In what seems like a further attempt to regain some of its lost popularity, Major League Baseball is planning to alter its playoff format perhaps as soon as the 2022 season. According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, there would be seven teams per league that qualify for post-season play in each league rather than the current five adding two extra wild-cards.

The two teams with the best records in their respective leagues would get a bye and head right to the divisional series. The two other division winners and the wild card with the next best record would each host all three games in a best-of-three wild-card round. So the bottom three wild cards would have no first-round home games.

But the kicker is that the teams with the second best record in each league would be able to choose which team it would play in the opening round. Then the third division winner would make it’s choice as well from the remaining teams. Last year as an example, in the AL, the Houston Astros had the best record and would receive a bye while the New York Yankees could have chosen to play either the Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Rays or the Cleveland Indians.

MLB is planning to have a special Sunday night TV show after the regular season ends with representatives of the respective teams as they choose whom they would like to play. This is much the same as the NCAA selection show for college basketball. The rights to this selection show is an enticement to potential TV partners.

The new format satisfies what the networks want which is postseason inventory and as many clinching scenarios as possible. There would be six best-of-three series. Game 1 would be playoff inventory, Game 2 would be a clinch scenario for one team and if there were a Game 3, it would be sudden death for both clubs. The three winners in the round would join the No. 1 overall seed in the Division Series. In addition, many team officials had complained since the onset of the wild-card sudden death in 2012 that no team should be eliminated in one game. So, this system would at least give a chance to a team to rebound from one poor performance.

MLB is hoping that this stimulates interest by networks to bid for its product. Fox’s deal with baseball runs through 2028, but ESPN and Turner’s deals run out after the 2021 season. Streaming companies like Amazon could also be enticed by the changes.

Of course any change in playoff format would have to be collectively bargained in a new CBA but the new format gives the union want its wanted: additional teams making the playoffs and with more playoff opening, motivate more teams to try, which should mean less tanking.

Obviously, fan interest is at the heart of these prospective changes. In 2019, attendance was down for the seventh straight year. With the new format, more regular season games will have importance than ever before. MLB hopes this translates into better attendance and television ratings.

Further with this format, there is a great benefit to finishing with the best record in a league and avoiding the first round, so teams will keep playing hard to the end to achieve that. There are great advantages to winning a division because you get to play that first round exclusively at home and pick your opponent. And there is an advantage to having the top wild-card record because you get the first round at home.

Also, there would be no more tiebreaker 163rd games. To make the regular-season more meaningful, the team that won the season series against its opponent would benefit whether that is to have the top seed or to simply be the final wild card. Thus, if two teams finish as the fourth wild card and both have 84 wins, then the team that won the season series will get into the playoffs.

These changes might infuriate the purist, but baseball is counting on keeping what it currently has even as other professional sport leagues contemplate changes of their own, such as a 17th regular season game in the NFL or mid-season tournaments in the NBA.

The overall plan is to boost interest in both fans and potential broadcast partners alike. Making more teams eligible for the playoffs will certainly keep more fan bases involved and the expanded playoffs could result in some excitement league-wide. The next step is to see what the union thinks of all of this and see if this concept becomes a reality.