National Football Conference
|
|
The National Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League. The Conference was created for the 1970 NFL season. The NFC had 13 teams in 1970. As of 2003, there are 16 teams.
The NFC currently consists of 16 teams, organized into four divisions (North, South, East, and West) of four teams each. Each team plays the other teams in their division twice (home & away) during the regular season in addition to 10 other games/teams assigned to their schedule by the NFL in the April before. 2 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 2005 regular season, each team in the NFC East will play a game apiece against each team in both the AFC West and the NFC West. 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 football season, a series of playoff games involving the top six teams in the NFC are played, consisting of the four division champions by place standing and the top two remaining non division champion teams ("wildcards") by record. The two teams remaining play in the NFC Championship game with the winner receiving the George Halas Trophy. The NFC Champion plays the AFC Champion in the Super Bowl.