If the NFL can’t finish its regular season as planned, it will add an extra team to each conference playoff tournament.
NFL owners voted to approve the plan, which would put eight teams in the playoffs from both the NFC and AFC only if the coronavirus forces the league to cancel meaningful regular-season games, on Tuesday.
The playoffs would take four division winners and four wild-card teams per conference, with the winners being ranked 1-4 and the wild card teams seeded 5-8.
Expansion of the playoffs could prove to be terrible news for the league, were it to be ravaged by the coronavirus — but good news for the Bears, who are currently ranked eighth in the NFC.
The NFL has yet to cancel a game this season.
After a two-hour virtual league meeting, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reiterated that the league still expects to finish the season as scheduled and wants to have fans in the stands at the Super Bowl on Feb. 7, 2021, in Tampa, Fla.
“We are not doing it on basis that there will be a vaccine,” Goodell said.
Attendance will be limited, said Goodell, who said the league is focused on health and safety.
The league also approved a proposal from its diversity committee hoping to encourage teams to develop minority head coaches and general managers.
Teams will receive two third-round compensatory draft picks if a minority coach or executive agrees to become a head coach or GM for another team. If the team loses both in the same season, it will get three such picks.
That could prove to be a greater incentive than the NFL’s “Rooney Rule,” which merely requires teams to interview minority candidates for coaching and GM positions. The NFLPA still has to approve the plan.
