How Does the NFL Playoffs Work?

The NFL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the regular season to determine the NFL champion. Wild Card weekend is when four teams play each other in two games. The winners advance to the Divisional playoffs.

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. From 1933 to 1966, the NFL championship game was played between the winners of the Eastern and Western conferences or divisions. In 1967, the NFL merged with the American Football League (AFL), and the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game was played at the end of that season. The champions of each conference or division would meet in a playoff game until 1970, when the AFL-NFL merged fully into one league and divisions were eliminated. Since 1971, when divisional play and playoffs were reintroduced, there have been 12 teams in each conference competing for a spot in the playoffs: six division winners and two wild card teams.

How the NFL Regular Season Works

In order to understand how the NFL playoffs work, it is first necessary to understand how the NFL regular season works. The NFL regular season is a 16-game schedule for each team in the league, with each team playing every other team in their conference twice (once at home and once on the road). At the end of the 16-game schedule, the top six teams in each conference (based on their win-loss record) qualify for the playoffs. The four division winners (teams with the best record in their respective divisions) are seeded 1-4 based on their record, with the #1 seed getting a first-round bye. The two wild card teams (teams with the next best records after the division winners) are seeded 5-6 and must play in the first round of the playoffs.

How the NFL Playoffs Work

The NFL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the regular season to determine the NFL champion. Wild Card weekend is when the four lowest seeds in each conference play each other. The winners of these four games advance to the Divisional Round, where they play the top two seeds in each conference. The winners of those games advance to the Conference Championships, and the winners of those games advance to the Super Bowl.

The Wild Card Round

The first round of the NFL playoffs is called the Wild Card round. In this round, the four best teams that did not win their division compete against each other. The two winners of these games move on to the next round, which is called the Divisional Round.

The Divisional Round

The Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs is played the weekend following Wild Card Weekend, and features the four division winners with the best records from the regular season. These teams are seeded first and second in each conference, and will play the lowest-seeded Wild Card team from their conference. The other division winner plays the higher-seeded Wild Card team.

The Conference Championships

The NFL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the regular season to determine the NFL champion. Each conference (American Football Conference and National Football Conference) has four division winners (three division winners and a wild card team in each conference) who qualify for the playoffs. The four division winners in each conference are seeded 1-4 based on their overall won-lost-tied record, and the wild card team is seeded 5.

The playoffs begin with four Wild Card Weekend games, two per conference. The 1 and 2 seeds from each conference then receive a bye during the first round of the playoffs. In the second round of the playoffs, the divisional playoffs, the number 1 seed hosts the worst surviving seed from Wild Card Weekend (seed 4, 5 or 6), while seed 2 hosts the second-worst surviving seed (seed 3, 4 or 5). The two surviving teams from each conference’s divisional playoff games then meet in Conference Championship games, hosted by their respective conference’s top remaining seed.

Lastly, the two Conference Champions proceed to Super Bowl Sunday, where they compete to be crowned NFL Champion for that year.

The Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is the biggest and most important game of the NFL season. It is the championship game, and determines who will be crowned the champion of the NFL for that year. The game is played between the two best teams in the league, one from each conference (the NFC and AFC). The game is usually played on the first Sunday in February, and is televised all around the world.

Conclusion

The NFL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the regular season to determine the NFL champion. From the four divisional winners, eight teams advance to the playoffs. Seeds one and two receive byes in the first round of the playoffs while seeds three and four host sixth and seventh seeds, respectively. In the second round, the bye week teams are seeded according to their regular season record with the highest seed playing the lowest remaining seed. The two remaining divisional winners also play each other in this round. The winners of these matchups then advance to the AFC or NFC Championship game, respectively. Finally, the winner of each conference’s championship game goes on to play in Super Bowl Sunday, one of America’s biggest annual sporting events.