The big TV suspense left in the NFL regular season: Will the league luck into a final-game blockbuster?

Let's go behind-the-scenes.

Although nfl.com's schedule now leaves this out, the season finishes with an NBC primetime game on New Year's Day -- and it can flex a Sunday afternoon game into that national slot.

Normally, flexed games have to be picked 12 days in advance. But for the final weekend, the NFL can wait until after this weekend's action. And lucky for the NFL -- which always seems lucky -- no teams have reached their maximum primetime appearances and neither CBS nor Fox has protected any final-weekend games from being moved to NBC's primetime.

Meaning, for the NFL season's final game, anything goes.

Here are the NFL (and NBC) dream scenarios:

1. The Cowboys, consistently the NFL's top TV draw, and the big-market Giants win this weekend and meet in Week 17 with the NFC East title on the line. Boffo TV box office, but not for Fox -- which could lose that game to NBC.

1 (a). This weekend, Denver loses at Buffalo and Kansas City beats Oakland and Detroit beats San Diego. Not too far-fetched. And here's where NBC execs take a grateful knee and point skyward: In Week 17, Tim Tebow's Broncos would play Kansas City, with ex-Denver QB Kyle Orton, to try win the AFC West -- with CBS likely losing that game to NBC.

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Which game would be a bigger TV hit? Mortals couldn't say. Which, of course, is why deities ultimately decide NFL games.