The NFL is reportedly giving its two new Wild Card games to its oldest television partners, CBS and NBC.
NFL owners voted Tuesday to officially expand Wild Card weekend to six games and awarded the two additional matchups to CBS and NBC. Their intentions were first reported Monday night by Sports Illustrated.
The additional games will air on Sunday, January 10 — assuming the season is played as scheduled — with the CBS game at 4:40 PM ET and the NBC game at 8:15. CBS coverage will include a child-centered simulcast on Nickelodeon, a first for the NFL.
Both games will air on the networks’ respective streaming services, CBS All-Access and Peacock. The latter will be carrying NFL action for the first time.
CBS and NBC will thus air two games each on Wild Card weekend, with FOX and ESPN/ABC splitting the other two. No network has aired multiple Wild Card games since NBC in 2014.
That FOX would be left out in the cold is a mild surprise. The FOX Thursday Night Football deal includes an option for a Wild Card game, and the NFL came close to exercising it two years ago.
The NFL won the right to expand is playoff field from 12 to 14 teams in the new collective bargaining agreement it reached with players earlier this month. Under the new format, only one team per conference will have a first round bye. The #2 seeded team will play the #7 seed, #3 will play #6 and #4 will play #5.
The new Wild Card weekend will no doubt include tripleheaders on Saturday and Sunday.
In addition to the Wild Card rights, the NFL is also expected to extend its Thursday Night Football streaming deal with Amazon through 2022.
[News from NFL PR 3.31, SI.com 3.30 via Awful Announcing 3.30]
