The National Football League has never been more popular. More than 114 million viewers watched Super Bowl XLVIV last month and for the fifth time in six years the game set the record for the most-watched event in U.S. television history.

The television networks that air NFL games have never spent more money for the league's broadcast rights, with Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN paying more than $6 billion annually to the league to televise its games.There is little question fans would eagerly watch more NFL playoff games and the networks would aggressively bid against each other for the rights to broadcast the games. But NFL owners, despite ambitious goals of growing the game in the U.S. and abroad, are taking a cautious approach on the issue as they descend on Phoenix for the annual league meetings this week.The NFL has publicly acknowledged its goal of reaching $25 billion in annual income by 2027, and the league would take a large step toward achieving that goal with expanded playoffs. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was enthusiastic about expanded playoffs last year and a new 14-team format appeared to be fast-tracked for a 2015 implementation. But in the past few months Goodell has expressed concerns about diluting the regular season and conflicting with the new College Football Playoff.Steelers president Art Rooney II said he would not mind playoff expansion, but he has concerns about scheduling and does not like the idea of the No. 2 seed in each conference losing a bye and having to play on wild-card weekend. He said Friday the issue has to be studied more."It will be discussed," Rooney said. "I don't expect there's going to be any action on it at this meeting. I think we've always said that's something that's worth considering. But the details of it … when would the game get scheduled? Monday night is kind of one of the possibilities, which I don't think is a great alternative. The idea is OK, it's just that when you get down to exactly how does it work, it gets a little complicated."Billions on the tableIt has been 25 years since the NFL changed its playoff format and expanded its postseason to include 12 teams. From the 1970 merger until 1977 eight teams made the playoffs. From 1978-89, 10 teams qualified.By adding two playoff games the league would rake in an estimated $280 million more in annual television revenue, according to John Vrooman, a sports economist at Vanderbilt University."The networks would be psyched for extra live playoff TV rights," Vrooman said. "Ad rates for live sports programming are exploding because of the vanishing availability of live broadcasts in the new age of streaming and fast-forward recording. NFL TV rights jumped 62 percent from $127 million annually per club to $206 million per club 2014-2022; NBA rights have almost tripled; MLB rights have doubled; and NHL rights have quadrupled."Former CBS sports president Neal Pilson does not believe the NFL will get the $280 million figure, but he thinks expanded playoffs will happen in the next two years because the money will be too good to pass up."I don't think the money will be that good," said Pilson, who is now a sports media consultant and a member the faculty at the Marshall School of Business at USC. "I'm not sure the ratings or the pricing would allow that, but certainly there would be an incremental rise from the [current contracts]."The NFL has been known for its foresight and maximizing its worth with television networks, but the league appears to have erred by not expanding its playoffs before college football did. The decision could cost the league millions over the next several years as a result.The new four-team college playoff was a ratings bonanza for ESPN. The two semifinal games drew ratings close to what the NFL gets for its wild-card round, and the national title game drew a higher rating than NFL wild-card games.Tweakingthe tournamentSome reasons Goodell and owners have cited as roadblocks to playoff expansion are dilution of the regular season product and problems with scheduling and seeding the tournament.Vrooman and Pilson do not agree and offer their own reasons why expansion will add more integrity to the NFL's regular season and playoffs.Vrooman said expanded playoffs would remedy the current format's "obviously fatal flaw" of champions from weaker divisions displacing better teams from stronger divisions. Vrooman cites the example from last season when the Carolina Panthers qualified for the playoffs by winning the NFC South with a 7-8-1 record while the 10-6 Philadelphia Eagles from the NFC East did not.It was the fifth time since 2008 that a division winner qualified for the playoffs with a worse record than a non-playoff team and it was the second time since 2010 that a division winner had a losing record. The Seattle Seahawks made the playoffs that season with a 7-9 record.The only "losers" in the proposed 14-team format are the No. 2 seeds from conference, which would lose the bye week they have enjoyed since 1990. But Vrooman said every other seed would enhance their chances of winning the Super Bowl.Pilson said the addition of two more playoff teams would bolster regular-season ratings, especially late in the season as teams jockey for playoff positioning."Playoffs don't devalue the regular season in professional sports or college sports," said Pilson, who ran CBS Sports from 1981-83 and again from 1986-95. "It's the reverse. The regular season is more important because more teams are in the hunt. That would increase viewership late in the regular season."