At first glance, it looks like the ideal Sunday afternoon setup.
The Buffalo Bills play the Carolina Panthers, and the New York Giants play the Philadelphia Eagles. They both kick off at 1 p.m. in Week 8, and they generally would align as a CBS game and a Fox game on TV.
Not this week, though.
Both matchups are on Fox. A large chunk of New York state will see the Bills, while another swath will get the Giants. But just using local networks, you can’t watch both.
CBS will broadcast Ravens–Bears in most of the country.
Anyone who has a rooting interest in both the Bills and the Giants is out of luck.
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Why is Bills-Panthers on Fox instead of Giants-Eagles?
In a large portion of upstate New York, you can’t watch the Giants-Eagles game on Sunday, only Bills-Panthers on Fox.
That’s because the NFL’s old patterns for conference alignment on channels doesn’t always apply anymore.
Classically, a road AFC team meant a game on CBS. But Buffalo is in Carolina, and the game is on Fox.
A number of factors contribute to that now, but the end result is that these two games are on the same channel.
At that point, the league attempts to draw a reasonable line. So much of upstate and western New York gets the Bills, while downstate will get the Giants on Fox.
It won’t make everyone happy, but it just is what it is.
