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Difference Between NFC and AFC

football-americanNFC vs. AFC

Many NFL fan’s, when asked to compare NFC and AFC, don’t know how to differentiate and distinguish one from the other. Most of the fans don’t even give a fuzz about it, and often neglect the difference between these two. They only want to see the action, and feel the excitement that the game brings. I don’t blame them, I like the game as well, but it gets even more exciting if you know what and who will play from both sides of NFL.

To remove our confusion between the two leagues, NFC stands for National Football Conference, and AFC stands for American Football Conference. These are the conferences of the National Football league. In the Late 60’s, these were two different Pro Leagues, which were not connected to each other. They are often known as big rivals in the football world, but due to popular demand, they merged together to form one Pro League, which drove more fans and more money to both conferences.

The National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC) are somehow similar to the ‘National League’ and ‘American League’ of the ‘Major League Baseball Conference’. However, these two old Leagues have their own different rules about the designated hitter, while the AFC and the NFC have identical rules, and are in the same league. Each conference has an average of 16 teams, which are divided equally. The NFC has its own playoffs to determine who will be the next NFC Champ at the end of each regular season. The same goes for the AFC, before the end of the season, the AFC Champ is also selected in the same process. The champions of both sides will then face each other in the Super Bowl, to determine who will become the next NFL Champion. The Game at the Super Bowl will be immense. Most of the fans come from all across the United States to see the action, and the excitement, of a game which determines the Champion of Champions.

The NFC has divisions to get the final four teams, and they are divided based on their skills and categories. One of the divisions from the North is composed of the teams from Detroit, Chicago, Minnesota and Green Bay. Another division from the South is composed of teams from Carolina, New Orleans, Tampa Bay and Atlanta. The teams from the East are the following: The New York (giants), Washington, Dallas and Philadelphia. And lastly, those from the West are the teams from St. Louis, Arizona, Seattle and San Francisco. After the final 4 teams have won, they will play in the NFC playoff’s, to determine the Champion.

The AFC has several divisions as well. Those from the North are composed of teams from Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. The teams from the South are coming from Tennessee, Houston, Jacksonville and Indianapolis. Easterners are the teams from Buffalo, New York (Jets), Miami and New England. Lastly, from the Western side, are the teams from San Diego, Denver, Oakland and Kansas City. These 16 teams will also fight for the AFC title. This is the way it has been since 2001, which makes each league more competitive.

1. The teams playing in each league varies.

2. The teams who play in one league, cannot co-exist or play concurrently in another league, because each winner in one conference or league will receive a different trophy.

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  1. I didn’t realize that Seattle, SF, and Arizona were all east coast teams.
    And to my utter surprise, Washington DC and NYC are now apparently on the West Coast.

    I think you got your NFC east and west scrambled.

  2. great post I’m a massive football fan from Holland

  3. I don’t understand how they say that the NFC and AFC play against each other in the Superbowl. Then why do they play against each other before the Superbowl? And why doesn’t all the NFC teams go against all the AFC teams? There has been many seasons where one or more NFC team doesn’t play against every NFC team. Also, why is it that the NFC and AFC teams don’t play against all the teams in their own “conference” either?

    • Just like the Giants and Pats played against each other yesterday. I don’t get it.

      • It is my understanding that each conference is divided into 4 divisions (North, South, East, and West), and that each team WILL play every other team in their respective divisions twice. Other than that requirement, the teams from each conference are free to play each other as determined by the NFL during the off-season, throughout the regular season, and then the 4 teams with the best win record from each conference will face each other in their respective conferences’ playoffs (AFC and NFC have their own playoffs). THEN, the AFC champs will face the NFC champs in the Super Bowl.

        • Great clarity…I appreciate ur feed back because I wasn’t obtaining the full understanding…u did a better job explaining than the article!!! Kuddos

    • Each year one NFC division will play against one AFC division it changes and I have no clue how do they determine which is going to play again who

  4. Because there is only 17 game weeks each team can’t play against the other 31 teams in one season. Thay been said… every team have to play against their devision rivals twice every year and against all team in their conference within two year. Also every team have to play against the opponents from the other conference within four years. Including each team has to have one pause each season. It is a big mathematical equation and super computers are used to keep track of the schedule… This is why teams from different conferences play against each other before the super bowl. By the way I’m from Denmark and big fan of American football.

  5. I’m still confused but I will enjoy the Pro Bowl & Super Bowl just the same. You are right – It is about the excitement of a good game no matter who is playing – GO PATS!

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