The NFL playoffs are expanding to 14 teams — seven from each conference beginning with the 2020 season. An extra wild care team will be added to both leagues, and now only one team from both the AFC and NFC will get a first-round bye.
NFL team owners formally approved a plan Tuesday in conference call in lieu of the annual meetings being cancelled due to coronavirus.
Three-fourths of the 32 owners needed to approve the change.
The new format changes prior league practice in two ways:
• There will be a total of three wild-card teams per conference, up from two.
• The No. 2 seed in each conference will host the new No. 7 seed in the wild-card round, meaning that only the No. 1 seeds will have first-round byes.
The owners also awarded one of those extra games to CBS and one to NBC.
Wild-card weekend will feature back-to-back tripleheaders on Jan. 9 and Jan. 10, according to the league. CBS will broadcast one of the new games, scheduled for a 4:40 p.m. ET kickoff on Jan. 10, and it will be streamed on CBS All Access. That game will also be aired on Nickelodeon in a production geared toward a younger audience.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell began considering the idea nearly 10 years ago, and the league appeared on the brink of adopting a similar plan in 2014. Ultimately, the idea was put on hold until after owners and players completed a new collective bargaining agreement earlier this month.
