San Diego ? Get ready for overtime to be overhauled.

Three of the NFL’s most powerful executives say changes could come as early as next season.

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue predicted Friday that owners would scrap the sudden-death format in March at their annual meetings. He expects a new overtime setup with each team getting at least one possession, and he has the support of Pittsburgh owner Dan Rooney and players’ union executive director Gene Upshaw.

“We are reassessing it with members of the competition committee and our staff,” Tagliabue said during his annual state of the NFL address.

There were a record 25 overtime games during the regular season, with 10 (40 percent) decided on the first possession. The only OT game during the playoffs, with Tennessee beating Rooney’s Steelers, also was decided on the first possession.

Since the league adopted overtime in 1974, 97 of 342 games that went to extra time (28.3 percent) ended on the first possession.

Tagliabue noted the trend has grown stronger in the last nine seasons, since kickoffs were moved back to the 30-yard line.

“When the membership looks at that trend,” Tagliabue said, “that advantage of receiving first is becoming unbalanced. How we fine-tune the rule, I don’t know.”

Upshaw said overtime must become more equitable.

“If you look at the games this year, you see how much closer they’re getting,” Upshaw said Thursday at the players’ union meeting. “It only stands to reason that if you get into overtime, you should have a fair chance to win.”

In college football, the NCAA adopted a new overtime system in 1996, in which each team gets the ball from the 25-yard line and keeps possession until it scores, loses the ball or gives it up on downs.

NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue gestures during his annual state of the NFL address. Tagliabue predicted Friday at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, Calif., that owners would scrap the league's sudden-death overtime format.

On other issues:

• Tagliabue does not expect changes to the way games are officiated despite high-profile gaffes, including calls in two postseason games. In general, Tagliabue said, the on-field calls were correct, the exception being the one at the end of San Francisco’s 39-38 wild-card win over the New York Giants.

The commissioner took the unusual step of publicly criticizing game officials after they missed a 49ers penalty on the final play, a botched field-goal attempt by the Giants. On Friday, he explained those earlier comments.

“We’ve taken pains to have the mechanics in place,” Tagliabue said. “They’re designed to prevent that kind of oversight from occurring. To me, that was the most disappointing aspect in the officiating in my 13 years as commissioner.”

• No expansion is planned in the next decade, although if a state-of-the-art stadium is built in Los Angeles, NFL owners have indicated they would consider putting a team in the nation’s second-largest city.
• Tagliabue addressed criticism of the Cowboys for hiring Bill Parcells and of the Jaguars for hiring Jack Del Rio instead of minority candidates.
• The league has no plans to expand the playoff field beyond 12 teams. After a few more years with the new eight-team alignment, Tagliabue said the playoff format would be re-evaluated. But he stressed the NFL does not want a team with a losing record in the playoffs.