How Do NFL Divisions Work? Which Teams Are in the NFC and AFC? Everything to Know
A quick guide to the Division structure of the National Football League, and what it means for your favorite team.
The National Football League is a massive organization comprised of 32 teams, each featuring dozens of players, a coaching staff, and a massive fanbase. It's so big, in fact, that the League has ways of dividing up its teams to make sure things stay competitive.
You've probably heard, for example, the term "Conference" when applied to the NFL. The League is divided into two such conferences of 16 teams each, the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference. Within each of those conferences, there are four Divisions, each containing four teams, further breaking down the League into a structure perfect for setting up playoffs.
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But what are the NFL Divisions? Which teams fit where? How does it all work? Let's take a closer look.
Why does the NFL have divisions?
The short answer is that a divisional structure simply makes scheduling easier. NFL schedules are designed so that each team will play the other members of their division twice per season, which means six games out of the year are automatically within the divisional structure.
That helps maintain rivalries and excitement within each division, establishes key benchmarks of performance for teams within each division, and of course, makes travel easier. The teams are grouped into divisions by rough regionality, which means that everyone is making roughly the same trips during division play, and hopefully getting the same amount of rest. There are exceptions (Dallas, for example, is in a division with Philadelphia, Washington, and the New York Giants), but generally it's a way to make the schedule structure easier in a league with 32 teams.
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Divisions are also, of course, used to set up playoff matchups near the end of the season. If you win your division, you get an automatic trip to the playoffs, and that accounts for eight of the 14 teams competing in the playoffs every year. When the divisional play is used like this, it encourages fierce competitions among the different regions, and of course just makes it easier to schedule the playoff rounds.
Which NFL teams are in which Divisions?
As we've already explained, there are 32 teams in the NFL, 16 in each conference, and four in each division. But which teams are where? Check out the full alignment list below:
AFC East
- Buffalo Bills
- Miami Dolphins
- New York Jets
- New England Patriots
AFC North
- Cincinnati Bengals
- Cleveland Browns
- Baltimore Ravens
- Pittsburgh Steelers
AFC South
- Indianapolis Colts
- Jacksonville Jaguars
- Houston Texans
- Tennessee Titans
AFC West
- Denver Broncos
- Los Angeles Chargers
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Las Vegas Raiders
NFC East
- Washington Commanders
- Dallas Cowboys
- Philadelphia Eagles
- New York Giants
NFC North
- Chicago Bears
- Detroit Lions
- Green Bay Packers
- Minnesota Vikings
NFC South
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Atlanta Falcons
- Carolina Panthers
- New Orleans Saints
NFC West
- San Francisco 49ers
- Arizona Cardinals
- Los Angeles Rams
- Seattle Seahawks
The History of Divisions in the NFL
When the National Football League as we know it formed in 1970, merging the NFL with the American Football League, it set up a divisional system to group teams roughly by region and make playoff structures easier to follow and set up. In the beginning, there were 13 teams in each of the newly formed conferences, and those 13 teams were grouped into three divisions, with one containing five teams and the other two containing four. Each conference had an East Division, a Central Division, and a West Division.
This structure stayed in place for more than 30 years, even as new teams arrived, teams moved from city to city, and other teams briefly disbanded. Throughout the arrival of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Carolina Panthers, the removal and reactivation of the Cleveland Browns, and the city moves of teams ranging from the Tennessee Titans to the Los Angeles Rams, the League held on to three divisions per conference.
That changed in 2002, when the newly formed Houston Texans brought the league up to 32 teams. This led to a restructuring of the divisions in both conferences, expanding the League to four divisions of four teams each per conference. For the last 22 years, we've had a North, South, East, and West division in both the AFC and the NFC, and that shows no signs of changing any time soon.
Catch Sunday Night Football on NBC and Peacock at 8:20 p.m. ET all season long. As always, each game will be preceded by Football Night in America starting at 7:00 p.m. ET, recapping the action of the day and looking ahead to the matchup of the night.
