With the 2015-16 NFL Playoffs underway and there being a lot of questions about same, we will attempt to tell you how the playoffs work, as to many they can be somewhat tricky. Those whom have followed the league for an entire season or various seasons generally understand the system, but for others it can be confusing because of how the teams are selected and the way the teams standing values are set.
We hope that we can provide you with some information that will clear up some of the questionable areas of the NFL Playoff so you can enjoy what we think is the best part of the annual NFL Seasons, especially if you Bet on NFL football at a sportsbook.
So in trying to clear things up about the NFL Playoffs, let’s start with Conferences, as you have the NFC conference and the AFC conference of which each consist of 4 divisions and each division has 4 teams. The 4 divisions of each conference have a division from the North, East, West and South. Normally that is a geographical selection. Then to determine the winner each season, the team with the best record is normally named the winner for the division.
Another factor is Home Field Advantage which is determined by which team out of the conference division has the best overall record is the team that is awarded the Home Field Advantage (HFA) as well as a 1st Round Bye. What that refers to is that for the Divisional Round and Conference Championship game the team will play those games at their home stadium (and that concludes that they won their divisional game.
Then there is the 1st Round Bye and that is awarded to the team in each conference that is 1st overall, and also goes to the 2nd overall team in each conference, and that team gets to bypass the 1st round and or Wild Card Round and start their playoff games when the 2nd round begins, and also get HFA in the Divisional Round and could possibly get HFA in the next round of game. That is determined by which team has the best record moving on into the Conference Championship game.
Then comes the Division Winners which are the teams that have the best record for their conference, and they move on to the postseason but must play in the Wild Card Round of games. That merely means that unlike the teams that had a bye in the 1st round, they would need to play three games and not just 2 games, and before the Super Bowl each season.
The Wild Card Winners is the area of the playoffs that confuses some fans, as the Wild Cards games go to 2 teams in each conference with the best record and that are not the divisional winners in the playoffs. Another way to view this, the top 4 winners is not involved, and then comes the 2 teams with best records this season, and the same 2 teams then are awarded a Wild Card for each conference respectively. Thus, in the 1st round of the NFL Playoffs they will play against the #3 and #4 seeds as previously stated.
Hopefully this will answer some of your questions as the NFL playoffs continue on heading towards Super Bowl 50.