Understanding The Playoffs

This week in the NFL (American Football) the wildcard games will be played. Wildcard teams are teams that come 5th and 6th overall in the conferences.

How the Playoffs Work

The NFL is split into two conferences, the AFC (American Football Conference) & the NFC (National Football Conference). To make this easier to understand I will explain one conference.

The AFC

Each conference contains four divisions. AFC East, AFC West, AFC North and AFC South. These teams were orgianally in the AFL until it merged with the NFL. The teams in the AFC East are Buffalo Bills of Orchard Park, Miami Dolphins of Miami Gardens, New England Patriots of Foxborough, and New York Jets of Florham Park. AFC West are In each division there are four teams. These four teams play each other twice and and 10 other teams. Teams wins and losses (records) are used to determine where they are placed in the conference, however the winners of the divisions are placed in positions 1-4 based on their records. 1st and 2nd seed teams gain a first round bye. 3rd and 4th placed teams are scheduled to play against 5th and 6th placed teams. 3rd vs 6th and 4th vs 5th. The winner of these two match ups play against 1st and 2nd seeded teams. For example the number one seeded team plays against the lower seeded team and 2nd plays the higher seeded team.

The Playoffs

This year in the next round the Denver Broncos play the San Diego Chargers, the New England Patriots play the Indianapolis Colts, the Seattle Seahawks play the New Orleans Saints, the Carolina Panthers play the San Francisco 49ers. Enjoy Watching!