NFL Potentially Installing Big Change to Playoff Structure Effective Next Season in Surprising Move
By Michael Luciano
The NFL has long had the best playoff system across all major sports. It's not like the NBA where more teams make it than miss it, nor is it like the MLB where it was like pulling teeth to convince them to include 10 teams.
How Many Teams Make the NFL Playoffs?
The league has decided to take a perfectly fine system and (potentially) screw is up in the new CBA, as they will add a seventh team to the playoffs, with only the No. 1 seed earning a first round bye. Previously, there had been six.
NFL playoff structure is about to be changed. Under the current CBA proposal, seven teams from each conference will make the playoffs, with only bye per conference, sources tell ESPN. It would go into effect this upcoming season. More coming on https://t.co/rDZaVFhcDQ.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 19, 2020
Under this system, the team which gets the first round bye receives postseason pay for the week they are inactive. The No. 2 seed would play the No. 7, and so on. That leaves three games in the "wild card" round, with the usual two in the divisional round and one in the conference championship.
According to Schefter, this particular part of the CBA has been agreed to for a long time and there was not much dissent around this new format. That seems surprising, as that expanded format would have put the Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers in the playoffs this season.
Is adding a Devlin Hodges/Patrick Mahomes showdown in Kansas City that vital for the NFL?
The NFL Playoffs could be expanding as early as this upcoming season if new CBA is approved:
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) February 19, 2020
- 7 Teams From Each Conference
- Only One Bye Per Conference
(via @AdamSchefter) pic.twitter.com/T6jZQBzUsI
We could see more playoff teams in the immediate future, which could come as a major system shock to a playoff bracket that most could agree was perfect in its original format.