The NFL has officially ratified a major change to their season. Owners voted by phone today to approve a 14-team playoff bracket starting with this upcoming season, a source told Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (Twitter link).
We heard yesterday that this was the expected outcome. Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweeted out a release from the league with a full breakdown of the new postseason schedule. An extra team from each conference is getting a wild card berth, and only one team from each conference will now earn a first-round bye. Wild Card Weekend will now have six games instead of four, with three each on Saturday and Sunday.
Each division winner that isn’t the top seed in their conference will host a game on Wild Card Weekend. The NFL has used the 12-team playoff format for the past 30 years. The elimination of one bye might be even more significant than the extra team getting in. Since 2012 when the Ravens did it, no team has made it to the Super Bowl without having a bye.
The expanded playoff format was part of the contentious CBA negotiations. Obviously, the extra nationally televised playoff games will bring in significant new revenue for the league. The scheduling of the new playoff games and the networks they’d air on had been the two biggest question marks.
In the release, they announced that CBS and NBC would both broadcast an additional wild card game. Interestingly, the release also announced that CBS’ game would have a separately produced telecast of the game to air on Nickelodeon, specifically “tailored for a younger audience.” The other major change on the horizon is moving to a 17-game schedule, although that won’t happen this season.
booooo!
There is now hope for Dallas
$$$$$$$$
I like it on one hand b/c there will be 2 more fanbases that will get to watch their team in the playoffs plus it would mean more teams feel they are in. It’s great with looking at different playoff secnarios the last 3 wks of a season, now this is going to make it that much crazier.
The thing that sucks is only 1 bye week for 1 team which is really gonna make that bye week that much more important then past seasons
Sucks for the players extra games more wear and tear same money
It’s one game and they receive a playoff bonus for it .
Not a fan. Adding too many teams waters down the importance of the regular season.
Not to mention 7-9 teams do not deserve to be in the playoffs.
He’s right, you know.
Money money money money…mon-ey
Don’t like it. Almost half the league will be in the playoffs.
They gotta add two more teams..
Brooklyn and St. Louis
There was some fan opposition to expanding playoffs in both 1978 and 1990 too. It’s a precursor to expanding the schedule to (eventually) 18 games. I think fans will adapt to these changes as they always do.