It was originally thought that the NFL owners would vote on whether or not to expand the playoffs to 14 teams up from the current number of 12, this week at the owner’s meeting in Atlanta. But according to ESPN, they have decided to table that discussion until the fall.

The movement reportedly has strong support among the owners, and New York Giants owner John Mara, who opposes expansion of the playoffs, had said he thought they had enough votes to make the expansion happen. [Source: ESPN]

The NFL last expanded the playoffs in 1990, adding a sixth qualifier in each conference.

ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio reported that many of the owners feared that expanding the playoffs this year would cause an over-saturation,  with the league already having added a Thursday night package to CBS for the 2014 season.

If the owners do vote on adding teams to the playoffs during their meeting in the fall, it won’t come into being until the 2015 season at the earliest.

In an appearance on the morning television talk show, The View, Chicago Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall said that was against expanding the number of teams in the playoffs for “purely selfish personal reasons”, stating that he had never been to a playoff game, and that he didn’t want to be viewed as having gotten into the playoffs “the easy way” with more teams being eligible to play.