GEORGETOWN, Ky — Before the decade is out, every NFL team will have come to Cincinnati at least once. Even the Kansas City Chiefs, who are scheduled for Paul Brown Stadium in 2009.

        The NFL released details Wednesday of the new scheduling format that goes into effect next year, when the league expands to 32 teams with eight four-team divisions. Under the plan, a team's schedule no longer will be based solely on its finish in the standings the previous year. Instead, the divisions each team will oppose will be rotated.

        The Bengals, then, will play six games — including three at home — against teams in their own division, four vs. another AFC division and four vs. an NFC division.

        The other two games will be against teams that fin ished in the same place as the Bengals from the other AFC divisions.

        “It's a fairer scheduling format,” Bengals president Mike Brown said. “We get through the league this way, both sides of it, in three or four years. I like it.”

        Under the new plan, no team will go more than four years without playing any other NFL team. And each team will have at least one home game and one road game against every other team in the NFL between 2002 and 2009.

        This will eliminate some scheduling quirks the Bengals have faced in the past, such as:

        • No home games against the Chiefs since 1987.

        • One home game against the Green Bay Packers over a 23-year span (1976-98).

        • Five games at Denver from 1983-94 without one visit by the Broncos to Cincinnati during that time.
       

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