- The NFL is looking to add more playoff teams as well as a format change.
- The CBA deal would have to get the NFLPA on board with adding one more regular-season game.
- The changes would influence betting odds as well as give bettors more options to bet on longshots.
NEW YORK - With the NFL offseason in full effect, a new CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) deal is underway. It would look to change the format and the number of teams that make the playoffs. It would also affect the number of regular-season games as well.
The changes that would be made in these agreements would have an influence on betting odds for teams to make the Super Bowl.
NFL Playoff Format Change
With the new deal with the CBA in the making, the playoff format would change as well as the number of regular-season games teams will play.
The playoff format would increase the number of teams from each conference making the playoffs from six to seven making it a total of 14 playoff teams. It would also decrease the number of teams obtaining a first-round bye from two teams to one. That would mean a six-game wild card round instead of four with three being played on Saturday and three on Sunday.
“That’s been agreed to for a long time - there wasn’t a lot of disagreement to that issue,” a source familiar with the CBA talk told ESPN.
In addition to the change in playoff formatting, there would be one additional game added to the regular season. Teams would play 17 games instead of 16. This part of the CBA negotiations has not yet been finalized.
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“The new CBA’s not done, there’s no term sheet yet, there still are issues being negotiated, but I’d be very surprised if there’s not a new CBA for the new league year,” the source said.
If and when the expansion to the regular season is agreed upon, it would not go into effect until the 2021 season. It would also change the percentage of revenue share that players make. Players would get $5 billion pushed to them as they would go from 47% revenue to 48% at 16 games and move up to 48.5% if the season were to add a 17th game.
What Happens To NFL Betting Odds?
First things first, this would give sports bettors more options to bet on when betting on the NFL Playoffs. It would also increase the odds of a wildcard team making it to the Super Bowl but the odds would still be in favor of the team with the first-round bye.
The odds for the team with the first-round bye would decrease as there would be more teams for the to have to go through in order to make it the distance. The reasoning behind the rise in odds for the wildcard team comes with no surprise as a team that would normally get the second bye week now has the chance of getting eliminated in the first round.
This will certainly shift the current status of NFL teams making a run, which has the 1-seed making the Super Bowl 51.7% of the time since 1990. With the 2-seeds making the Super Bowl 27.6% of the time, only time will tell how much these numbers are expected to rise.
Samuel decided to get into writing 6 years ago when he first started his college career at Florida State University. After declaring a major in Editing, Writing and Media, Samuel had found his passion for writing. During his free time, he could be found writing about, watching or playing sports.
