National Football Conference

National Football Conference

The National Football Conference (NFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL). The NFC was created after the league merged with the American Football League (AFL) in early 1970. The NFC had 13 teams that year, all of which played in the NFL before the merger. Meanwhile, all of the former AFL teams along with the NFL's Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Baltimore (now Indianapolis) Colts formed the American Football Conference (AFC).

Since the merger, three expansion teams have joined the NFC, thus making the current total 16. When the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers joined the league in 1976, they were temporarily placed in the NFC and AFC, respectively, for one season before they switched conferences. The Seahawks returned to the NFC as a result of the 2002 realignment. The Carolina Panthers joined the NFC in 1995.

These 16 teams are organized into four divisions (North, South, East, and West) of four teams each. Each team plays the other teams in their division twice (home and away) during the regular season in addition to 10 other games/teams assigned to their schedule by the NFL in the April before. Two of these games are assigned on the basis of the teams' final record in the previous season. The remaining 8 games are split between the roster of two other NFL divisions. This assignment shifts each year. For instance, in the 2006 regular season, each team in the NFC East will play a game apiece against each team in both the AFC South and the NFC South. In this way division competition consists of common opponents, with the exception of the 2 games assigned on the strength of the each team's prior season record.

At the end of each season, a series of playoff games are contested among the top six teams in the NFC, consisting of the four division champions (by place standing) and the two other teams ("wild cards") with the best won-loss records. The NFC playoffs culminate in the NFC Championship Game for the George Halas Trophy. The winner plays the AFC Champion in the Super Bowl.