How Many Teams Make It To NFL Playoffs?

How Many Teams Make It To NFL Playoffs? Find out how many teams make it to the NFL playoffs each year.

How the NFL Playoff System Works

There are four teams in each conference: the East, West, North, and South. Each conference has two divisions, and each division has four teams. The four teams in each division play each other twice during the regular season (once at home and once on the road). The two teams with the best records in each division automatically make it to the playoffs.

The NFL’s Regular Season

The NFL regular season typically runs from the last week of September through the first week of December, with each team playing 16 games. At the end of the regular season, the team with the best record in each division is crowned division champion and earns a spot in the playoffs. The next four best teams in each conference (regardless of division) are also awarded playoff spots, giving a total of 12 teams per conference that make it to the playoffs.

In addition to the division champions and wild card teams, two other teams earn playoff spots by virtue of their records: The two conference runners-up with the best records earn berths as well. These two teams are matched up against each other in a Wild Card game, with the winners advancing to face one of the top seeds in the Divisional Playoffs.

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 sports leagues, the highest professional level of American football in the world.[1] 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 on the first Sunday in February and is played between the champions of the NFC and AFC.

The league is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.[2] The NFL has been referred to as “the king of sports”,[3]a phrase repeated by Commissioner Roger Goodell.[4][5] Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig also referred to it as “the king of all sports”,[6][7] while former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue called it “the ultimate reality show”.[8][9] It generated $9.7 billion in annual revenues in 2017,[10][11][12] up from $7.4 billion just three years earlier according to Forbes,[13] making it by far America’s most profitable sports league per Forbes calculations.

How Many Teams Make It To NFL Playoffs?

There are a total of 16 NFL teams that make it to the playoffs. This includes the six teams from each conference that have a bye in the first week, and the four Wild Card teams.

The NFL’s Playoff Structure

In the NFL, the team with the best record in each conference earns a first-round bye, while the second- and third-best teams host sixth- and seventh-seeded wild card teams. The wild card round is a single elimination tournament, with the winners advancing to play the top seeds in the divisional round. The divisional round is also a single elimination tournament, with the winner of each game advancing to play in either the AFC or NFC Championship game. Finally, the conference champions battle it out in the Super Bowl, with the victor being crowned as league champion for that season.

The Number of NFL Playoff Teams

In the National Football League (NFL), the playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the regular season to determine the league champion. There are four rounds of playoffs, known as Wild Card weekend, Divisional weekend, Conference championships, and Super Bowl Sunday.

As of the 2020 NFL season, 14 teams make it to the playoffs each year: six from each conference (the American Football Conference (AFC) and National Football Conference (NFC)), and two others as Wild Card teams. The four division winners from each conference are seeded 1-4 based on their regular season record, with the top seed receiving a first-round bye. The two Wild Card teams from each conference are seeded 5-6 based on their regular season record.

How the NFL Playoff System Affects Teams

The NFL playoff system is a system that takes into account a team’s regular season record to determine which teams make it to the playoffs. The playoffs are a single-elimination tournament that culminates in the Super Bowl, which is the biggest game of the year. The NFL playoff system affects teams in a few different ways.

The NFL’s Regular Season

The NFL regular season is a marathon. It starts in early September and ends in late December or early January. During that span, each of the league’s 32 teams plays 16 games. That’s a lot of football!

The regular season is important because it determines which teams will make the playoffs. The playoff field consists of 12 teams, six from each conference (the AFC and NFC). The four division winners in each conference are automatically seeded into the playoffs. The remaining two spots in each conference are filled by the two wild-card teams, which are the two non-division-winning teams with the best records.

So, in order to make the playoffs, a team must first win its division. That’s no easy feat, considering there are four teams in each division and only one can come out on top. But it’s not impossible, as evidenced by the fact that divisional races come down to the wire every year. Once a team has clinched a spot in the playoffs, it can rest its starters in the final game or two of the regular season and focus on preparing for the postseason.

While winning your division is important, it’s not everything. In fact, it’s possible for a team with a losing record to make the playoffs if it has enough Wild Card points (explained below). In that case, division winners with better records would be left out of the playoff picture. That has happened several times in recent years, much to the consternation of fans around the league.

The NFL’s Postseason

In the NFL, the postseason is a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the regular season to determine the NFL champion. The tournament brackets are made up of six teams from each of the league’s two conferences, with four wild card teams playing in the first round.

The top two seeds in each conference receive a bye in the first round, while the other four teams play each other in the wild card round. The winners of those games advance to the divisional playoffs, where they play the top seed in their conference. The winners of those games then advance to the conference championships, and finally, the Super Bowl.

The NFL’s playoff system often comes under criticism because it gives an advantage to teams that finish with a better record than others. For instance, a team that goes 11-5 is not guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, while a team that goes 8-8 can still make it if they win their division.

The NFL’s current playoff system was implemented in 2002 and has been used ever since.