The NFL is set to adopt an expanded regular season and playoffs after the players agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement.
NFL players have narrowly approved a new ten-year collective bargaining agreement that will run through 2030 and allows the league to expand its regular season to 17 games per team beginning in 2021.
The new deal also allows for an expansion of the NFL playoff field from 12 to 14 teams beginning as soon as the 2020 season, assuming it is played as scheduled.
Under the new playoff format, only one team per conference will have a first-round bye. The remaining six would play on an expanded Wild Card weekend.
The CBA increases NFL players’ share of league revenue from 47 to 48 percent (48.5 if and when the league adopts a 17-game schedule). That figure still trails the NBA (49-51%) and NHL (50%). Major League Baseball players, according to The New York Times’ Kevin Draper, have received anywhere between 48 and 52 percent in recent years.
The deal comes less than a decade after NFL owners locked out players during the previous collective bargaining negotiations. Both leagues that had lockouts in 2011 — the NFL and NBA — negotiated their subsequent CBA without the owners shutting down business.
The NHL, which locked out players in 2012, is operating on a CBA that expires in 2022.
[News from ESPN.com 3.15]
