NFL Competition committee discusses 16-team playoff contingency plan
By NFL.com Digital Content Producer
The NFL Competition Committee, in a Monday meeting, discussed a contingency plan of having a 16-team playoff bracket if upcoming games are lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported Monday, per a source informed of the situation.
The current plan of playing 256 games in 17 weeks — or 18 if necessary — remains in place and is unchanged. In the event that is not possible to carry out, the committee discussed the contingency plan and parameters of how the postseason would work, Pelissero reported.
The plan would include eight teams from the AFC and NFC, respectively, with each conference’s four division champions and four wild-card teams.
The playoffs would have no byes and traditional seeding (No. 1 seed vs. No. 8, No. 2 vs. No. 7, etc.) . After playoff entrants were determined, seeding would be carried out according to winning percentage, regardless of whether teams had the best record in their division, Pelissero added.
If the contingency plan was needed, it would need to be presented to all clubs for approval. Playoff seeds would be 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5.
