How Are NFL Playoff Teams Determined?
The National Football League (NFL) playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the regular season to determine the NFL champion.
NFL Playoffs
The NFL playoff system is a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the regular season to determine the NFL champion. Wild Card weekend is the first round of the playoffs. The four divisional winners from the previous season and two wild card teams from each conference play each other.
How many teams make the playoffs?
The NFL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the National Football League (NFL)’s regular season to determine the NFL champion. Six teams from each of the league’s two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season records, and a tie-breaking system is used to seed the teams within their conference. Not all teams earn a berth in the playoffs; in fact, since 1990, only 12 teams have qualified out of a possible 32.
What are the seeding rules?
In the NFL, the 12 teams that make the playoffs are not just the 12 best teams in the league. Rather, they are a mix of the best teams and a few less-deserving ones, based on a seeding system.
The four division winners in each conference are seeded first through fourth based on their record. The two wild-card teams in each conference are seeded fifth and sixth.
The top two seeds in each conference get a first-round bye. The division winner with the third-best record hosts the division winner with the sixth-best record, and the division winner with the fourth-best record hosts the wild-card team with the fifth-best record.
How are the tiebreakers determined?
If two or more clubs are tied in any of the above categories, the following steps will be taken until a winner is determined.
Two Clubs
1. Head-to-head, if applicable.
2. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference.
3. Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games, minimum of four.
4. Strength of victory.
5. Strength of schedule.
6. Best combined ranking among conference teams in points scored and points allowed (differential), minimum of four games played to qualify).
7. Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed (differential), minimum of four games played to qualify).
8. Best net points in conference games, minimum of four games played to qualify).
9. Best net points in all games, minimum of four games played to qualify).
10 tiebreaker not needed if only two teams are involved
More Than Two Clubs – Steps 3 through 8 will be followed until a decision is reached or until Step 9 is applied, which is used as a tiebreaker for all clubs still tied: best won-lost-tied percentage against common opponents, minimum of four (if more than two clubs remain tied after the third step and all clubs have at least one common game remaining), step 4 applies; strength of victory; strength of schedule; best combined ranking among conference teams involved in the tie based on won-lost-tied percentage for all games played head-to-head; best combined ranking among all teams involved in the tie based on won-lost-tied percentage for all common games; best combined ranking among all teams involved in the tie based on won lost tied percentage for all divisional games; best net points scored for divisional games; best net points scored overall
Wild Card Weekend
The National Football League (NFL) playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the regular season to determine the champion of the NFL. The tournament culminates in the Super Bowl, which is usually held in February. This year, the playoffs will begin on Saturday, January 5th, 2020 and end on Sunday, January 19th, 2020.
What is Wild Card Weekend?
The NFL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the regular season to determine the NFL champion. Each team plays one game in Wild Card Weekend, with four teams receiving a bye to the divisional round. The four divisional winners then advance to the Conference Championships, with the winners of each conference meeting in the Super Bowl.
Wild Card Weekend is always held on either the last weekend in December or the first weekend in January and features four playoff games, two from each conference. The games are typically played on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, although occasionally a game will be played on Friday evening or Saturday evening.
How are the matchups determined?
The NFL playoff matchups are determined by a bracket system. The four teams with the best record in each conference (NFC and AFC) earn a spot in the playoffs. These teams are seeded one through four, based on their record. The team with the best record is seeded one, the team with the second-best record is seeded two and so on.
Who hosts the games?
The team with the better record is rewarded with home-field advantage. That team will host each playoff game they’re a part of until the Super Bowl. The NFL tries to rotate which teams play on Wild Card Weekend each year, so that every team gets a chance to host at least once every three years. That said, some teams are better at filling their stadiums than others (cough, cough, Dallas Cowboys) and sometimes the league will award home games to those teams instead of teams with better records.
Divisional Playoffs
NFL playoffs are determined by a team’s performance during the regular season. The better a team does during the season, the more likely they are to make the playoffs. There are four teams in each conference that make the playoffs. The top two teams in each conference are given a bye in the first round and automatically advance to the divisional playoffs. The divisional playoffs are where the real action starts.
What is Divisional Playoffs?
Divisional Playoffs is the second round of the NFL playoffs. The divisional playoffs are played Saturday and Sunday following the Wild Card Playoffs. The divisional playoffs consist of four games total, two on each day. The divisional games match up the #1 and #2 seeds from each conference with the two division winners from wild-card weekend.
How are the matchups determined?
The NFL playoff field is set, and we now know all 12 teams that will be battling for a spot in the Super Bowl.
The four divisional winners — the Rams, Saints, Chiefs and Patriots — earned a first-round bye. The divisional round will feature the following matchups:
– Colts at Chiefs
– Cowboys at Rams
– Ravens at Chargers
– Seahawks at Bears
These games will be played on Saturday, Jan. 12 and Sunday, Jan. 13. The AFC and NFC championship games will be played on Sunday, Jan. 20.
Who hosts the games?
The higher-seeded team in each conference is awarded home-field advantage. The divisional playoffs are played on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 11-12, 2020. The AFC game will be played at 4:35 p.m. ET on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020 (CBS). The NFC game will be played at 8:15 p.m. ET on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020 (FOX).
Conference Championships
The National Football League (NFL) playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the regular season to determine the NFL champion. Prior to the 1970 season, there were no playoffs and the NFL champion was determined by the best record during the regular season. In 1970, the NFL merged with the American Football League (AFL) and the first Super Bowl was played at the end of that season. As part of the merger agreement, the NFL began holding a single championship game between the winners of the NFC and AFC.
What is Conference Championships?
Conference Championships is the pinnacle event of the NFL’s season. The best teams from each conference – the American Football Conference (AFC) and National Football Conference (NFC) – go head-to-head to decide who goes to the Super Bowl.
The conference championship games are always played on the Sunday following the Divisional Playoffs. This year, Conference Championships will be held on Sunday, January 24, 2021.
The AFC game will be played first at 3:05 p.m. ET, followed by the NFC game at 6:40 p.m. ET. Both games will be broadcast on CBS and you can also live stream them on CBS All Access.
How are the matchups determined?
The NFL’s conference championship games are determined by the top two teams in each conference – the winners of the divisional round playoff games.
The No. 1 seed in each conference will play the lowest remaining seed from the divisional round, while the No. 2 seed will play the other team.
The higher seed will host each game.
Who hosts the games?
The conference championship games take place on Sunday, with the AFC game slated for 3:05 p.m. ET and the NFC game following at 6:40 p.m. ET. Both games will be broadcast on CBS.
This year, the conference championship games will be played at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri (AFC) and Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia (NFC).
Super Bowl
The National Football League (NFL) playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the regular season to determine the NFL champion. Seven teams from each of the two conferences qualify for the playoffs.
What is the Super Bowl?
The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL). The game is the culmination of a regular season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. Normally, Roman numerals are used to identify each game, rather than the year in which it is held. For example, Super Bowl XLVII was played in 2013. The winning team receives the Vince Lombardi Trophy, named after the coach of the Green Bay Packers who won the first two Super Bowl games and three of the five preceding NFL championships in 1961, 1962, and 1965.
The contest is usually held in early February and played on a Sunday afternoon. Since 1987, it has been played at a pre-selected site that is generally conducive to warmer weather or domed stadiums. In 2014, Super Bowl XLVIII became the first to be held outdoors in a cold-weather city when it was played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The day on which the Super Bowl is played, now considered by some as an unofficial American national holiday,[1][2] is called “Super Bowl Sunday”. It is the second-largest day for U.S. food consumption,[3] after Thanksgiving Day.[4][5] In addition,It has frequently been referred to as “the ultimate television commercials competition” because of the extremely high cost of air time during its broadcast.[6][7][8]
How are the matchups determined?
The National Football League (NFL) playoff system determines the teams that will compete in the playoffs. The playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the regular season to determine the NFL champion. It is currently composed of 14 teams: six from each of the league’s two conferences, four from the NFC and four from the AFC.
The four division winners from each conference (the team with the best record in each division) are seeded 1–4 based on their overall won-lost-tied record, with the first-place team in each conference receiving a bye in the first round (the Wild Card Round). The two second-place teams in each conference then play each other in the second round (the Divisional Round). The two surviving teams from each conference’s Divisional Round meet in the third round (the Conference Championships), with the conference champions proceeding to Super Bowl LIII, which determines the league’s champion.
Under a current proposal being considered by NFL owners, this tournament would be expanded to seven teams per conference (including a bye for each #1 seed), resulting in a total of 16 teams competing in the playoffs. If approved, this expansion would take effect starting with the 2020 NFL season.
Who hosts the game?
The game is held the first Sunday in February and determines the champion of the National Football League (NFL). The game was created as part of the merger between the NFL and its then-rival, the American Football League (AFL), with the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game played in January 1967. It was agreed that the two’s champions would meet in a playoff game for the professional football championship of the United States. A single game exhibition became an annual event known as the NFL Championship Game. A television contract was signed in 1961, making the championship game nationally televised on CBS. The rivalry continued with successive years’ games alternating between being played at Memorial Coliseum and Kezar Stadium, both located in San Francisco, California. As per an agreement reached as part of the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger, beginning with 1971 season, alternating conference champions would host Super Bowls V through X; thereafter, it would rotate annually between AFC and NFC teams.
Since Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014, every game has been played on Sunday afternoon in late January or early February from Albuquerque to Miami Gardens. Justin Timberlake has headlined three times: at Super Bowl XXXVII in Houston as part of *NSYNC; at Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis as a solo artist; and most recently at Super Bowl LIV where he was joined by special guests Christina Aguilera, Sting, andFAULT! Line during his halftime show performance.
