If/when the NFL expands to 18 regular-season games with two byes, the league may have to re-embrace Labor Day weekend, especially if it wants to land the Super Bowl plane on Presidents’ Day weekend.
Coincidentally, or not, college football may be starting its season the week before Labor Day weekend.
Per The Athletic, via Drew Lerner of Awful Announcing, the college football powers-that-be could move the start of the season to what has become known in recent years as “Week 0″ — the weekend before Labor Day weekend. Per the report, “urgency” exists to pass the measure so that it can be implemented by 2027.
The report doesn’t attribute the potential move to the possible shift in the start of the NFL season. And maybe it’s unrelated.
Regardless, the potential acceleration of the start of the NFL season provides another good reason to do it. The NFL will expand, at some point, to 18 games. If that comes with a second bye (as it should), the NFL likely will return to Labor Day weekend — where the league is able to play on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. (With three available windows on Saturday, that’s up to nine windows for 16 Week 1 games.)
And with the NFL still holding out hope for expanding to 18 by 2027 (the fact that Super Bowl LXII in Atlanta still doesn’t have a firm date confirms it), it’s very wise for college football to treat the last weekend in August as the one weekend where it can play a full slate of games without the NFL horning in on its turf.