Getty A view of the exterior of Lucas Oil Stadium, a potential neutral site for AFC Championship, according to SI's Albert Breer
The Indianapolis Colts season will end after Week 18 on Sunday, January 8, when the team faces off against the Houston Texans in its final game of the 2022 season.
Though the season for the Colts will conclude after Sunday, Indianapolis and the Colts’ home field, Lucas Oil Stadium, may still end up hosting a playoff game despite being eliminated from the playoffs weeks prior. According to reporting from Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, Indianapolis is an option to be the neutral site location for the 2023 AFC Championship game. Breer tweeted that “Indy was floated as one potential site.”
Idea the NFL is discussing with teams/has real traction: Seeding by win percentage, with the AFC title game at neutral site, if seeding b/w the two teams was affected by Bills/Bengals cancellation.
Indy floated as one potential site to clubs (NFL hasn’t talked to Colts yet).
The Announcement From the NFL
Indianapolis may end up hosting a playoff game due to the NFL announcing the week 17 contest between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals was officially canceled and would not be resumed.
The announcement comes after the January 2 matchup between the two clubs was suspended due to the medical emergency the Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered in the first quarter of the contest. The unprecedented event put the NFL in a unique situation as to how to proceed, and on Thursday evening after speaking with the Bills and Bengals, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced the league’s proposal.
“As we considered the football schedule, our principles have been to limit disruption across the league and minimize competitive inequities, I recognize that there is no perfect solution. The proposal we are asking the ownership to consider, however, addresses the most significant potential equitable issues created by the difficult, but necessary, decision not to play the game under these extraordinary circumstances,” Goodell said in his statement.
The Potential 2023 Playoff Scenarios
With the game being officially canceled, and to make things as equitable as possible for teams that could be affected by the Bills and Bengals playing one less game, Goodell and the NFL Competition Committee recommended the following solutions to account for any and all possible scenarios. The proposal will be voted on by the NFL owners on Friday, January 6, needing 24 total votes for it to be approved.
If approved by owners, there are several scenarios that could lead to a playoff game on a neutral site for the AFC Championship game, with all depending on the results from the slate of week 18 games between the Kansas City Chiefs verse the Las Vegas Raiders and the Buffalo Bills verse New England Patriots. The results of these games will determine if a neutral site location will be needed.
From NFL Communications: “The AFC Championship Game will be played at a neutral site if the participating teams played an unequal number of games and both could have been the number one seed and hosted the game had all AFC clubs played a full 17-game regular season.”
The NFL’s statement did not indicate a location if a neutral site is needed, but additional reporting from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport did confirm Breer’s initial report that Indy was among the options being considered.
If Lucas Oil Stadium is selected, the stadium and city would have no trouble hosting the AFC Championship. The city and stadium hosted Super Bowl XLVI and was considered according to Patrick Rishe of Forbes, Indianapolis is a “desirable host city.”