NFL Owners Approve New Playoff Format; Nickelodeon to Get Kids-Focused Playoff Game

NFL owners approved a plan Tuesday to expand the league’s playoff format to include 14 teams, ESPN reports. The new format will go into effect in the 2020 season, and at least three-quarters of the owners voted for approval. This is the first playoff expansion for the league since 1990, although commissioner Roger Goodell has reportedly been considering the idea for a decade.

Here are the changes:
There will now be three wildcard teams in each conference instead of two;
Only #1 seeds will have first-round byes now;
#2 seeds will now host the new #7 seed during the wildcard round, and wildcard weekend will feature consecutive days of wildcard tripleheaders.

As part of that wildcard weekend, Uproxx reports that Nickelodeon will simulcast one of the games, and it will reportedly be a kid-focused broadcast, as the league tries to attract younger viewers.