After changing up its playoff format last season by adding two extra teams, the NFL is going to change the postseason again this season by extending Super Wild Card Weekend into Monday night.
With only one team per conference receiving an opening-round bye following the postseason field expanding from 12 to 14 teams, the NFL played six games over a Saturday and Sunday (three games each day) to kick off the playoffs last season. This time around, Super Wild Card Weekend will feature two games on Saturday, three on Sunday and a finale on Monday evening.
Although the networks that will carry the respective games have yet to be announced, it stands to reason that CBS and Fox will carry two games apiece over Saturday and Sunday, NBC will air the third Sunday game at night as it does during the regular season and ESPN will receive the Monday game as a one-week extension of Monday Night Football.
With the No. 1 seeds in each conference receiving byes, the AFC and NFC Super Wild Card games will feature the No. 2 seed hosting the No. 7 seed, the No. 3 seed hosting the No. 6 seed and the No. 4 seed hosting the No. 5 seed.
The determination of those seeds will be a little bit more complicated this season than in years past as the NFL is playing a 17-game regular season for the first time in 2021-22. As it turns out, expanding the schedule may have actually paved the way for the NFL to add the Monday game as it eliminates a major conflict. “The expansion to a 17-game regular season helped clear the way for the move to Monday night,” according to ProFootballTalk. “In past years, the NFL would have a conflict with the college football title game, but pushing things back a week opened the spot for the league.”
Super Wild Card Weekend is scheduled from January 15-17, 2022. The 17th is Martin Luther King Day.
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