MIAMI Even in a recession, some segments of the NFL seem to be thriving. The salary cap went up again, some free agents landed megadeals already this offseason, and commissioner Roger Goodell's hope of eventually expanding the regular season to 17 or 18 games created a bit of buzz.

But can there be too much?

Maybe, especially if the schedule starts to run too deeply into what traditionally hasn't been football season, an industry expert said Thursday at the IMG World Congress of Sports, which wrapped up its two-day session of roundtables and panel discussions in Miami.

"I think, for certain constituents, going to 17 or 18 games makes a lot of sense for the league and the teams," said Sam Sussman, the senior vice president and media director for Starcom, a media buying firm. "Where I don't think it makes sense is from a network standpoint. I'm not sure, with the state of the economy the way it is right now, that networks necessarily want more to sell."

Goodell announced his hope for a longer regular season at the NFL annual meeting last month; owners are expected to vote on the proposal in May, and it could become reality as soon as 2011.

The NFL has not revealed specifics of the proposal, but Goodell has indicated that the league's network partners would be part of the decision-making process.

"I think the quality of NFL programming, that every one of our network partners would say, if they have the chance to have more regular-season programming, they'd be interested in it," Goodell said at the annual meetings last month in Dana Point, Calif. "A key point is the fans also recognize players they want to see are not in those preseason games; that's why they are not attractive."

If approved, as expected, the notion would likely mean a shortening of the preseason, with the additional game or games tacked on to the end of the existing schedule model. But if the changes push the schedule deeper into January and beyond and there is no indication that would definitely happen it could be problematic for both networks and advertisers, Sussman said.

"You've already got so many big sporting events that are already sitting in that month, in terms of the amount of available eyeballs ... that are out there," Sussman said. "I don't think adding more weight there in that time period, post-holiday, is necessarily a smart thing."