News: NFL Playoffs, B, Inside, SNB

The NFL is poised to expand its playoff field in its new CBA. Also: some familiar media names are heading into the Basketball Hall of Fame; Inside the NBA is getting the documentary treatment; ESPN has officially announced its Major League Baseball broadcast teams.

NFL poised to expand playoffs

NFL owners have agreed to a proposed collective bargaining agreement that would increase the number of playoff teams from 12 to 14, according to multiple reports. The expanded format would reduce the number of first round byes to one per conference, with the remaining teams playing on an expanded, six-game Wild Card weekend. It would go into effect this coming season.

The NFL Players Association must vote on the proposed CBA, which also includes the addition of a 17th regular season game per team. While the expanded regular season remains controversial, ESPN.com reported Wednesday that the expanded postseason has been “agreed to for a long time.”

The news comes on the heels of reports that Major League Baseball is considering an expansion of its playoff field from 10 to 14 teams. [ESPN.com 2.19]

Breen, Wilbon, “Inside,” heading to Basketball HOF

Lead ESPN/ABC NBA play-by-play voice Mike Breen and Pardon the Interruption co-host Michael Wilbon will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame this year as recipients of the Curt Gowdy Media Award. The news was announced last Friday. Breen has called more NBA Finals nationally than any other voice (14); Wilbon has covered every NBA Finals since 1987 for either ESPN or The Washington Post.

Also inducted on the media side will be former NBC and ESPN sideline reporter Jim Gray and the TNT NBA studio show Inside the NBA, recipients of the new Curt Gowdy Transformative Media and Insight Media awards, respectively. [NBA]

TNT to air four-part documentary about Inside the NBA

Turner Sports will air a four-part documentary series about its NBA studio show Inside the NBA during the Western Conference Finals, it announced last weekend. Titled “The Inside Story,” the series will examine the show’s impact and legacy in celebration of its 30th anniversary. It includes 100 interviews with current and former players, sports media contemporaries and celebrities. [Turner Sports]

ESPN makes Vasgersian/A-Rod Sunday night duo official

ESPN officially announced Thursday that its Sunday Night Baseball broadcast team will be comprised of solely of Matt Vasgersian and Alex Rodriguez, marking the first time since 2008 that the series has used a two-person booth. Vasgersian and Rodriguez, entering their third season on SNB, will be joined by returning field reporter Buster Olney.

As previously noted, ESPN moved Jessica Mendoza out of the SNB booth and onto weekday games. She will work in a rotation with Eduardo Perez, Tim Kurkjian and Rick Sutcliffe alongside play-by-play voices Karl Ravech, Jon Sciambi, Dave Flemming and Dan Shulman.

In other baseball-related news, ESPN has extended college baseball analyst Kyle Peterson and hired ex-MLBers Doug Mientkiewicz, Javier Lopez, Gaby Sanchez and Adam Greenberg to analyze college games on ACC Network. [ESPN PR 2.17, 2.20 a, b]

Ratings: PGA Tour, College hoops, Daytona, PBC

Jon Lewis

Jon Lewis has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. You can contact him here or on the social media websites X (Twitter) or Bluesky.

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Comments 4

Dan says:

6 years ago

The NHL Playoffs have had many first round upsets . Look at last year for instance. The NBA playoffs one/ eight matchups are mismatches I can only think of one Lakers to I want to say the Nuggets I remember Motumbo crying As for the NFL three wildcard games sat/sun sign me up. I may be wrong but won’t the Super Bowl be played Presidents Day weekend having Monday off it truly will be a national holiday.
Samuel says:

6 years ago

How exactly would a 17-game regular season work in terms of home/road games? Half the league gets 9 home games while the other half gets 8, rotating every other season or 8 home and 8 away plus a neutral-site game?
- Paulsen says:
  
  6 years ago
  
  I think the original plan was for game #17 to be on a neutral site, probably in London, but that they’ve since shifted to it being just another home game. So you’d alternate between nine and eight home games each year.
Nate Johnson says:

6 years ago

I have mix feelings about the NFL Playoffs expanding. The current, or soon to be previous, system I felt like was as good as it could be for the NFL. You have 4 division winners and two Wild card slots from each conference participating. Top 2 teams get a BYE. Perfect balance especially with a majority of teams not participating. Now I understand 14 teams still means less than half of the league participating, but the system was never a problem. So why change? It’s simple, MONEY! The CBA agreeing to this means letting the Networks know they’ll have to spend some extra money besides the original demand that was due to the league’s increase interest and the league also having highly televised programs year in and year out. That’s a win for the players as they’ll be in position to make a significant raise as the revenue of the league will increase.

On top of that, the players has ambition on competing for a Super Bowl year in and year out. Same with fans. An extra Wildcard slot will bring more hope and hunger to those wanting their teams to make the postseason. With all of that said, I won’t look at the new Wildcard round as a playoff round. Just a simple extended Regular Season. Divisional Round and the rest of the way will now be my official Postseason to me. That’s too much games in that round. I feel the same about the Stanley Cup and NBA playoffs which makes me feel as if the Conference Semis is when the real playoffs begins. March Madness is even in that department. Sweet 16 is when really the tournament begins. If top-dogs can’t make it out the first weekend of the Madness or after the first round of the Stanley Cup/NBA Playoffs then maybe it wasn’t meant for them to make it a deep run in their bracket. That’s how I see it as. It will be tough to translate that to the #2 seed in the NFL because the previous two Super Bowl Champs were the #2 seed in their Conference bracket. On top of that, seven #1 seeds won the Super Bowl while six #2 seeds won the Super Bowl all since the 2001 season. Does the #1 seed deserves that much support over the #2? I think not. But again money is what matters at the end of the day.

To those that may say, how dare I critique MLB on considering expanding postseason, but have no problem with the NFL doing it let me say that I actually do research and critically think about these situations. I necessarily don’t agree with either league wanting to expand their postseasons. I thought it was a dumb idea for the NCAA to consider expanding the Madness from 65 to 96 teams almost 10 years ago. For MLB and NCAA Basketball, it dampens their regular season. The NFL would have reasons to have interest in their regular season following an expanded postseason. That’s the benefits they get from have from that sport. I’m still trying to figure out what Rob Manfred believe the MLB would benefit from an expanded postseason. I understand he has something more important to focus on at this moment, but I don’t see much benefits from the MLB in that aspect. As far as the NFL, I see who benefits from an expanded postseason. So it makes sense. I don’t agree with it, because as a fan I love the current, but soon to be obsolete, system.