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The NFL's 2026-27 schedule release may occur by May 11, coinciding with major TV upfronts. However, uncertainty remains about whether the schedule will be finalized in time for these presentations.
(Design by Grace Hughes, Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images))
In a perfect world, the NFL will release its 2026-27 schedule on or before May 11, when NBCUniversal and Fox are set to present their fall TV slates to advertisers and media buyers during their upfront presentations in New York.
But as the world never tires of reminding us, nothing about it can be characterized as âperfect,â and thereâs a chance that the six members of the leagueâs TV-planning team wonât have a final breakdown of the coming season available in time for the networkâs big dog-and-pony shows.
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While the NFL effectively targeted next week as go-time for its schedule release, league VP of broadcast planning Mike North said he has no idea as to when the TV/streaming roster will be loosed into the wild. Speaking on the Itâs Always Gameday in Buffalo podcast last month, North told hosts Sal Capaccio and Matt Bove that fans (and the NFLâs media partners) may have to wait a little longer than usual for their first dive into the fall schedule.
âI donât think itâs coming out in June, but the second week in May has been our target the last few years,â North said. âBut I donât think itâs impossible to think about the third week in May.â
Of course, if the schedule isnât available next week, the NFL partners that still stage traditional upfront presentations (which is to say, every network other than CBS) wonât be able to highlight some of the must-see matchups for September and beyond. From a transactional standpoint, the lack of specifics wonât be a deterrent to advertisersâafter all, the last time anyone wrote a check at an upfront after-party was probably in May 2009, following ABCâs well-received screening of the full Modern Family pilotâbut the networks obviously would enjoy having the opportunity to talk up some marquee events.
In other words, while Fox would love to be able to crow about who the Cowboys will host on Thanksgiving Day, a little mystery surrounding that matchup isnât going to cast a pall on the networkâs Monday afternoon pitch. (Dallas could play the Cardinals and still draw over 55 million holiday viewersâwhich isnât to say that the NFL plans to burn off one of its top TV windows with a team that went 3-14 last year. The push to include Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in last yearâs Tryptophan Bowl helped CBS reach a record 57.2 million viewers.)
The networks next week may not be in a position next week to confirm that their top requests were honored by the leagueâsince the Mahomes-Josh Allen rivalry launched in 2020, the big ask has been the annual Chiefs-Bills showdown, with CBS landing that barnburner in each of the last four yearsâbut specificity isnât necessarily paramount. For one thing, thanks to multiyear advertising commitments, about 40% of the in-game inventory is already spoken for when the upfront shows take place.
By mid-June, if not well before, 85% to 90% of the NFL ad slots have been booked, with the networks actively holding back a small chunk of inventory proportionate to how strong the sales bosses think the fall scatter market will play out. Nine years out of 10, scatter favors the sellers, and a last-minute bid for a 30-second spot that went for $850,000 in the upfront bazaar can now cost laggards in the neighborhood of $1,250,000.
While North did not say why there may be a holdup this year, the negotiations over the NFLâs new five-game carveout are a likely culprit. As North noted, the packageâwhich includes three games that otherwise would have aired as the second frames of the now defunct Monday Night Football âside-by-sideâ doubleheaders, an ESPN+ exclusive and an international dateâis still being hashed out. Careful to avoid letting the proverbial cat out of the sack, North judiciously mentioned the two streamers that are vying for the fiver (YouTube and Amazonâs Prime Video) before tossing Netflix into the conversational mix.
North didnât explicitly confirm that the carveout would land at a streamer, but: Sure, it will. In a bid to underscore how much of a glow-up this will be, the scheduler acknowledged the servicesâ relative ubiquity. *â*Everybody gets their paper towels from Amazon, everybody watches Netflix and everybody can access YouTube for free, like they did last year with that Brazil game,â North said.
The new package will almost certainly include the Sept. 11 Rams-49ers game from Melbourne, Australia, and North said that all five games will be staged in standalone national windows. He added that the NFL is still looking at developing an exclusive window for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving Day, a new wrinkle that would also be bundled into the streaming package. âThere are a lot of places that we want to deploy that inventory,â he said.
North gave fans a bit of a peek behind the curtain, saying that the process officially enters endgame when the six staffers on the scheduling committee head on up to Roger Goodellâs office to present the 2026-27 slate for his approval. â[The schedule] doesnât get finalized until the commissioner of the National Football League says itâs finalized,â North said. âThatâs why Iâm being cagey about the date. I donât know the date. None of us know the date yet because we donât know when weâre going to walk into the bossâ office and present him one. And heâs going to say: âThatâs perfect. Ready to go. Send it out to the world.ââ
The thumbs-up from the commissioner starts the clock on the greater release strategy, with the teams getting 24 hours advance noticeâgiving them ample time to blast out their social media executions ⊠and to begin the process of managing all the particulars related to ticketing. âOnce he says âgo,â we lock it in,â North said. âThe first thing we do is turn off the computers because I donât want to find a better schedule after the commish has already blessed the winner.â
On the morning of the official release, the NFL pings copies of the slate to its broadcast partners.
If thereâs no telling when exactly the schedule will arrive, the NFL has never reached the midway point of May without having issued a puff of white smoke from 345 Park Ave. âIf we walk in there on May 11 or 12, and heâs not happy with where we are, heâll send us back downstairs and weâll lock ourselves back in the room and weâll keep grinding until we find something he likes,â North said. âAnd if it slides to the 18th or 19th or 20th, you know, the world will keep spinning.â
Still, the networks are hoping that they have something substantial to talk up during next weekâs upfront pitches. YouTube is anxious to receive confirmation that it has persevered in its quest for the new five-game slate ahead of its May 13 âBrandcastâ presentation, although precedent suggests that the Google-owned platform may be furiously revising its run-of-show right before the curtain goes up next Wednesday at Lincoln Center. Last year, YouTube didnât get word that it had scored the NFLâs Rio game until just a few hours before showtime.
For all that, the smart money says the NFL will figure out a way to crank out another banger in time for next weekâs upfront frenzy. âIâm sure at some point [Goodell] is going to say, âAll right, well, you morons, Iâm not giving you any more timeâwe gotta go,ââ North joked. âI hope it doesnât get to that point.â
NBCU kicks off the upfronts Monday at 10:30 a.m. ET from Radio City Music Hall, with Fox presenting at 4 p.m. ET the same day at New York City Center. Disney returns to the Javits Center Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET, while Netflix and YouTube are set to finish out the week on May 13.
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The NFL aims to release its 2026-27 schedule on or before May 11.
The TV upfronts are presentations by networks like NBCUniversal and Fox to advertisers, crucial for securing ad revenue and showcasing programming, including NFL games.
Delays may occur if the NFL's TV-planning team does not finalize the schedule in time for the upfront presentations.
NBCUniversal and Fox are the primary networks presenting their fall TV slates during the upfronts.

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