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NFL playoff expansion wouldn't have helped the Kansas City Chiefs

Kyle Rivas/Getty Images

It was last summer that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that playoff expansion is coming in the 2015 season. Now it doesn't seem like such a sure thing that more playoff teams will be added in 2015.

"I'm not necessarily opposed to the idea of adding a playoff team or adding a team from each conference," Pittsburgh Steelers president Art Rooney said this week, via ESPN.com.

"But my view on that depends a lot on what goes with it. Schedule is certainly a factor: When would this game be played? The fact that we would now wind up with likely only having one team in each conference with a bye is not a great outcome.

"There are things like that I think we would have to look at and think through before a decision is made on this, and that may be one reason why this is probably not a decision that gets made this year."

There are currently six teams that make the playoffs in each conference. Expansion could increase that by one more playoff team per conference. Currently the No. 1 and 2 seeds get a bye. With one more playoff team, that would likely be reduced to just the No. 1 team getting a bye while the No. 2-7 seeds play on Wild Card weekend.

Assuming the tiebreakers are the same, this would not have affected the Chiefs this year. The Houston Texans ended up in the No. 7 spot in the AFC while the Chiefs were No. 8. The Texans, not the Chiefs, would have gotten in.

I'm kind of torn on whether I want this to happen. On the one hand, more playoff spots mean more chances for the Chiefs to end that miserable playoff winless streak (21 years and counting). Also, I like watching playoff football so more games doesn't seem so bad. On the other hand, it would water down what it means to make the playoffs.

Would you expand the playoffs?

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