A Beginners Guide to the NFL Playoffs

12 Playoff Teams There are four rounds to the National Football League, or NFL, playoffs wherein each year 12-teams of the 32 in the NFL reach them. There are two conferences of 16-teams each: the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). The conferences are so named due to the 1970 merger of the National Football League and the American Football League into the league we know as the NFL.

4 Division Champions, 2 Wild Cards. Each of the conferences' 4-divisions has a champion and that champion is the division representative in the playoffs. There are two wild card teams as well: these 2-teams are the two which were the best of the teams that did not win a division. Due to the fact there are only 16-games in a football season, there is a rather Byzantine tie breaking procedure to determine which team will enter the playoffs either as a division champion or as a wild card if there is a tie in the record: it is an 11-step procedure beginning at head-to-head matchups (games played between the clubs) and ending with a coin flip.

Seedings. Within each conference, the two top teams (or "seeds") are granted a "playoff bye" - meaning they do not play the first week of the playoffs. This gives them an extra week to rest and get healthy while the other teams play off to determine which will advance. The conference seedings determine which teams play at home - the team with the highest seeding in a match up, plays at home.

This years' playoff teams and their seedings:

National Football Conference:

1. Dallas Cowboys (13-3)

2. Green Bay Packers (13-3)

3. Seattle Seahawks (10-6)

4. New York Giants (10-6)

5. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-7)

6. Washington Redskins (9-7)

American Football Conference:

1. New England Patriots (16-0)

2. Indianapolis Colts (13-3)

3. San Diego Chargers (11-5)

4. Pittsburgh Steelers (10-6)

5. Jacksonville Jaguars (11-5)

6. Tennessee Titans (10-6)

An interesting dynamic in the AFC seedings: you will note the Jaguars have a better overall record than the Steelers, yet the Steelers are seeded higher. This is because the Steelers were a division winner, having the best record in their division, and as such will have a higher seeding than the wild card team.

Another interesting note: after the first two seeds in the NFC tournament, the playoff teams are 10-6 and 9-7 indicating a considerable drop off. The AFC actually had a 10-6 team fail to make the playoffs (Cleveland Browns) because they were on the wrong side of the tie breaking procedures with the Jaguars.

The Cowboys and Patriots will have home field advantage for as long as they are in the playoffs. The Packers and Colts will have home field advantage until they play the higher seeded Cowboys and Patriots. The 6-seed team would never have a home field advantage.

Wild Card Weekend. The first week of the playoffs is the "Wild Card Round." It is this week that the Wild Card teams and the lowest seeded division champions play for the right to advance in the playoffs. The highest seeded teams always play the lowest seeded teams as the privilege of having outplayed the other teams in the conference.

The 3-seed plays the 6-seed; the 4-seed plays the 5-seed. This process is repeated twice over the first playoff weekend - 2-games in each conference playoff.

Division Round (8 teams remain). The following week, the 4-remaining teams in each Conference from the Wild Card round are matched up in the Division Round against the top seeded teams; the 1-seed plays the lowest remaining conference seed, the 2-seed plays the highest remaining conference seed.

Conference Championships (4 teams remain). The winners of the Division Round of the playoffs advance to the Conference Championship games. The winner of each Conference championship is that conferences' representative to the Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl (2 teams remain). Super Bowl XLII will be played on February 3, 2008 at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, home field of the Arizona Cardinals. The winner of this Super Bowl will be the NFL Champion for the 2007 football season.

The Dallas Cowboys have made 8-Super Bowl appearances, winning 5 times

The Green Bay Packers have made 4- appearances, winning 3 times

The Seattle Seahawks lost their only Super Bowl appearance

The New York Giants have made 3-appearances, winning 2 times

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have won their only Super Bowl appearance

The Washington Redskins have made 5-appearances, and won 3 times

The New England Patriots have made 5 appearances, and won 3 times

The Indianapolis Colts have made 3 appearances, and won 2 times

The San Diego Chargers lost their only Super Bowl appearance

The Pittsburgh Steelers have played 6 Super Bowls and won 5

The Jacksonville Jaguars have never reached the Super Bowl

The Tennessee Titans have lost their only Super Bowl appearance.

The Packers, Redskins, Colts and Giants all won NFL Championships before the champion was decided in the Super Bowl, but the above only considers the "Super Bowl" appearances.

Enjoy. Enjoy your newfound understanding of the playoff structure of the NFL.

On the Web:

http://football.about.com/cs/football101/a/nfl_tiebreakers.htm

http://www.nfl.com/schedules?seasonType=POST&season=2007#Week

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NFL_champions4