Everything You Need To Know About The NFL’s Expanded Playoff Format
On Tuesday, NFL team owners voted to expand the league playoffs, which will now include 14 teams instead of 12, and the new format will begin with the 2020 season. It became official during a conference call, which replaced the NFL’s Annual League Meeting that was canceled due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
As reported by the official NFL website, the change in the format required approval from three-quarters of the 32 league owners.
With additional teams in the playoffs, another significant change will include extra games. One game will be on NBC while the other is going to land on CBS. Not only will CBS broadcast one additional game, but one will also air on Nickelodeon to bring in a younger audience to boost ratings.
Nickelodeon will feature a separately produced NFL playoff telecast geared toward a younger audience. ? ? ? pic.twitter.com/us5AEfjqM9
— theScore (@theScore) March 31, 2020
The new NFL playoff format has several changes in addition to adding one more team per conference. The AFC and NFC will now also have three wild card teams instead of just the traditional two.
Only one team in each conference will receive a first-round bye, which makes it so much more important than in past years. The No. 2 seed in each conference will host the No. 7 seed in the wild card round. Meanwhile, the No. 3 will host the sixth seed and the fourth will host the fifth.
Starting this season, only the No. 1 seeds will receive that bye, and teams know just how much of an advantage that can be.
With only one bye in each conference in the NFL’s new playoff format, it is worth noting this: every Super Bowl participant for the past seven seasons has received a bye. The last team to make it that far without a bye was the 2012 Baltimore Ravens.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 31, 2020
NFL Wild Card Weekend is going to feature three games that will be played on January 9, 2021. The other three wild card games will take place on January 10, but there has not been an official scheduled released yet to reveal which day will feature which conference’s contests.
An expansion of the playoffs is something that has been in the works for nearly a decade. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has wanted this to happen for a long time, and the right components finally came together.
This is the first expansion of the playoffs since 1990 when the league upped the number from 10 to 12. Players will get more money for additional teams being in the playoffs, and that was a big part of the bargaining side from the NFLPA.
Over the past few years, many teams with winning records were left out of the playoffs. An additional wild card spot for each conference will ensure that one more team with a winning record does not miss out on the NFL postseason.
