The extended 18-week NFL schedule presents us with a quandary.

Here are the options:

1. Retain the 13-week regular season schedule and standard playoff format. We would not use the final TWO weeks of the NFL season.

2. Retain the 13-week regular season schedule and have the championship contest last for two weeks. We would not use the final week of the NFL season. This is not an ESPN option but there is a work-around that we used in the RBL for years.

3. Change to a 14-week regular season schedule and use the standard playoff format. We would not use the final week of the NFL season. This would be an unbalanced schedule but it does open the possibility of creating the week 14 match-up any way we want.

Note: I removed #3 from the voting options. I don't like it.

Another option would be expansion and the creation of divisions.

Four divisions of four teams each (like the RBL).

Play your division foes twice (6 games).
Play two other divisions once (8 games).
You will not play the other four teams but that could rotate each year.

Playoffs would include the four division winners and two wild cards (weeks 15 through 17).

Came up with 2 different parity-adjusted 4 division schemes, but neither beats the easy 4 division scheme you laid out. Also came up with a variant of the basic scheme.

1) Parity - 6 division games, 4 with one division, 4 with 1-2s or 3-4s from the other two non-played divisions. So 1st and 2nd from each division has the same schedule.
2) Parity+ - 6 division games, 4 with one division, 1 plays 1-2s, 2 plays 1-3s, 3 plays 2-4s, 4 plays 3-4s. Awkward, but it works and 2nd has slightly easier schedule than 1st.
3) Add conference level. Stick with 6 division games, 4 with one division and 4 with another division. The nuance (which would work with 1-2 as well), is 8 teams per conference. You always play the other division in your conference, then another 4 games based on parity or just one of the divisions. You might need to consider conference in playoffs too, so you end up with conference vs conference in the championship.