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The NFL Playoffs are going to change. But it won't happen until 2015 at the earliest.
According to Gary Meyers of the New York Daily News, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has the 24 of 32 votes needed to expand the playoffs, but will reportedly wait until the 2015 season to unveil to new playoff system and all that comes with such a change in a system that hasn't been altered since 1990.
Some think expanding the playoffs will simply water down the field, but the reality is that the NFL can do no wrong when it comes to allowing more teams into the postseason. Having an extra round of the playoffs will only cause more intrigue as another team will be given a ticket to the dance and possibly walk away with the Lombardi trophy.
When several teams in the past decade have won the Super Bowl as 6 seeds and barely gotten into the postseason, having two more teams getting into the mix will only add excitement to the already compelling NFL postseason.
Under a proposed expansion of the current playoff field, the Steelers would have qualified for the AFC Playoffs last season. The top seed in each conference would receive a bye, and teams 2 through 7 would pair off in top vs. bottom fashion, the way it is done now.
The Steelers would have played at the New England Patriots in the first round of the playoffs under this format.