NFL Adds Two Teams to Playoffs : Pro football: Lucrative four-year agreement with ABC allows network to keep Monday night games and add postseason games.

The NFL is expanding its playoff format to accommodate ABC, which has also successfully retained its “Monday Night Football” television package.

The NFL has decided to add two more wild-card teams, one from each conference. Twelve of the 28 teams will reach postseason play instead of 10.

ABC, under a four-year agreement announced Thursday, will continue to televise NFL games on Monday nights, as it has been doing since 1970. It will also televise two first-round Saturday playoff games.

The ABC deal, sources estimate, is worth between $900 million and $1 billion. That breaks down to at least $225 million a season.

Under the previous three-year contract, which expired at the end of last season, ABC was paying about $125 million a year for its Monday night games.

Under the new playoff format, expected to be ratified without much dissent during the owners’ meeting at Orlando, Fla., in two weeks, only the two division champions with the best record in each conference will draw a bye in the first week of the playoffs.

The third champion would be home to the wild-card team with the worst record, and the wild-card team with the best mark would be home to the team with the second-best.

Two games would be played on a Saturday, both televised by ABC, and two on a Sunday, with NBC and CBS each doing one--assuming both retain NFL rights.

If the new playoff system had been in effect last season, the two additional playoff teams would have been Green Bay (10-6) in the NFC and Kansas City (8-7-1) in the AFC. The Packers would have played the Minnesota Vikings, a team in their own division, in the first round, and the Chiefs would have met the Buffalo Bills.

The new format would make it possible for as many as four teams from one division to qualify for the playoffs.

NFL spokesman Joe Browne said that even with 12 teams in the playoffs, the NFL still has fewer playoff qualifiers than any major sport except baseball.

In the NBA, 16 of the 27 teams make it; in the NHL, 16 of 21.

As for why the NFL is expanding its playoff format, Browne said: “Additional television revenue was an obvious factor. But many clubs had also expressed interest in adding playoff teams. This accomplishes the goal of adding new teams without diminishing the importance of regular-season play.”

The NFL is also expanding the regular season from 16 weeks to 17 next season, then to 18 after that. But each team will continue to play 16 games, getting one bye next season and two after that.

The week off before the Super Bowl will be eliminated, at least next season, to absorb the extra week created by the 17-week season. ABC will televise the Super Bowl XXV on Jan. 27, 1991, from Tampa, Fla.

ABC also will continue to televise four exhibition games each summer.

ABC’s main competitor for the Monday night package was the Fox network. “ABC had the right of first refusal on all bids for Monday night football,” said Brad Turell, Fox senior vice president. “So, although we were an active participant in the NFL contract discussions, we are not surprised or dismayed by ABC re-signing the package.”

Dennis Swanson, ABC Sports president, said: “Monday night football for 20 years has been a showcase for ABC. Its retention was our No. 1 priority.”

Last week, it was announced that Turner Broadcasting had made a deal with the NFL for Sunday night games in the first halves of the 1990-93 seasons. And Wednesday, it was announced that ESPN had acquired the rights to Sunday night games in the second halves of the same four seasons.

Combined, Turner and ESPN will pay $900 million over four years.

Add ABC’s estimated payments of $900 million to $1 billion, and the NFL has already piled up at least $1.8 billion in television revenue, with probable CBS and NBC packages still to come.

CBS is expected to pay at least $1 billion for the NFC package and possibly two Super Bowls during the four years of the contract.

NBC figures to pay about $700 million for the AFC package and one Super Bowl or at least $3.5 billion for four years.

That breaks down to more than $30 million per team per year from television, up from the $17 million under the old contract.

Last season, “Monday Night Football” averaged an 18.1 rating, 13th among 97 prime-time shows.