How Does the NFL Playoffs Ot Work?
Contents
How does the NFL playoffs work? It’s a simple question with a not-so-simple answer. Let’s break it down so you can understand how your favorite team can make it to the Super Bowl.
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 regular season records, and a tie-breaking procedure exists in the case of equal records. The tournament culminates in the Super Bowl, typically held in early February, in which two conference champions face off to win the NFL championship.
How the NFL Playoffs Work
The NFL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the National Football League (NFL) 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. A single-elimination playoff tournament then determines the conference champions, who face each other in the Super Bowl, the league’s championship game.
TheWild Card Round
In the Wild Card Round, the four divisional winners with the best records in each conference are seeded first through fourth and granted home-field advantage. The other four teams — the two wild-card qualifiers in each conference — are seeded fifth through eighth.
The NFLPA recognized the inequity of this system and negotiated a new system starting with the 2010 season. In the new system, the four division winners with the best records are still granted home-field advantage and seeded first through fourth, but now the other four teams are not determined by their regular-season records. Instead, these “wild-card” qualifiers are determined by which team wins their respective conference’s Wild Card game.
The Divisional Round
After the Wild Card Round, the Divisional Round of the playoffs is where things really start to heat up. In this round, the four division winners from each conference play each other in two separate games. Just like in the Wild Card Round, these games are played on a Saturday and a Sunday. The top seed in each conference gets to choose which day they want to play on.
The team that wins these two games then moves on to their respective conference championships. The losing teams’ seasons end and they go home.
The Conference Championships
The Conference Championships are the penultimate round of the NFL playoffs. The winners of each conference’s Championship game advance to the Super Bowl.
The NFC and AFC Championship games are usually played on the first Sunday in February. They are organized by conference and pit the winners of the Divisional Playoff round against each other. The NFC Championship game is played at 3 p.m. ET, followed by the AFC game at 6:30 p.m. ET.
The conference championship games are some of the most watched sporting events on television every year. In 2019, an average of 53 million viewers tuned in to watch the AFC Championship game, while 48 million watched the NFC game.
The Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the biggest and most important game in the NFL each season. It is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL). The game is usually played on the first Sunday in February and determines the champion of the NFL for that year. The Super Bowl is one of the most watched sporting events in the world, with television audiences around the globe.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the NFL playoffs overtime system is a fair way to determine a winner when the score is tied at the end of regulation play. Both teams have an equal chance to score, and if neither team does, the game ends in a tie.
