Roger Goodell: NFL playoffs expansion ‘likely’ to happen

The topic of expanding the NFL playoffs has been floated around for the last few years and it looks like it could be happening much sooner than people expected. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the topic on Tuesday during a town hall meeting.

Goodell met with Jacksonville Jaguars season ticket holders and one fan asked him about the possibility of change. He didn’t come out and say that it is happening in the near future, but he did make it seems like he is adamant on expanding the playoffs.

It’s a tough one,” Goodell said. “And the reason I say that is it works so well right now. We have 12 teams that qualify for the playoffs and what it does is it’s not just the number of teams in the playoffs, it’s what it does to our regular season. I think that’s what makes the NFL great is every game means so much. That game means a great deal. You don’t ever want to lose that. You don’t want to lose the fact that every regular-season game is important. And only having 12 teams qualify, which is the smallest of any of the professional leagues by far, that’s a good thing for us.”

“(It) likely will happen at some point, but we want to be really cautious because we really like the balance we have with the importance of the regular season and the postseason and you don’t want to mess with that balance,” Goodell added. “You have to be really careful and cautious.”

The most recent change came in 1990 when they field was expanded by two, from 10 to 12, with each conference getting six teams and the top two getting automatic byes into the divisional round.

There is no telling how many teams would be added to the NFL playoffs or even when it would happen. Goodell expected something to get done before the 2015 season, but the topic was tabled and it was not discussed at last month’s annual meetings.

It will be interesting to see if the topic is opened back up at next year’s meetings.

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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports

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