WEEK 5

NEW ENGLAND

2005

PITTSBURGH

WEEK 4

SEATTLE

WEEK 8

PITTSBURGH

2006

INDIANAPOLIS

WEEK 6

CHICAGO

WEEK 7

INDIANAPOLIS

2007

NEW ENGLAND

WEEK 10

NY GIANTS

WEEK 9

NY GIANTS

2008

PITTSBURGH

WEEK 6

ARIZONA

WEEK 7

PITTSBURGH

2009

INDIANAPOLIS

WEEK 6

NEW ORLEANS

WEEK 5

NEW ORLEANS

2010

PITTSBURGH

WEEK 5

GREEN BAY

WEEK 10

GREEN BAY


The remaining teams in the Playoffs are
AFC
Cincinnati Bye week 7
Houston Bye week 11
Pittsburgh Bye week 11
Denver Bye Week 6
New England Bye week 7
Baltimore Bye Week 5

NFC
Detroit Bye Week 9
New Orleans Bye Week 11
Atlanta Bye Week 8
New York Giants Bye Week 7
San Francisco Bye Week 7
Green Bay Bye Week 8

The trend is as follows

2002 Late

2003 Late

2004 Early

2005 Early

2006 Early

2007 Early

2008 Early

2009 Early

2010 Late

Avg Bye week of AFC Team 6.5

Avg Bye week of NFC Team 7.1

So based on the favorites and the avg bye week of the teams that play each other in the super bowl. I predict the super bowl will be San Francisco vs New England.


I thank you all of you that stayed awake for this.

Go Giants!





4 comments:

  1. THE SMARTEST MAN IN THE WORLDJanuary 7, 2012 at 3:11 PM

    ?????????

    ReplyDelete
  2. Einstein from the graveJanuary 7, 2012 at 3:11 PM

    I simply do not understand.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Boringest Man in the WorldJanuary 9, 2012 at 10:16 AM

    Well done!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well both teams with a Week 7 bye are in the super bowl.

    ReplyDelete