NFL owners approve postseason expansion from 12 teams to 14 beginning this fall
For the first time since 1990, the NFL is expanding its postseason.
The league’s owners have voted to increase the number of teams that participate in the playoffs from 12 to 14 beginning with the 2020 season, the NFL announced Tuesday.
The vote was conducted by conference call because the originally scheduled NFL owners meetings in Palm Beach, Florida, were canceled due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
The new postseason format, which was included in the recently ratified NFL-NFLPA collective-bargaining agreement, will now feature four division winners and three wild-card teams in each conference.
With the newly approved postseason structure, only the No. 1 seed will earn an all-important first-round bye.
Had this format been in place last season, the Chiefs, who clinched the No. 2 seed in the AFC and went on to beat the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV on Feb. 2, would not have secured a first-round bye and would have played in the opening round of the playoffs.
According to the NFL’s announcement, three games will be played on Wild Card Weekend for the 2020 season on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021, with the remaining three games taking place Sunday, Jan. 10, 2021. Division winners not on a bye will host the wild-card teams in the opening round.
The expansion provides teams on the bubble under the old format an opportunity to make a run in the postseason at a league championship.
According to the NFL, at least four new teams qualified for the playoffs that missed the postseason the year before — a streak of 30 consecutive seasons — since 1990.
The NFL last expanded the playoffs in 1990. Since then, at least four new teams have qualified for the playoffs that missed the postseason the year before – a streak of 30 consecutive seasons.
