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The National Football League (NFL) consists of
31 teams for the 2001/2002 season with a 32nd team (the Houston
Texans) being added for the 2002/2003 season.
For the 2001/2002 season there are two Conferences of
three divisions of 5-6 teams each. This will be changing to 4 divisions of
4 teams each per conference for the 2002/2003 season.
The regular season runs from September to December
and consists of 17 weeks with each team playing 16 games and having a
single week off (a ‘bye’ week). Under both alignment plans, 12 teams
each season will make the playoffs. For
the 2001/2002 season the 3 division winners as well as the next 3 teams
with the best record (called ‘Wildcards’) will qualify for the
playoffs in each conference.
The third seeded Division winner and the three wildcard teams
compete in the first week of the playoffs. The winners of the two
‘Wildcard games’ play the top two division winners and the winners of
these two games play in the Conference Championship game. The winners of
both the AFC Championship Game and
NFC Championship Game meet to decide the NFL Championship in the Super
Bowl.
Current Alignment:
American Football Conference (AFC)
AFC West:
Denver Broncos
Kansas City Chiefs
Oakland Raiders
San Diego Chargers
Seattle Seahawks
AFC Central:
Baltimore Ravens
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Pittsburgh Steelers
Jacksonville Jaguars
Tennessee Titans
AFC East:
Buffalo Bills
Indianapolis Colts
Miami Dolphins
New England Patriots
New York Jets
National Football Conference (NFC):
NFC West:
Atlanta Falcons
Carolina Panthers
New Orleans Saints
St. Louis Rams
San Francisco 49ers
NFC Central:
Chicago Bears
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers
Minnesota Vikings
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
NFC East:
Arizona Cardinals
Dallas Cowboys
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Washington Redskins
Future Alignment:
American Football Conference (AFC)
AFC West:
Denver Broncos
Kansas City Chiefs
Oakland Raiders
San Diego Chargers
AFC North:
Baltimore Ravens
Cincinnati Bengals
Cleveland Browns
Pittsburgh Steelers
AFC Central:
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Jacksonville Jaguars
Tennessee Titans
AFC East:
Buffalo Bills
Miami Dolphins
New England Patriots
New York Jets
National Football Conference (NFC):
NFC West:
Arizona Cardinals
St. Louis Rams
San Francisco 49ers
Seattle Seahawks
NFC North:
Chicago Bears
Detroit Lions
Green Bay Packers
Minnesota Vikings
NFC South:
Atlanta Falcons
Carolina Panthers
New Orleans Saints
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles
Washington Redskins
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