The New Orleans Saints will face teams from the AFC North and NFC North in 2014.

Along with the NFC South, AFC North and NFC North, the Saints will battle the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers in 2014.

New Orleans Saints 2014 opponents:

Home: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, San Francisco 49ers, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Away: Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The scheduling formula implemented in 2002 with realignment guarantees that all teams play each other on a regular, rotating basis.

Under the formula, every team plays 16 games as follows:

*Home and away against its three division opponents (6 games).

*The four teams from another division within its conference on a rotating three-year cycle (4 games).

*The four teams from a division in the other conference on a rotating four-year cycle (4 games).

*Two intraconference games based on the prior year's standings (2 games). These games match a first-place team against the first-place teams in the two same-conference divisions the team is not scheduled to play that season. The second-place, third-place, and fourth-place teams in a conference are matched in the same way each year.  

Beginning in 2010, a change was made to how teams are paired in the schedule rotation to ensure that teams playing the AFC and NFC West divisions would not be required to make two west coast trips (e.g. at San Francisco and at Seattle), while other teams in their division had none (e.g. at St. Louis and at Arizona).

The official 2014 schedule, with playing dates and times, will be announced in the spring.

NFL Kickoff 2014 Weekend will begin on Thursday night, Sept. 4, and the regular season will conclude on Dec. 28.

Super Bowl XLIX at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona will be played on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015.

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