If the owners choose to expand the playoffs by two games, those two games already have TV homes.
As reported by Albert Breer of SI.com (via Sports Business Daily), the agenda for Tuesday’s conference calls explains that the league already has negotiated deals with NBC and CBS to broadcast the extra wild-card games.
If at least 24 owners approve the notion of adding playoff teams (really, who would oppose it?), the 14-team field would become effective in 2020, with seven teams per conference and only two teams getting bye weeks.
The No. 1 seeds would sit out the wild-card round; the No. 2 and No. 7 seeds, the No. 3 and No. 6 seeds, and the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds would square off.
It’s unclear when the extra two games would be played. The easy answer becomes a two-day tripleheader, with games at or around 1:00 p.m. ET, 4:30 p.m. ET, and 8:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
A higher rating, and more revenue, could be generated by moving the early-afternoon Saturday game to Monday night. This would require the league to guarantee that the winner wouldn’t play until the following Sunday.
