NFL Owners Make Decision on 2014 Playoff Expansion

At the National Football League owners spring meetings in Atlanta on Tuesday, the idea of expanding the league’s playoff season in 2014 was tabled.

As ESPN.com reported from the Ritz-Carlton in Buckhead, the owners considered expanding the current playoff format from 12 to 14 teams, but ultimately didn’t take a vote on it.

The topic will next be discussed at the fall meetings in Detroit, as for playoff expansion to happen, 24 of the 32 owners must vote in favor of it.

As ESPN reported, several owners in Atlanta wanted to see how other agenda items developed including “revenues, format and even workers' compensation concerns recently brought up by the NFLPA in reaction to legislation in Louisiana.”

The league last expanded the playoffs in 1990 when a sixth qualifier from each conference was added.

Of the four major North American sports leagues, including Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League, only MLB has a lower percentage of its teams qualifying for the playoffs than the NFL.

In MLB, 10 of 30 teams (33.3 percent) qualify for the playoffs. For the NFL, it’s 12 of 32 (37.5 percent), and then the NHL and NBA, both with 16 of 30 teams (53.3 percent) making the postseason.