The Academy Awards could be moved up to late January or early February beginning in 2012, John Horn reports in the L.A. Times. The Oscars for 2010 will be handed out on Feb. 27, 2011, but the Academy wants an earlier date to avoid the burnout that comes when the ceremony caps off a months-long cavalcade of awards ceremonies and acceptance speeches and the general, exhausting awards season (or, to use Horn’s phrasing, “the Oscar show is the caboose in a very long award season train”). It’s worth noting that the Oscars took place in late March until 2004, when they moved to late February or early March.

This is potentially problematic because of the cornerstone of American television: The NFL, which generally has championship Sunday (when both conferences play their title games) and the Super Bowl during this same window. (Plus, the league is “considering”/going to expand to an 18 game season, which would further put these dates in play.)