Sunday Night Football Schedule 2025-26

Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. Source: Getty Images

The Sunday Night Football schedule for the 2025-26 NFL season is finally out, with the official NFL schedule released on May 14, 2025. While the new season will still take a few months to get underway, fans can start planning their Sunday night schedules as early as May.

Sunday Night Football is one of the best ways for fans to relax and enjoy the games as the weekend comes to an end. As a result, the NFL tries to keep as many key games as it can, which is not only beneficial for the fans but also helps with viewership. Furthermore, it also concludes the long list of games that have taken place throughout the day at various times all over the country.

Sunday Night Football TV Channel

With Sundays being the day when the majority of the games are played throughout the week, three broadcasting partners split the games. All of the day games are split between FOX and CBS, who get the lion’s share of the games in the week.

Having said that, Sunday Night Football (SNF) belongs completely to NBC and its streaming service, Peacock. Generally, Sunday games for FOX and CBS are decided as per the following criteria:

1. AFC team games' broadcast rights belong to CBS
2. NFC team games' broadcast rights belong to FOX
3. In interconference games, meaning AFC teams vs NFC teams, broadcast rights are given to the away team’s network. (This means that if the away team belongs to the AFC, then CBS will broadcast the game and vice versa.)

The upside for NBC is that Sunday Night Football is considered a primetime slot, and that gives the channel exclusive rights to host these games for the entire duration of the NFL season.

Sunday Night Football Kickoff Time

Sunday Night Football kickoff time is generally 8:20 p.m. Eastern time, live on NBC and its streaming platform Peacock, which provides viewers more than one option to watch the games. As this is a prime time slot, there is little to no change in the time of the games for the entirety of the NFL season.

However, it is worth noting that even though the 2024 Sunday Night Football schedule is out, a few of these games may get flexed depending on how the NFL sees fit. It would generally happen towards the mid to later stages of the season.

Sunday Night Football Key Matchups

With the Sunday Night Football schedule being announced, we now have the full slate of games at our disposal. Even though almost every game in the prime time slot is worthy of hype, there are a few that stand out more than the others. Some of the interesting and key matchups on SNF are as follows:

Week 1 - Baltimore Ravens at Buffalo Bills

Sunday Night Football is set to get off with a bang for the 2025-26 NFL season as the Buffalo Bills play host to the Baltimore Ravens. This will be a rematch of the previous season’s AFC Divisional round in which the Bills edged out the Ravens 27-25. Both teams are Super Bowl contenders year in and year out, and the last two years' MVPs going head-to-head will make this matchup a fun one to watch. Ravens and Bills both finished in the top 10 in total offense during the 2024 season (via FOX Sports), so expect offensive fireworks in the SNF debut.

Week 6 - Detroit Lions at Kansas City Chiefs

Both Lions and Chiefs finished atop their respective conferences in 2024, and with Jared Goff and Patrick Mahomes still in the prime of their careers, there are no indicators of either of them falling off drastically anytime soon. However, what has piqued the interest of many NFL fans this season is how the Lions' high-flying offense would look without former OC Ben Johnson, who is now running the show in Chicago. The last time Ben Johnson wasn’t calling offensive plays for the Lions, Detroit was still winless in the Dan Campbell era (0-8), as per ESPN.

Week 11 - Detroit Lions at Philadelphia Eagles

The two NFC elites will take center stage in week 6, when the defending Super Bowl champions host Dan Campbell-led Lions at Lincoln Financial Field. However, there would be more than just a win on the line as the victor of this matchup might potentially end up grabbing the No.1 seed in the NFC, which would provide them with the home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. Both NFC powerhouses will be fielding new offensive coordinators going into the season, as their prior OCs have accepted head coaching jobs during the offseason.

Week 12 - Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Los Angeles Rams

The Week 12 Sunday Night Football schedule will give fans a second straight week where two NFC heavyweights collide. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the LA Rams would look at this matchup as a potential playoff game. Both teams have been a consistent presence in the postseason since the start of this decade. However, with both divisions getting better, it would be tough for either of them to repeat as the divisional champs. If either of them or both failed to clinch their respective division, a win here would serve them well down the road when wildcard spots come into the picture.

Know more about Monday Night Football Schedule 2024 and Thursday Night Football Schedule 2024, and keep every NFL game in your sights. Check out our NFL Schedule page and get all the match-up details, score updates, and exciting news as it happens!