The NWSL announced it will be expanding their playoffs from six teams to eight in 2024 two days prior to the 2023 NWSL championship between the OL Reign and New Jersey/New York Gotham. The playoff expansion comes alongside the league expanding from 12 teams to 14 teams as the NWSL continues to grow.

NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman cited the increasing competitiveness and popularity of the league as reasons for the expansion.

“We believe that our playoffs and our regular season are extremely compelling and there was an opportunity to provide more teams with an opportunity to compete,” Berman said. “If you look at decision day – which was the last day of our regular season on Oct. 15 – I believe there were something like 732 possible outcomes that could have happened on that day,” via Emma Hruby of Just Women’s Sports.

“Every game mattered, which tells you that there’s more room for competition and that probably some of the teams who got eliminated maybe could have continued to compete,” Berman said. “And because of that and because there’s incredible parity and competitive balance across our league, there’s an opportunity to showcase more playoff games, which we know are premier content for our fans and opportunities to drive connectivity with their local communities.”

The new set up will eliminate the first-round bye for the top two teams. Now, all eight teams will play in the quarterfinals and there will be four games instead of two. Many players were dissatisfied with the first-round bye, though other sports leagues utilize it as a reward for the top seeds. In the 2023 playoffs, both the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds were eliminated in the semifinals by teams who did not have a bye.