How Do The NFL Playoffs Work?
How do the NFL playoffs work? Here’s a breakdown of how the NFL playoff system works, from wild card weekend to the Super Bowl.
Introduction
The NFL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the National Football League’s (NFL) regular season to determine the NFL champion. Seven teams from each of the league’s two conferences qualify for the playoffs. A tie-breaking procedure exists if required. The tournament culminates in the Super Bowl, the league’s championship game.
How the NFL Playoffs Work
Each year, the NFL Playoff system pits the best football teams from the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC) against each other in a series of single-elimination games. The winners of those games advance until only two teams remain: the AFC and NFC champions, who compete in the Super Bowl. Here’s a look at how the NFL Playoffs work.
The Regular Season
The National Football League (NFL) regular season begins in September and ends in December. During the regular season, each team plays 16 games. The games are spread out over a 17-week schedule that runs from Week 1 to Week 17. The NFL schedule makers try to ensure that each team has an equal number of home and away games, as well as an equal number of “easy” and “difficult” opponents.
The goal of the regular season is simple: win as many games as possible. The team with the best record in each conference (AFC and NFC) earns a spot in the playoffs, as do the two teams with the next-best records (the wild card teams). In total, six teams from each conference make the playoffs.
The first round of the playoffs is known as the Wild Card Round. In this round, the three division winners in each conference are seeded first through third, based on their regular season records. The two wild card teams are seeded fourth and fifth.
The four lowest-seeded teams in each conference play each other in the Wild Card Round. The matchups are as follows:
-Seed 4 vs Seed 5
-Seed 3 vs lowest remaining seed
The Playoffs
The NFL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the regular season to determine the NFL champion. Each year, 12 teams qualify for the playoffs. These teams are divided into two groups: the six teams with the best record in each conference (the NFC and AFC), and four wild card teams (the two remaining best teams from each conference). The wild card teams are seeded fifth and sixth, and they play each other in the first round of the playoffs. The winners of those games then play the third seed, while the fourth seed plays the first seed, in what are called the divisional playoffs. The winners of those games then compete in the conference championships, with the victors advancing to Super Bowl Sunday, which is one of the biggest sporting events in America.
The Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the biggest and most important game in the NFL. It is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL). The game is played between the two best teams in the NFL, who compete in a playoff tournament to determine who will represent each conference in the Super Bowl. The winning team receives the Vince Lombardi Trophy, which is named after the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, who won the first two Super Bowls.
Conclusion
The NFL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the National Football League (NFL)’s regular season to determine the league’s champion. Six teams from each of the league’s two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season records, and a tie-breaking procedure exists in the case of equal records. The tournament culminates in the Super Bowl, played between the champions of each conference to determine the NFL’s overall champion.
