As MLS announces expansion franchises, the temptation to add more playoff teams needs to be curbed 17 Apr 2014 As expansion ramps up, critics will claim MLS is watering itself down. But this next period of expansion offers a perfect time to answer those critics, to make the playoffs more exclusive. Even by knocking it back to eight teams, it would allow MLS to claim that, by 2017, you’d have just one-third of the clubs making the post-season. And you would have a situation like NASL, where games matter right off the bat.