The NFL has officially expanded their playoff format to 14 teams beginning with this new upcoming season, if it takes place.
They’ve added two wild-card positions. There will now be three wild-card teams in the NFC, and three in the AFC. A total of seven playoff teams per conference.
The one seed, the best team in each conference, will receive a bye. The two seed will play the 7 seed. The 3 seed will play the 6 seed and the 4 seed will play the 5. Six televised games will be played to start the NFL postseason.
Changing the playoff format required approval from three-quarters of the 32 NFL owners.
The decision was voted on during a conference call which took place in lieu of the NFL’s annual league meeting. League meetings, scheduled for earlier this month, were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite everything that’s going on with this virus, and the devastating effects that it’s having on the world, the NFL is in planning mode, as if everything will just resume to normalcy.
They’re planning to release their upcoming schedules no later than May 9, two weeks after the NFL Draft scheduled for April 23-25.
The preseason begins in August, the regular season begins in September. They’re planning a full 16 game schedule including their international games.
Jeff Pash, the NFL’s executive vice president and general counsel, said the league’s medical executives, who are consulting with the Duke Infection Control Outreach Network, have been shown models of the course of the pandemic in other countries and how different interventions have been effective.
“The NFL has the luxury of time to alter the season if projections change,” said Pash, but the message from the NFL was clear on Tuesday. The information the league has right now has led it to focus on planning to start the season as scheduled.
