How Many NFL Teams Make the Playoffs?

How many NFL teams make the playoffs? The number of teams that make the playoffs has varied over time, but as of the 2019 season, 14 teams make the playoffs.

How the NFL Playoff System Works

The NFL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the regular season to determine the NFL champion. Six teams from each conference (NFC and AFC) qualify for the playoffs. The four division winners in each conference are seeded 1 through 4 based on their regular season record, with the top two seeds receiving byes in the first round.

The NFL’s Regular Season

The NFL regular season is sixteen games long, and each team plays a total of four preseason games and twelve regular season games. The regular season is seventeen weeks long, and starts on the Thursday night before the first Sunday of September. The final game of the regular season is always played on the first Sunday night of January.

The NFL’s playoff system has been in place since the 1934 season, when it was created to determine which teams would play in the NFL Championship Game. The playoff system has undergone several changes since then, but the basic idea remains the same: to crown a single champion of the NFL.

The first change to the playoff system came in 1966, when the league expanded from fourteen teams to sixteen teams. This meant that four teams would now qualify for the playoffs instead of two. The four teams that qualified were the two division winners with the best record, and two wild card teams with the next best records regardless of division.

In 1978, the league expanded again, this time to eighteen teams. This meant that six teams would now qualify for the playoffs instead of four. The six teams that qualified were still the two division winners with the best record, but now four wild card teams with the next best records overall would also qualify.

The current playoff system was implemented in 2002, when the league expanded to thirty-two teams. This expansion meant that eight teams would now qualify for the playoffs instead of six. The eight teams that qualified were still the two division winners with the best record, but now each conference would also have three wild card teams with the next best records overall.

The NFL’s Postseason

The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). The NFL is one of the four major North American professional sports leagues, the highest professional level of American football in the world. The NFL’s 17-week regular season runs from early September to late December, with each team playing 16 games and having one bye week. Following the conclusion of the regular season, seven teams from each conference (four division winners and three wild card teams) advance to the playoffs, a single-elimination tournament culminating in the Super Bowl, which is usually held in February. This giveaway determines both conference champions and the league’s champion for that season.

How Many Teams Make the Playoffs?

In the National Football League, the playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the regular season to determine the champion. From 1933 to 1966, only two teams qualified for the NFL playoffs. This expanded to four teams in 1967, and then to eight teams in 1978. As of 2020, 14 teams qualify for the playoffs each year.

The AFC

In the American Football Conference (AFC), there are a total of 16 teams that are divided up into two divisions, the East and the West. Each division has four teams in it. At the end of the regular season, six teams from each conference make the playoffs. The four division winners are seeded 1-4 based on their record, with the #1 seed getting a bye in the first week of the playoffs. The two wild card teams (seeded 5-6) from each conference also make the playoffs and play each other in the first week.

The NFC

In the National Football Conference (NFC), the playoff format is very simple. The top four seeds in the conference make the playoffs. These teams are automatically seeded into the divisional round and will have a bye week in the Wild Card round. The seeding is based on each team’s record, with ties being broken by a number of different factors.

Conclusion

In summation, out of the 32 NFL teams, only 12 make it to the playoffs each year. There are six teams from each conference that compete in the playoffs. The four division winners and two wildcard teams from each conference. The division winners are seeded 1-4 based on their record, with the 1 seed getting a bye week. The two wildcard teams are seeded 5 and 6 and play each other in the first round of the playoffs.