NFL Divisional Playoffs betting odds at WagerWeb Sportsbook

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NFL Divisional Playoffs betting odds at WagerWeb Sportsbook

NFL Divisional Playoffs

The National Football League (NFL) playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held at the end of the 16-game regular season to determine the NFL champion.

Six teams from each of the league's two conferences qualify for the tournament based on regular season records, and a tiebreaking procedure exists in the case of equal records. It ends with the Super Bowl, the league's championship game.

NFL postseason history can be traced to the first NFL Championship Game in 1933, though in the early years, qualification for the game was based solely on regular season records. The first true NFL playoff began in 1967, when four teams qualified for the tournament.

When the league merged with the American Football League in 1970, the playoffs expanded to eight teams. The playoffs were expanded to ten teams in 1978 and twelve teams in 1990. Recently, there have been calls in the media and within the league itself to expand the playoffs again to 14 or even 16 teams.

Current playoff system

The 32-team league is divided into two conferences: the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). As of 2002, each conference is further divided into 4 divisions of 4 teams each. The tournament brackets are made up of six teams from each of the league's two conferences, following the end of the 16-game regular season. Qualification into the playoffs are as follows:

* The four division champions from each conference (the team in each division with the best regular season won-lost-tied record), which are seeded 1 through 4 based on their regular season won-lost-tied record.

* Two wild card qualifiers (those non-division champions with the conference's best winning percentages), which are seeded 5 and 6.

The first round of the playoffs is dubbed the Wild Card Playoffs (the league in recent years has also used the term Wild Card Weekend). The 3rd-seeded division winner hosts the 6th seed wild card, and the 4th seed hosts the 5th. The 1 and the 2 seeds from each conference receive a bye in the first round, which entitles these teams to automatically advance to the second round, the Divisional Playoff games, to face the Wild Card survivors. Unlike most tournaments, with a predetermined bracket, each round of the playoffs is 're-seeded'; the highest surviving seed always hosts the lowest surviving seed, the second-highest hosts the second-lowest, etc. This guarantees each division winner at least one home playoff game The two surviving teams from the Divisional Playoff games meet in Conference Championship games, with the winners of those contests going on to face one another in the Super Bowl.

If teams are tied (having the same regular season won-lost-tied record), the playoff seeding is determined by a set of tiebreaking rules.

A disadvantage that critics cite in the current system is that a divisional winner could host a playoff game against a wild card team that earned a better regular season record. For example, the Jacksonville Jaguars finished the 2005 regular season with a 12-4 record, but only qualified as a wild card team (the AFC South title was claimed by the 14-2 Indianapolis Colts) and thus had to face the New England Patriots, the AFC East division champions with a record of 10-6, at Gillette Stadium, in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Since the 2002 expansion to 8 divisions, there have been calls to expand the playoffs to 14 or even 16 teams. Proponents of expansion note the increased revenue that could be gained from 2 or even 4 more playoff games. They also note that the 12-team playoff system was implemented when the league only had 28 teams. With expansion to 32 teams, there has been an effective loss of access to the playoff structure. The opposition to such a move notes that an expansion of the playoffs would "water down" the field by giving access to lower-caliber teams. One can point to the NBA Playoffs and the NHL Playoffs where 16 teams qualify for the post season, and there is often decreased emphasis on regular season performance.

Breaking ties

Often, teams will finish a season with identical records. It becomes necessary, therefore, to devise means to break these ties, either to determine which teams will qualify for the playoffs, or to determine seeding in the playoff tournament. The rules below are applied in order until the tie is broken. If three teams are tied for one playoff spot, the rules are applied only until the first team qualifies. If multiple playoff spots are at stake, the rules are applied in order until the first team qualifies, then the process is started again for the remaining teams.

1. Head-to-head (team with the best record in all games played between the teams tied)
2. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the division. (This is for determining Division Champion; also, if there is a tie for a wild-card berth, this is used for breaking ties within a division)
3. Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games (only applicable with a minimum of 4 common opponents)
4. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference.
5. Strength of victory (winning percentage of opponents that were beaten)
6. Strength of schedule (winning percentage of all opponents played)
7. Best combined ranking among conference teams in points scored and points allowed. (That is, the "strength of victory" for all opponents from the same conference.)
8. Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed (That is, the "strength of victory" for all opponents.)
9. Best net points in common games
10. Best net points in all games
11. Best net touchdowns in all games
12. Coin flip.

The tiebreaking rules have changed over the years, with the most recent changes being made in 2002; record vs. common opponents and most of the other criteria involving wins and losses were moved up higher in the tiebreaking list, while those involving compiled stats such as points for and against were moved to the bottom.

A completely different set of tiebreaking rules are used to determine the order in which teams pick in the NFL draft.

Tiebreaking tutorial

The Bears, Cowboys, and Rams all have 10-6 records, and none are their division champion. Since there are two available wildcard spots, we apply these rules. Suppose the Bears beat the Cowboys, the Cowboys beat the Rams, and the Rams beat the Bears. The first criterion cannot apply (since there is no clearcut head-to-head winner). Since this is a wild-card tiebreaker (and the teams are from different divisions), we skip criterion 2. Finally, we see that the Bears had a 3-1 record versus common opponents (criterion 3), while the Rams had a 2-2 record, and the Cowboys a 1-3 record. This would cause the Bears and Cowboys to advance, since:

* The Bears qualify on the common-opponents rule.

* Because the Bears have now been selected for a playoff spot, we then break the Cowboys-Rams tie for the other wildcard spot. So we return to the head-to-head rule, meaning the Cowboys advance. The fact that the Rams had a better record against common opponents is irrelevant because this is a lower criterion.

In the example above (3-way tie among the Bears, Cowboys, and Rams), no 2 teams were from the same division. If a tie involves 3 or more teams, any ties within a division are broken first, and then the remaining ties are broken.

Playoff and Championship History

The Super Bowl Era

The Super Bowl began as an interleague championship game between the AFL and NFL. This compromise was the result of pressures the upstart AFL was placing on the older NFL. The success of the junior league would eventually lead to a full merger of the two leagues.

From the 1966 season to the 1969 season (Super Bowls I-IV) the game featured the champions of the AFL and NFL. Since the 1970 season, the game has featured the winners of the National Football Conference(NFC) and the American Football Conference(AFC).

When the leagues merged in 1970, the new NFL (with 26 teams) reorganized into two conferences of three divisions each. From the 1970 season to the 1977 season, four teams from each conference (for a total of eight teams) qualified for the playoffs each year. These four teams included the three division champions, and a fourth Wild Card team. Originally, the home teams in the playoffs were decided based on a yearly rotation. The league did not institute a seeding system for the playoffs until 1975, where the surviving clubs with the higher seeds were made the home teams for each playoff round. Thus, the top seeded division winner would play the wild card team, and the remaining two division winners would play at the home stadium of the better seed. However, two teams from the same division could not meet prior to the conference championship game. Thus, there would be times when the pairing in the Divisional Playoff Round would be the 1 seed vs. the 3 seed and 2 vs. 4.

Following an expansion of the regular season from 14 to 16 games in the 1978 season, the league added one more wild card team for each conference. The two wild card teams would play the week before the division winners. The winner of this game would play the top seeded division winner as was done from 1970-1977. The league continued to prohibit intra-divisional games in the Divisional Playoffs, but allowed such contests in the Wild Card Round. This ten-team playoff format was used through the 1989 season. Under this system, the Oakland Raiders became the first Wild Card team to win a Super Bowl following the 1980 season.

During the strike-shortened 1982 season only nine regular season games were played, and a modified playoff format was instituted. Divisional play was ignored (there were some cases where division rivals had both games wiped out by the strike), and the top eight teams from each conference (based on W-L-T record) were advanced to the playoffs. This was the only year that teams with losing records qualified for the playoffs, the 4-5 Cleveland Browns and the 4-5 Detroit Lions.

For the 1990 season, a third wild card team for each conference was added, expanding the playoffs to twelve teams. The lowest-seeded division winner was then "demoted" to the wild card week. Also, the restrictions on intra-divisional games during the Divisional Playoffs were removed. From 1990 until the 1995 expansion, the NFL had two 4-team divisions, thus for that time period it was technically possible for an entire division to make the playoffs. This never did happen. This format continued until the 2002 expansion and reorganization into eight divisions. The modern systemdates from that year.

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