I still don't get it, but then I remain traumatized by the memory of the Pats finally having a home game vs.the Broncos and yet having to play a regular season game out in Denver the same season.
OK so every year, your schedule is composed of 4 sets of games:
A: (6) Your division opponents, home-and-home
B: (4) One rotating division in the
other conference, each one every 4 years
C: (4) One rotating division in your conference, other than your own division, so each one every 3 years
D: (2) Among the
other two divisions in your conference that you're not either in or playing already, you play the teams that finished in the
same spot in their division as you finished in yours last year.
(for our allocation for "D" next year, as the division winners, we are playing HOU and PIT because they won the AFC South and North, and we won the East. We were already going to be playing the West due to its turn being up for "C". This year, we played the entire AFC North, and only played Houston and Denver because of "D").
It is that "D" aspect of the schedule that is the entirety of the Harrison Bergeron'ing of pushing towards parity. Well that and the draft and salary cap, but schedule-wise,
only those two games are easier for bad teams and harder for good ones. And that kinda assumes teams stay roughly as good one year as they were the last, which is generally a shaky assumption.
Anyway, for the teams that you play in "B" and "C", the location you play at alternates every time that division comes around. So for example, the Pats played
at Seattle in 2004 and 2012, but home vs Seattle in 2008 and 2016. Each year, you play two of those teams at home, and two of them on the road, and the next time that division comes up, it flips.
So in 2014, it was our turn to play the AFC West for "C". That year, our game against Denver was at home. So in 2017, it will be on the road, and in 2020 it will be home again. That rotation is fixed long in advance.
Whereas, in 2015 and 2016, we only played Denver due to our respective division finishes lining up (so, because of "D"). In 2015, the two games we got were vs PIT and @ DEN. In 2016, the two games we got were vs HOU and @ DEN. One will be home and one will be away; I'm not sure but it may just be luck of the draw as to which is which.
Point is, the game at denver next year has long been pre-ordained. If you're going to complain, you should complain that our games should have been @ HOU and vs DEN
this year.
