Over its nearly century-long history, the National Football League has gone from having no postseason at all to staging a four-round playoff tournament involving eight division winners and four runners-up. The last two teams left standing play for the league title in the Super Bowl, whose TV audience now tops 100 million people in the United States alone.
The Early Years
From its initial season in 1920 until 1932, the NFL had no divisions, no set schedule and no playoffs. Franchises came and went from year to year, and they played games against both league teams and non-league teams. At the end of the season, whichever team had the best winning percentage was named the league champion. They couldn't go strictly by won-loss record, because teams didn't even play the same number of games. In 1926, for example, the league champion Frankford Yellow Jackets played 17 games, finishing 14-1-2, while the last-place Louisville Colonels and Hammond Pros played only four games each, losing them all.
Divisional Play
In 1933, the NFL organized itself into two four-team divisions, with the two division winners meeting at season's end in the NFL Championship Game. Though the number of teams in each division fluctuated, this postseason format remained in place until 1966. There were no "wild-card" playoff teams, but if two teams finished tied for a division lead, they held a divisional playoff game. When the rival American Football League began play in 1960, it used the same format: two divisions, with the winners meeting in a championship game, and the option of an extra playoff game in case of a division tie.
The Super Bowl Transition
The AFL and NFL reached a merger agreement in 1966. The merger wouldn't be complete until 1970, but one of the first effects of the deal was a new title game between the champions of the two leagues -- what would eventually be called the Super Bowl. In preparation for the merger, both leagues expanded their playoffs to four teams and two rounds. The NFL split itself into four divisions, with each division winner advancing to the playoffs; the AFL remained at two divisions but added two playoff berths for wild-card teams -- the non-division-winning teams with the best records.
Wild-Card Growth
When the leagues merged in 1970, the NFL arranged itself into two conferences: the National Football Conference, or NFC, and the American Football Conference, or AFC. Each conference had three divisions. The three division winners advanced to the postseason, as did one wild-card team, for two rounds of playoffs before the Super Bowl.
In 1978, each conference added a second wild-card team and created a new "wild-card" round of the playoffs. The two wild-card teams in each conference played in the first round, while the three division winners advanced directly to the second, or "divisional," playoff round. The winners in the divisional round met for the two conference championships, and the conference champions went on to the Super Bowl.
In 1990, each conference added a third wild-card team. Under the new playoff system, the three wild cards and the division winner with the worst record played in the wild-card round, while the two division winners with the best records got "byes" to advance directly to the divisional round.
The 32-Team League
In 2002, the league expanded to 32 teams. Each conference now had 16 teams, arranged in four divisions of four teams each. The two division winners with the best records advanced directly to the divisional round while the two remaining division winners and two wild-card teams played in the wild-card round.
References
- Pro-Football-Reference.com: Years
- "America's Game"; Michael McCambridge; 2004
- "The Encyclopedia of Football," 16th Edition; Roger Treat, ed.; 1979
- The New York Times: Super Bowl Is Most-Watched Show in U.S. History
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