How Does Playoff Seeding Work In the NFL?

How Does Playoff Seeding Work In the NFL?
The NFL playoff seeding system is a set of rules that determines how the teams are ranked for the playoffs.

How the NFL Divisional Playoffs Work

The NFL Divisional Playoffs are the second round of the NFL playoffs. They are comprised of four teams, two from each conference, who have earned a first-round bye. The first-round bye is given to the team with the best record in each conference. The other four teams are wild card teams, meaning they did not win their division but had one of the two best records among all non-division-winning teams.

How the NFL Conference Championships Work

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. seeded according to their regular-season records. The tournament brackets are made up of Wild Card teams, divisional winners and conference champions. The divisional playoff round consists of four teams, two from each conference playing against each other. The lowest seed hosts the first game while the higher seed hosts the second game. The winners from each divisional game face off in Conference Championships, with the higher remaining seeded team hosting the game. Finally, the conference champions compete against each other in the Super Bowl .The team that wins the Super Bowl is crowned NFL champion for that year

How the Super Bowl Works

We all know how the Super Bowl works: two teams compete in a game to determine who is the best in the NFL for that year. But how does playoff seeding work? How do teams qualify for the playoffs?

The NFL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the regular season to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL). Six teams from each of the league’s two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on their regular season records. The playoffs are brackets, with each team playing one game until there is only one team left, which is declared the NFL champion.

In order to determine which teams make it to the playoffs, and subsequently, who plays in the Super Bowl, a number of factors are considered. First, each conference is divided into two divisions: East and West, North and South, or American Football Conference (AFC) and National Football Conference (NFC). Within those divisions, there are four teams each. The team with the best record in each division automatically qualifies for the playoffs. This leaves two spaces open in each conference for what are called “wild card” teams. These are playoff spots that go to the non-division-winning team(s) with the best record(s). For example, if Team A wins their division with a 10-6 record and Team B wins their division with an 11-5 record but Team C did not win their division but had a 12-4 record, Team C would get a wild card spot and be able to compete in the playoffs.

Once all eight playoff spots have been filled – four from each conference – seeding takes place to determine who will play whom. The four division winners are seeded 1-4 based on their records with the seed going to the team with the best record, regardless of whether they won their division or were a wild card team. The wild card teams are then seeded 5-6 based on their records. So, continuing with our previous example, if Team A had a 10-6 record (seed #4), Team B had an 11-5 record (seed #3), and Team C had a 12=4 record (seed #5), we would have our six seeds for that conference’s playoff bracket set as follows:

1)Team A – 10-6
2)Team B – 11-5 3)Team C – 12-4
4)Team D – 13-3
5)Team E – 9-7
6)Team F – 8-8