How Does the NFL Playoff Bracket Work?

How does the NFL Playoff Bracket work? It’s a simple question with a not-so-simple answer. Here’s a comprehensive guide to understanding the NFL’s Playoff system.

Introduction

The National Football League (NFL) playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the regular season to determine the NFL champion. Six teams from each of the league’s two conferences qualify for the playoffs, based on their regular season records.

Seeding is used to determine which team plays which team in the first round. In each conference, the four division winners are seeded 1-4 based on their won-lost-tied record, and the two wild card teams are seeded 5-6. The top two seeds receive a bye in the first round of playoffs. In the first round of playoffs, called the Wild Card Playoffs or Wild Card Weekend, the 3rd seed hosts the 6th seed and the 4th seed hosts the 5th seed.

The winners of those games then face off in the Divisional Playoffs. The 1st seed hosts the lowest remaining seed from Wild Card weekend (either the 5th or 6th seed), while also getting to choose their conference’s representative in one major televised game played on Sunday afternoon. The 2nd seed hosts another game played Sunday afternoon featuring two other teams who have advanced from Wild Card Weekend. These two games are called “divisional” playoff games because they feature opponents from within a particular division in order for there to be no intra-conference matchups until at least one team from each conference has advanced to their respective conference championship game.

The winners of each Divisional Playoff game then advance to their respective conference’s championship game, where they will face off against either the 1st or 2nd seed from that same conference who received a bye during Wild Card weekend. These two games are played on Sunday afternoon/evening and are called, appropriately enough, ” Conference Championship Games.” The winners of each Conference Championship Game then advance to Super Bowl Sunday, where they will play against each other in what has become known simply as “the Super Bowl.”

How the NFL Playoff Bracket is Set Up

The NFL playoff bracket is set up so that the two best teams from each conference play each other in the conference championship games. The winners of those games then advance to the Super Bowl. The NFL playoff bracket is also set up so that the four division winners get a bye in the first round.

The Four Divisions

The NFL playoff bracket is made up of four divisions: the American Football Conference (AFC) and National Football Conference (NFC), each of which has two divisions, the East and West. The four division winners advance to the playoffs. In the AFC, the division winner with the best record (or tied for the best record) goes to the AFC Championship game. The same process is used for the NFC. The two conference winners then advance to the Super Bowl, where they compete for the Lombardi Trophy.

In order for a team to even have a chance at making it to the playoffs, they first have to win their division. Each NFL season, every team plays 16 games, which are spread out over 17 weeks. At the end of those 16 weeks, the team with the best record in each division is crowned the division winner and earns a spot in the playoffs.

If two or more teams in a division tie for first place, then a tiebreaker system is used to determine who will be crowned the division winner and earn that playoff spot. The NFL tiebreaker system is based on head-to-head competition, meaning if one team beats another during regular season play, that team would get preference if both teams finish with identical records at season’s end.

Once all four division winners have been determined, seedings are assigned in order from highest to lowest based on each team’s overall win-loss record. these four teams then face off against each other in what are called Wild Card games. The two winners of those Wild Card games move on to play against whichever team earned themselves a first-round bye by virtue of having one of the two best records in their respective conference.

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The Two Wild Card Teams

In the NFL, there are four divisions in each conference: North, South, East, and West. At the end of the regular season, the division winner with the best record in each division automatically qualifies for the playoffs as a divisional playoff team. Three divisional playoff teams from each conference are seeded first through third based on their regular season won-loss records. The two remaining teams in each conference are seeded fourth and fifth for wild card berths.

In addition to the four divisional playoff teams, two wild card teams (the fourth and fifth seeded teams) from each conference qualify for the playoffs. Wild card qualifiers are determined by considering a team’s entire regular season record, not just their record within their particular division.

How the Playoffs Work

The NFL playoff bracket is a single-elimination tournament held after the regular season to determine the NFL champion. Wild card teams are seeded fifth and sixth, and divisional winners are seeded first through fourth. The top two seeds receive byes in the first round of the playoffs. In the first round, the third seed plays the sixth seed and the fourth seed plays the fifth seed. The divisional playoffs are held in the second round, where the top seed plays the lowest remaining seed and the second seed plays the other remaining team. The conference championships are held in the third round, and the Super Bowl is held in the fourth round.

The Wild Card Round

The Wild Card Round is the first round of the NFL playoffs. In this round, the four division winners with the best record in each conference play each other in two games. The two division winners with the worst record in each conference also play each other in two games. The winners of these four games advance to the Divisional Round.

The Divisional Round

In the Divisional Round, the four division winners from each conference are seeded first and second based on their overall records. The two division losers with the next-best records from each conference are seeded third and fourth. The first seed hosts the fourth seed, and the second seed hosts the third seed. The top seed in each conference then hosts whichever team advanced farthest in the previous round (wild card winner or divisional winner), regardless of whether that team is seeded higher or lower than them. In essence, this means that if the fifth seed AFC team beats the fourth seed AFC team, they would travel to face the top seed AFC team in the next round (Divisional Round), even if that fifth seed team had a lower regular season record than any of other three remaining NFL Playoff teams in their conference.

The Conference Championships

The Conference Championships are the final two rounds of the playoffs. The winners of the Conference Championships advance to the Super Bowl. The Conference Championships are held on the weekend following the Divisional Playoffs.

The AFC and NFC Championship Games match up the winners of the Divisional Playoffs in each conference. In the AFC, it’s the top seed against the lowest remaining seed. In the NFC, it’s usually the top seed against the second-lowest remaining seed, but could be third-lowest if one of those teams is a division winner and thus automatically rewarded a home game. For example, if Dallas (the #3 seed) and New Orleans (the #6 seed) both win in the Wild Card round, then Dallas would play at Green Bay (the #2 seed) in the Divisional round, and New Orleans would play at Seattle (the #1 seed). If both Dallas and New Orleans win again in those games, then Dallas would play at Seattle in the NFC Championship Game because they would be the highest remaining seeds.

The Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is the biggest and most important game in the National Football League (NFL) every year. It is the annual championship game of the NFL, and is played between the winners of the American Football Conference (AFC) and National Football Conference (NFC). The game is usually held on the first Sunday in February, and is played at a neutral site that is determined years in advance. The Super Bowl is one of the most watched television events in America every year, with over 100 million people tuning in to watch.

Conclusion

So, that’s how the NFL playoff bracket works. It may seem a bit confusing at first, but it’s actually quite simple once you understand the basics. Hopefully this article has cleared things up for you and you can now follow along with the playoffs with ease. Thanks for reading!