How High School and Collegiate Football are Stifling the NFL’s International Expansion
The National Football League (“NFL”) has aggressively expanded its global presence as it seeks to turn American football into an international phenomenon. Over the past two seasons, the NFL scheduled unprecedented week one Friday night games in São Paulo, Brazil’s Corinthians Arena to cultivate its fledgling international following in South America.[2] On September 6, 2024, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Green Bay Packers 34–29 riding on running back Saquon Barkley’s triumphant three-touchdown Eagles debut.[3] On September 5, 2025, the Los Angeles Chargers pulled off a stunning 27–21 upset against the Kansas City Chiefs.[4] The NFL posted free livestreams of its 2025 Brazil game on YouTube, reaching over one million international fans.[5]
Following the resounding success of the 2024 and 2025 Brazil games, the NFL announced a multi-year commitment to playing regular season games in Brazil.[6] But unlike the previous two years, the NFL cannot schedule its 2026 Brazil game on the first Friday of the 2026 NFL season.[7] A shifting calendar in 2026 will trigger a key provision in the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 (“SBA”) which blocks the NFL from broadcasting games during Friday evening and Saturday timeslots from early September through late December.[8] The United States Congress originally included this provision to prevent the NFL from scheduling its own games simultaneously with high school and college football games and stealing viewers. Today, this anti-monopoly provision continues to serve its original purpose but now generates a secondary impact that stifles the NFL’s international expansion.
The History and Purpose of the SBA
In the 1950s, reacting to the issue of home television sets hurting ticket sales by providing free broadcasts of games, the NFL implemented a strict blackout policy which gave the NFL’s commissioner uncontestable authority to block teams from broadcasting their own games.[9] The commissioner frequently used this power to keep games off the air.[10] In a 1953 lawsuit by the Department of Justice, Judge Allen Kuhn Grim struck down the blackout policy upon finding it blatantly violated federal antitrust law by vesting all teams’ broadcasting approval power in a single person.[11] The NFL lobbied Congress to override Judge Grim’s decisions; Congress swiftly drafted and passed the SBA, which was signed into law on September 30, 1961.[12] The SBA provides antitrust exemptions to allow professional leagues for the nation’s most popular sports—football, basketball, baseball, and hockey—to unilaterally control where and when to broadcast their games without running afoul of federal antitrust laws.[13]
But Congress did not want its permission to centralize control over broadcasts to become permission to broadcast games at any time. Football teams across all levels generally play one game per week; for decades, high school teams played Friday evenings, collegiate teams played Saturdays, and professional teams played Sundays.[14] Congress feared the SBA would enable the NFL to break its Sunday tradition and schedule its games during high school or college teams’ games, ruining amateur football by disincentivizing fans from supporting amateur football in favor of watching the NFL.[15] Congress alleviated these concerns with a special provision in the SBA discouraging the NFL from competing with amateur football.[16]
Starting the second Friday in September to the second Saturday in December, professional football games held during Friday evenings after 6:00 p.m. EST and Saturdays cannot be broadcast within 75 miles of a high school or collegiate football game.[17] This provision effectively prohibits the NFL from broadcasting games during the prescribed timeframe but allows the NFL to compete with amateur football teams who extend their seasons earlier or later than Congress anticipated.[18]
The SBA’s Impact on the NFL
The NFL has minimal incentive to schedule games which it cannot broadcast because the NFL earns over 60% of its revenue from selling broadcasting rights.[19] And the NFL can lose all its antitrust exemptions under the SBA for committing a single breach against it.[20] The NFL has adjusted its financial strategies to avoid catastrophic legal consequences but is not afraid to take advantage of the SBA’s loopholes. For instance, although the NFL schedules a Black Friday game each year that kicks off at 3:00 p.m. and ends shortly after the SBA’s 6:00 p.m. trigger hour, the NFL faces no repercussions because the SBA only punishes the NFL for broadcasting “a substantial part of” a game during the SBA’s restricted period.[21][22]
The SBA’s Impact for the NFL’s 2026 Opening Week
The NFL routinely begins its regular season on the first Thursday after Labor Day, positioning the NFL’s opening week in either the first or second week of September.[23] In 2024 and 2025, Labor Day fell early enough on the calendar so that the first Friday of the NFL season occurred on the first Friday of September, before the SBA’s restrictions applied.[24] But Labor Day occurs deeper into September in 2026, pushing back the NFL’s opening week such that the first Friday of the NFL season is no longer exempt from the SBA’s restrictions.[25] NFL COO Hans Schroeder confirmed the NFL chose to comply with the SBA in consideration of this calendar shift and avoid broadcasting another opening week game on a Friday night.[26]
However, the SBA only affects when games can be broadcast in the United States and does not dictate when NFL games can be played. The NFL scheduled another special opening week game in 2026, pitting the Los Angeles Rams against the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia.[27] The Australia game will kick off 10:35am local time on the second Friday in September, but the game will air live in the United States on the preceding Thursday night before the SBA’s restrictions begin.[28] This Thursday evening broadcast timeslot is ordinary for football fans in the United States but the awkward weekday morning kickoff time in Australia will undoubtedly stop many Australians from watching the game and will hinder the NFL’s mission to grow its international fanbase.
Moving Forward
By complying with the SBA in broadcasting international games, the NFL is unable to consistently schedule week-one international games at opportune times and must turn to inconvenient timeslots for reaching more international fans. As for the NFL’s promised 2026 Brazil game as part of its multi-year Brazil commitment, the NFL pushed back its 2026 Brazil game to a new week and a new city.[29] On Sunday, September 27 at 4:25 p.m. EST (5:25 p.m. BST), the Baltimore Ravens will host the Dallas Cowboys in Rio de Janeiro’s renowned Maracanã Stadium.[30] The regulatory stability of this new timeslot may encourage the NFL during the same week in the following years, establishing a lasting NFL Brazil tradition.
Michael O'Neill (staff writer) is a 2L from Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Drexel University with a degree in History with a Global concentration. During his sophomore year at Drexel, he completed a six-month internship at Fox Rothschild LLP's Philadelphia headquarters as a paralegal intern. In his free time, he enjoys rooting for the Eagles and Phillies in addition to reading the official NFL and MLB rulebooks. Following graduation Michael hopes to work with an in-house counsel or as an agent for the MLB or NFL.
References:
[1] Pedro Vásquez Colmenares. Flickr: Maracanã Stadium (Apr. 8, 2009). https://www.flickr.com/photos/pvcg/3423412892.
[2] Eric Fisher. How Brazil Game Fits Into NFL’s Plans for World Domination, Front Office Sports (Sep. 5, 2025). https://frontofficesports.com/how-brazil-game-fits-into-nfls-plans-for-world-domination.
[3] Liam Wichser. Game Recap: Packers vs. Eagles, NFL (Sep. 6, 2024). https://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/news/game-recap-packers-vs-eagles-week-1-2024.
[4] Eric Smith. 5 Takeaways: How the Chargers Surged Past the Chiefs Late in Brazil Win, Los Angeles Chargers (Sep. 5, 2025). https://www.chargers.com/news/justin-herbert-chiefs-game-recap-week-1.
[5] Dan Shanoff and Richard Deitsch. Chiefs-Chargers Week 1 game in Brazil draws 18.5 million YouTube viewers in U.S., Athletic (Sep. 24, 2025). https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6610499/2025/09/08/chiefs-chargers-brazil-youtube-viewership-nfl.
[6] Ed Dixon. NFL inks multi-year deal to play games in Rio de Janeiro from 2026, SportsPro (Sep. 29, 2025). https://www.sportspro.com/news/major-events/nfl-brazil-games-rio-de-janeiro-maracana-stadium-2026-september-2025.
[7] Ben Strauss. The full confirmed list of 2026 NFL international games after Madrid announcement, Yahoo Sports (Feb. 2, 2026). https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/full-confirmed-list-2026-nfl-135952432.html.
[8] Matt Moray. NFL will not play a Week 1 game on Friday next season due to federal law, Athletic (Sep. 3, 2025). https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6593437/2025/09/02/nfl-no-week-1-friday-game-2026.
[9] Jake Kobrick. NFL Television Broadcasting and the Federal Courts, Federal Judiciary Center. https://www.fjc.gov/history/spotlight-judicial-history/nfl-television-broadcasting.
[10] Id.
[11] United States v. Nat’l Football League, 116 F. Supp. 319, 330 (E.D. Pa. 1953).
[12] Kobrick, supra.
[13] 15 U.S.C. § 1291.
[14] Charles River Associates. Friday Night Rights: The Sports Broadcasting Act’s 75-Mile Football Rule, CRA Insights (Sep. 2020). https://media.crai.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/19153904/Competition-Insights-Sports-Broadcasting-Act-September-2020.pdf.
[15] Id.
[16] 15 U.S.C. § 1293.
[17] Id.
[18] Alex Akhavan and Keith Kelly. Friday Night Laws: A Primer on the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, SheppardMullin Entertainment Law Blog (Sep. 8, 2025). https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/friday-night-laws-a-primer-on-the-8948332.
[19] Kurt Badenhausen. How Sports Teams, Leagues and Owners Make Money, Sportico (Feb. 16, 2024). https://www.sportico.com/feature/how-sports-teams-leagues-make-money-1234766931.
[20] 15 U.S.C. § 1293.
[21] Jacob Feldman. Why Jets-Dolphins NFL Black Friday Game is Such a Rarity, Sportico (Nov. 23, 2023). https://www.sportico.com/law/analysis/2023/nfl-black-friday-game-time-legislation-1234747802.
[22] 15 U.S.C. § 1293.
[23] Nick Shook. 2025 NFL schedule release: Super Bowl champion Eagles to kick off season vs. Cowboys on Sept. 4, NFL (May 12, 2025). https://www.nfl.com/news/2025-nfl-schedule-release-super-bowl-champion-eagles-cowboys-kickoff-game.
[24] Oliver Browning. NFL forced into major change for 2026 season due to bizarre little-known law that benefited Chiefs, talkSport (Sep. 3, 2025). https://talksport.com/nfl/3524463/week-1-friday-game-change-law-chiefs-broadcasting-act.
[25] Id.
[26] Moray, supra.
[27] John Breech. 2026 NFL schedule rumors: Seahawks likely to get Wednesday opener; 49ers-Rams set for Week 1 in Australia, CBS Sports (Mar. 17, 2026). https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2026-nfl-schedule-seahawks-wednesday-australia.
[28] Id.
[29] NFL. Ravens to Face Cowboys in 2026 NFL Rio Game, NFL (Apr. 24, 2026). https://www.nfl.com/news/ravens-to-face-cowboys-in-2026-nfl-rio-game.
[30] Id.
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