NEW YORK - In a move to maximize television revenues, the NFL announced Thursday a revamped playoff structure that will include two more games and force one division winner in each conference to play a first-round game against a wild-card team.
The new format resulted at least partially from pressure by ABC, which agreed to a four-year package built around Monday Night Football that network sources indicated is worth between $900 million and $1 billion.
Sources said ABC demanded more games to meet the NFL's steep asking price. The contract calls for the network to show 17 prime-time Monday night games in 1990 and 1991, 18 in 1992 and 1993, Super Bowl XXV in 1991, and three prime-time preseason games and the Hall of Fame preseason game each year. In addition, the network will broadcast two Saturday first-round playoff games each year, the carrot that sealed the deal.
The playoff changes amount to the first modification in the league's championship structure since the introduction of a second wild-card team in each conference in 1978.
In the new configuration, three wild-card teams will qualify for the playoffs in each conference instead of two, bringing total participants to 12 of 28 franchises. In week one, the wild card with the best record will play host to the wild card with the second-best record, and the wild card with the third-best record will play the division winner with the worst record.
At next week's league meetings, NFL owners must decide how to seed teams for the second round. Next season, the traditional off-week between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl will be eliminated. But it will be restored in 1991-92.
Sources said the television committee, headed by Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell, did not inform the owners beforehand of the move.
"Additional television revenue was an obvious factor," league spokesman Joe Brown said. "But many clubs also expressed an interest in adding teams."
Adding teams will remove some inequities inherent in the current system. Since 1978, 10 teams (including Washington and Green Bay in '89) have been excluded from the playoffs despite winning at least 10 games. Now that possibility will be greatly diminished.
"I think it's good," said Buffalo Bills General Manager Bill Polian. "Teams with good records won't be left out. Secondly, it keeps fan interest alive down to the wire."
New Orleans Saints President Jim Finks, whose team failed to make the playoffs with a 10-6 record in '88 while the 49ers finished with the same record and won the Super Bowl, supported the move. "It's a positive step," he said. "It gets more teams into the tournament."
But the percentage of NFL teams making the playoffs still lags behind the NBA (16 of 27) and the NHL (16 of 21).
"We're not like hockey," Finks said. "We don't take five months to eliminate four teams. This is a far fry from that. I don't think we have to worry about dilution of our product. I think what the league has done is meet the demands of television and the fans of the '90s."
ABC's retention of Monday Night Football, which it has controlled since its inception in 1970, probably means CBS and NBC will keep their Sunday afternoon regional packages, which are still in negotiation. Since the mid-1960s, CBS has broadcast the NFC games will NBC has shown the AFC.
Both CBS and the fledgling Fox network were reportedly interested in stealing Monday Night Football away from ABC. A perennial ratings winner, the series finished 16th out of 104 prime-time shows last season. Three years ago, Fox outbid ABC for MNF rights but the NFL opted to stay with ABC for less money. This time, however, Fox refused to bid on MNF until ABC completed negotiations. It was unclear if Fox ever got a chance to bid.
"The expanded agreement with ABC indicates our satisfaction with their award-winning presentation to viewers for two decades," NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said. "We believe it can only improve."
Once the undisputed network sports leader, ABC has been in a state of retreat since being purchased by tight-fisted Capital Cities in 1987. But ABC Sports President Dennis Swanson clearly staked his future on keeping network TV's biggest guaranteed weekly rating. ABC's annual rights fee will jump from $120 million to more than $225 million.
"For 20 years, Monday Night Football has been a great showcase for ABC Sports, and its retention has always been our No. 1 priority," Swanson said.
As lucrative as the network contract is, it is low given the combined $900 million TBS and ESPN agreed to pay last week for a four-year package of Sunday night cable games. With less than 60% of the nation's TV homes equipped for cable, TBS and ESPN therefore agreed to pay as much money to the NFL - for a less value package - as ABC. But league sources said the cable channels, which have the ability to pass on costs through subscriber fees, were simply hungrier and, in the end, more vulnerable to the NFL's demands.
Copyright 1990 by Keith Dunnavant