NFL Standings 2016
American Football Conference
National Football Conference
About NFL Standings 2016
This article will focus on what the NFL conference standings are, how they are divided, and, most importantly, what impact it has on the NFL playoffs. Having said that, let us first get an insight into the NFL, as American football is widely considered to be the most beloved sport in the USA.
The NFL (National Football League) is an American football sports league. Even though it may not be so popular elsewhere, this league can easily claim the title as the number one sports league in North America. The league is a member of the so-called ‘Big 4 sports’ in America, featuring alongside the NBA, MLB, and NHL. The NFL, as many know, has been hugely popular for ages in this part of the world, yet outside of the North American continent, the game of gridiron football has not captivated the spectators as much as it would have liked. The good news is that the league is now trying to reach out to the global stage, and they have started by hosting some games in Europe. Now that we have a general idea of the sport’s demand let us understand the NFL conference standings in detail.
What are NFL conference standings?
The NFL is made up of 32 teams spread across the entire nation. All of these teams are divided into two different conferences, which we will see a bit later. Both conferences are then further subdivided into 4 divisions of 4 teams each. As per the conference to which the teams belong, they are ranked according to the number of wins. Of course, the standings are not only about that, as they also take into consideration other important factors such as the number of losses, ties, points for, points against, etc. As the season progresses, the NFL conference standings continue to get updated, and the teams find themselves moving up or down the table as per their performance each week.
Types of NFL Conference Standings
The NFL conference standings, as discussed earlier, are made up of two different conferences, and they are the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). Such a division came into existence when two rival football leagues merged into one, thus forming the AFC and the NFC. Teams falling in the conferences are as below:
AFC | NFC |
The NFL conference standings table generally has a lot of information in it. It is not limited to just the win-loss record, but it has a lot of other useful data which may come into play in case of a tiebreaker to decide the playoff spots.
The NFL conference standings play a vital role in determining where each team will be ranked in the playoffs. They also help in determining which teams are the contenders for the wild card spots. Furthermore, when multiple teams have the same record, then the tiebreaker rules come into play, which is also determined by the standings table.
