Why Dolphins-Ravens wasn’t moved to late afternoon or prime time. And media notes

Sunday’s Dolphins-at-Baltimore game might be the most important game in the AFC this season, with both teams controlling their path to the conference’s No. 1 seed.

But instead of being broadcast to a national audience in prime time or airing in most of the country late in the afternoon, Dolphins-Ravens will be packed into a crowded five-game 1 p.m. window on CBS.

The network is planning to send the game to as much of the country as possible within the constraints of needing to air four other games at the same time. As of Tuesday afternoon, Dolphins-Ravens was slated to go to 70 percent of the nation’s homes with television sets. (I will post regionalization maps on X — @flasportsbuzz — when they become available on Wednesday.)

So why did the NFL keep the Dolphins game at 1 p.m?

Here were the explanations offered or confirmed by multiple network sources:

1). The NFL’s mission with flex scheduling isn’t to replace decent games with great games. It’s to get out of airing bad games in prime time.

And Vikings-Packers, the scheduled NBC New Year’s Eve game, was deemed to be meaningful because both teams have a chance to make the playoffs.

Green Bay and Minnesota are among four 7-8 teams trying to overtake the 8-7 Rams and 8-7 Seahawks for the final two wild card spots. The winner of the Packers-Vikings game has a decent chance to make the playoffs; the loser almost assuredly won’t make the playoffs.

As soon as the NFL determined that game was significant, there wasn’t extended consideration given to replacing it with a different game.

2). The NFL set in stone the Dec. 31 schedule on Dec. 21, five days before it was required.

Why didn’t the NFL wait to see the results of the games this past weekend before determining Dec. 31 game times?

The league was sensitive to giving fans (those planning to attend Sunday night’s Packers game in Minneapolis and elsewhere) and team employees and networks more time to prepare for games on Dec. 31 without last minute changes.

It’s one thing to set a mid-January game date and time a few days in advance, which will be the case for Week 18 games and playoff games.

But locking in the time of New Year’s Eve games, more than six days in advance, was viewed as an act of consideration by the league to its fans, teams and broadcast partners.

3). Beyond the NFL viewing the Packers-Vikings game as worth keeping on Sunday Night Football, the league also took into account the fact that the Ravens have been on prime time the past two weeks (on a Sunday night against Jacksonville and a Monday night against San Francisco).

There wasn’t a great appetite to air the same team in prime time three consecutive weeks, regardless of the team.

4). As for why the NFL didn’t flip the start times of Dolphins-Ravens at 1 p.m. and Kansas City-Cincinnati at 4:25 p.m. — considering CBS has both games — a few reasons were given: The popularity of the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes and the fact the Bengals (8-7) have remained in playoff contention even without injured quarterback Joe Burrow.

One network source said in a strange way, the Chiefs have become an even more fascinating television draw because they’ve proven to be vulnerable this season and aren’t running away with the top seed. (They’re on course to likely be the third seed.)

CBS lead team Jim Nantz and Tony Romo will call the Chiefs-Bengals game, which will be televised in most of the country. (Some will get the Broncos-Chargers game instead.)

CBS’ No. 2 team, Ian Eagle and Charles Davis, will work Dolphins-Ravens.

There was more flexibility for the NFL to flex games this season than ever before, but only one game ended up being moved out of prime time this year: ESPN’s Chiefs-Patriots game was replaced by Eagles-Seahawks, during the first season that ESPN received a flexing option.

The league, not the networks, determine what games will be flexed, but CBS and Fox can protect a game each week.

THIS AND THAT

ABC and ESPN’s final “Monday Night Football” game of the season — Lions-Cowboys — was moved to Saturday night to allow ESPN to carry the two College Football Playoff semifinals on Monday.

There’s no MNF game or Amazon Thursday night game in Week 18.

Amazon’s 2023 finale is Jets-Cleveland on Thursday; that will also be the final NFL game this season for Al Michaels. Unlike last year, NBC won’t assign Michaels to a wild card playoff game, opting instead to use its lead Big 10 voice, Noah Eagle (son of CBS’ Ian), with Todd Blackledge.

Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth will call NBC’s three other playoff games — two during wild card weekend and one on the second week of the playoffs.

▪ ESPN assigned Drew Carter and Rod Gilmore to the UM-Rutgers Pinstripe Bowl at 2:15 p.m. Thursday.

ESPN will use its lead college team (Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit) on the first CFP semifinal game (Alabama-Michigan at 4 p.m. Monday) and No. 2 team Sean McDonough and Greg McElroy on the second semifinal (Texas-Washington).

▪ Peacock’s first ever NFL game (Chargers-Bills this past Saturday) featured no commercials in the fourth quarter. That will also be the case for Peacock’s presentation of a wild card playoff game on Jan. 13.

▪ After several years in a row of price hikes, ESPN will keep its UFC pay-per-view prices the same in 2024, at $79.99.