The process gets serious in January, when teams submit lists of requests detailing stadium availability and preferences for scheduling order. This year, teams submitted more than 70 blocked-out dates for stadiums — the Jets and the Giants are both on the road in Week 3, for instance, because Bruce Springsteen will be performing at MetLife Stadium — and 100 requests, from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Florida teams often ask not to play 1 p.m. games in September and October, believing it is more difficult to sell tickets in broiling heat; sometimes the same organization will submit different requests because coaches believe the heat provides a competitive advantage. Southern teams do not want to go north late in the season. Teams that struggle to sell tickets worry especially about their late-season schedule.

There are requests not to play at home on certain holidays — the Jets and the Giants typically ask not to play home games during the Jewish High Holy Days. When the N.F.L. put the Jets at home on Rosh Hashana and the start of Yom Kippur in 2009, Katz heard about it from the team. And others.

“I heard from every rabbi — ‘How could you screw that up?’ ” Katz said. (On Thursday, the N.F.L. moved the start of the Raiders-Dolphins game in Miami on Sept. 16 — Rosh Hashana — up from 4:15 p.m. to 1 p.m. to give Jewish fans more time to be home before the holiday starts at sundown.)

The Jets asked to host the Thanksgiving night game this year. Jonathan Payne, another member of the scheduling group, opened a folder with more requests.

“No games against teams coming off their bye,” he read.

During Super Bowl week, Katz meets with representatives from each of the networks that carry N.F.L. games, receiving wish lists from NBC, ESPN and the NFL Network for games they want in prime time, and lists — often nearly identical — from Fox and CBS of games they do not want to lose from their Sunday afternoon slots.

Among observers, NBC is viewed as getting the best treatment because of the cachet of the popularity of football on broadcast television. ESPN hopes for plenty of division games because there is almost always something on the line. Last year, NBC and Fox wrestled over the regular-season finale between the Cowboys and the Giants, a guaranteed ratings bonanza. The N.F.L. moved the matchup — which determined which team went to the playoffs — to NBC for the second time in the season, upsetting Fox so much that Katz said the network’s lead analyst, Troy Aikman, stopped speaking to him.