The NFL and MLB want to expand their playoffs for a simple reason: $$$

Both the National Football League and Major League Baseball are considering changing their playoff formats, according to reports by ESPN and the New York Post.

How fans feel about the possible changes is up to them — some might want to watch more games, while others might be traditionalists and resistant to change. But for the leagues and their broadcasting partners, longer postseasons mean one thing.

“Money. It’s a very easy answer,” John Ourand, a media reporter for the Sports Business Journal, told CNN. “Money.”

What the leagues are proposing

ESPN reported this week the NFL’s owners are considering changes to both the regular season and the playoffs under a proposed collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - JANUARY 05: Bradley McDougald #30 of the Seattle Seahawks celebrates a defensive stop on fourth down in the fourth quarter of the NFC Wild Card Playoff game at Lincoln Financial Field on January 05, 2020 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

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The owners reportedly want to expand the playoffs from six teams per conference to seven. Only the top seed from each conference would receive a bye in the first round, instead of the top two seeds, which is how it’s handled currently. They’d also like to increase the number of regular season games from 16 to 17 and decrease the number of preseason games from 4 to 3, according to ESPN.

Changes are also afoot for MLB, according to the New York Post. It reported MLB is considering bringing the number of teams entering its postseason from 5 to 7 in each league by adding two more wild-card teams.

The club with the best record in each league would receive a bye in the wild card round and move to the Division series, per the Post. “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,” the Post reported.

MLB would also reportedly implement a live playoff selection TV show in which teams select opponents on the last day of the regular season.

CNN reached out to the offices of the NFL and the MLB for comment.

The leagues stand to gain a lot …

Both leagues might be beloved American institutions to millions of fans, but they’re also meant to make money. It’s clear why the NFL and its owners would be in favor of adding more teams to the playoffs. It means more games, and more games means more money.

KANSAS CITY, MO - FEBRUARY 02: Fans cheer on the Chiefs at the Power and Light District as the Kansas City Chiefs play the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl on February 2, 2020 in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo by Kyle Rivas/Getty Images)

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“From a management point of view, you want more inventory to sell,” said Andrew Brandt, a former vice president of the Green Bay Packers and the executive director of the Moorad Center for the Study of Sports Law at Villanova University. “And just think of all the ancillary revenue opportunities around an extra game – whether it’s suites at your home stadium, your marketing, the hotels, the economic impact throughout the city.”

The TV networks also reap the benefits, said Brandt. “These NFL games,” he said, “it’s the only must-see programming on television right now.”

The NFL had a good year for ratings. The 2019 season was the NFL’s most watched in three years and kept up the momentum from the 2018 season. Viewership was up about 5% from 2018, with about 16.5 million viewers between the league’s TV partners.

The postseason was a success, too. The Wild Card weekend saw its biggest viewership in four years, and viewership for the divisional round was up 2% from the year before. It culminated with Super Bowl LIV, which averaged 102 million viewers across several channels and streaming outlets.

The NFL’s deals with NBC, Fox and CBS run until 2022, and its deal with ESPN runs until 2021. And the league would want to have this deal done before negotiating rights deals, Ourand said.

“NFL programming is the most popular programming genre on television, and it’s not even close,” he said. “For the TV networks to be able to get more NFL programming is great news for them.”

MLB has similar motivations for expanding its playoffs, said Ourand.

“In all these leagues the playoffs are the highest-rated games of the year. So if you expand the playoffs it makes your products a lot more valuable.”

Related article MLB considering new playoff format and live selection TV show, report says

“Obviously the incentive here is that it would bring a lot more money by TV deals,” said Ginny Searle, an associate editor of Baseball Prospectus, which provides baseball statistics and analysis.

MLB’s reported changes would go into effect before the 2022 season, Searle said, right after the league’s broadcasting deal with ESPN and Turner expires.

Its current deal with Fox covers much of the playoffs, but changing the format would “add in basically a whole new round that there could be bidding on, there could be rights to,” Searle said. And the proposed playoff selection TV show could offer more opportunities for licensing.

… but it’s not so great for the players

But the NFL and MLB will need to convince their players. Changes in both leagues will need their approval, and it could be a tough sell.

“They’re going to play an extra game,” Ourand said of NFL players, “and it remains to be seen how they’re going to be compensated for that.”

The NFL players union declined to comment citing ongoing negotiations, but released a statement Friday that said, “Our player leadership looks forward to meeting with NFL management again next week before the Board takes a vote shortly after.”

There are factors outside compensation, including the toll the game takes on NFL players’ bodies.

Brandt pointed out players have been opposed to adding games for the last several years, “because of the injury impact, because of the realization that right now we have so many players getting injured, whether bodily injuries or head injuries.”

Former pro football player Kevin Turner, shown here during a 1998 NFL game, had the most advanced stage of CTE when he died in March at the age of 46. Dr. Ann McKee of Boston University and the Concussion Legacy Foundation said that Turner's CTE brought on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

CTE stands for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease associated with repeated head trauma. Scientists believe repeated head trauma can cause CTE, a progressive degenerative disease of the brain. Symptoms include depression, aggression and disorientation, but scientists can definitively diagnose it only after death.

BMX star Dave Mirra, who was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot in February, was found to have CTE.

Charles "Bubba" Smith, a former football player and actor who died in 2011, was also diagnosed with CTE. Smith played for the Baltimore Colts, the Oakland Raiders and the Houston Oilers.

Former Minnesota Vikings linebacker Fred McNeill died in November 2015 due to complications from ALS. However, an autopsy confirmed that he suffered from CTE. What makes McNeill's case even more remarkable, though, is that he was potentially the first to be diagnosed while alive. Doctors used an experimental new technology to examine his brain.

Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler, a former NFL MVP who died in July 2015, suffered from CTE, researchers at Boston University said.

Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot and killed his girlfriend before killing himself in December 2012. Pathology reports show he probably had CTE.

Hall of Fame offensive lineman Mike Webster was the first former NFL player to be diagnosed with CTE. After his retirement, Webster suffered from amnesia, dementia, depression, and bone and muscle pain.

The death of 36-year-old Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman Justin Strzelczyk put the link between football and CTE in the national spotlight. Strzelczyk was killed in a 2004 car crash crash after a 40-mile high-speed chase with police in New York.

Evidence of CTE was found in the brain of football player Lew Carpenter after his death in 2010 at the age of 78.

Pro Football Hall of Famer Louis Creekmur, who played for the Detroit Lions from 1950 to 1959, suffered decades of cognitive decline before his death.

Linebacker John Grimsley of the Houston Oilers died of an accidental gunshot wound to the chest in 2008. Analysis of his brain tissue confirmed damage to the neurofibrillary tangles that had begun to affect his behavior and memory.

Chris Henry played five seasons for the Cincinnati Bengals before dying at the age of 26. He died after falling from the bed of a moving pickup during a fight with his fiancée. His young age prompted concern over how quickly athletes start to suffer from CTE.

Offensive lineman Terry Long of the Pittsburgh Steelers committed suicide by drinking antifreeze. Although the antifreeze caused swelling of the brain, football-related brain injuries were a contributing factor to his death.

Pro Football Hall of Famer John Mackey suffered from dementia for years before dying at the age of 69.

Ollie Matson, who played 14 NFL seasons starting in the 1950s, suffered from dementia until his death in 2011.

Andre Waters spent most of his 12 seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles before his suicide at age 44.

Tom McHale of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, right, died in 2008 of an apparent drug overdose at the age of 45.

Junior Seau took his own life in 2012 at the age of 43. The question of CTE came up immediately after his death; scientists at the National Institutes of Health confirmed the diagnosis in January 2013.

Pro wrestler Chris Benoit was found dead at his suburban Atlanta home along with his wife, Nancy, and son in an apparent murder-suicide. Testing found that the damage to his brain was similar to that of an elderly Alzheimer's patient.

Reggie Fleming, who played for six NHL teams, was the first hockey player to be diagnosed with CTE.

Hockey player Bob Probert was found to have CTE after dying of heart failure at the age of 45.

Ryan Freel became the first Major League Baseball player to be diagnosed with CTE nearly a year after he committed suicide at age 36.

Athletes and CTE

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That sentiment was echoed on Twitter by former NFL wide receiver Donté Stallworth, who said he was “100% opposed” to adding games to the season. But if the league wanted more games, “every vested player should receive lifetime healthcare instead of the current 5 years post-retirement.”

“(T)hose terms should be nonnegotiable,” he added.

MLB players are in a similar situation, Searle said. In theory, more money would flow to the players if the league expanded is playoffs, she said.

But “so far most of the reaction we’ve heard from players has been dismissive, if not outright ridiculing this plan,” she said. “And I think that kind of shows you that they’re not seeing the obvious benefits.”

“There’s not any big ticket item that says, we get this and you get that,” Searle said.

The MLB Players Association did not respond to a request for comment, but Executive Director Tony Clark previously said, “Any measures that aim to incentivize competition are worth discussing. For playoff expansion specifically, the devil of those discussions will be in the details.”

CNN’s Frank Pallotta, David Close, Ray Sanchez and Wayne Sterling contributed to this report.