Rodger Goodell: Expanded playoffs a possibility for 2014

At the NFL owners meetings, the NFL met about expanding the playoff seeding to include an additional team for both the AFC and the NFC. The NFL owners opted to not vote at that time on the matter, but it doesn't mean that the issue is completely dead for the upcoming season. The league pushed the decision back to the next set of league meetings in May, after NFL officials can meet with the NFL Players Association during their meeting in two weeks.

NFL commissioner Rodger Goodell had this to say:

It's not out of the question, but we did not make that decision at all. We have more work to do. I wouldn't rule it out but that's not the direction we are headed right now.

While not a priority for this upcoming season, if everything fell into place, we could see the NFL implement the new system starting this season. However, it seems more likely that the new seeding format would be put in place for the 2015 season instead given the hurdles that need to be passed.

One of those hurdles is getting together with television networks and amending contracts on who will broadcast the games and timing issues. The second issue is actually having both owners and players agree, which as we saw during the NFL lockout, can be quite tricky at times. There does appear to be support from coaches in the league, including the Ravens head coach John Harbaugh.

It's going to be good for the game. It's good for players, good for fans. It's going to be exciting.

Expanding the playoffs would be beneficial both from a revenue standpoint as well as for fans. While the Ravens wouldn't have been included in the playoffs for the 2013 season if it was expanded, fans will rarely complain when given exciting football games.