National Football Conference

National Football Conference (NFC)

National Football Conference logo (2010-present)
League	National Football League
Sport	American Football
Formerly	National Football League, pre 1970 AFL-NFL merger
Founded	1970
No. of teams	16
Most recent champion(s)	Green Bay Packers (3rd title)
Most titles	Dallas Cowboys (8 titles)

The National Football Conference (NFC) is one of the two (NFC and AFC) conferences of the National Football League (NFL). This conference and its counterpart, the American Football Conference (AFC), currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL.

Current teams

Since 2002, the NFC has comprised 16 teams, organized into four divisions each containing four teams: East, North, South, and West.

Division	Team	City	Stadium
East	Dallas Cowboys	Arlington, TX	Cowboys Stadium
	New York Giants	East Rutherford, NJ	MetLife Stadium
	Philadelphia Eagles	Philadelphia, PA	Lincoln Financial Field
	Washington Redskins	Landover, MD	FedExField
North	Chicago Bears	Chicago, IL	Soldier Field
	Detroit Lions	Detroit, MI	Ford Field
	Green Bay Packers	Green Bay, WI	Lambeau Field
	Minnesota Vikings	Minneapolis, MN	Mall Of America Field
South	Atlanta Falcons	Atlanta, GA	Georgia Dome
	Carolina Panthers	Charlotte, NC	Bank of America Stadium
	New Orleans Saints	New Orleans, LA	Louisiana Superdome
	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	Tampa, FL	Raymond James Stadium
West	Arizona Cardinals	Glendale, AZ	University of Phoenix Stadium
	St. Louis Rams	St. Louis, MO	Edward Jones Dome
	San Francisco 49ers	San Francisco, CA	Candlestick Park
	Seattle Seahawks	Seattle, WA	CenturyLink Field

Season structure

Main article: National Football League#Season structure

Each NFC team plays the other teams in their division twice (home and away) during the regular season, in addition to 10 other games assigned to their schedule by the NFL in the April before. Two 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 2007 regular season, each team in the NFC West will play a game apiece against each team in both the AFC North and the NFC South. 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 season, a series of playoff games are contested among the top six teams in the NFC, consisting of the four division champions (by place standing) and the two other teams ("wild cards") with the best win-loss records. The NFC playoffs culminate in the NFC Championship Game for the George Halas Trophy. The NFC Champion plays the AFC Champion in the Super Bowl.

History

Original National Football Conference logo (1970-2009)

The NFC was created after the NFL merged with the American Football League (AFL) in 1970.^[1] While all of the former AFL teams along with the NFL's Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Baltimore Colts formed the American Football Conference (AFC), the remaining 13 NFL teams formed the NFC. The NFL Capitol, Central, and Coastal Divisions became the NFC East, Central and West Divisions, respectively.

However, team owners could not agree to a plan on how to align the clubs in the NFC. The alignment proposals were narrowed down to five finalists, and then the plan that was eventually selected was picked out of a glass bowl by then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle's secretary, on January 16, 1970.^[2]

5 plans for 1970

The five alignment plans for the NFC in 1970. Plan 3 was selected:

• Plan 1
  • Eastern - Atlanta, Minnesota, New York Giants, Philadelphia, Washington
  • Central - Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, New Orleans
  • Western - Dallas, Los Angeles Rams, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco
• Plan 2
  • Eastern - Minnesota, New York Giants, Philadelphia, Washington
  • Central - Atlanta, Dallas, New Orleans, St. Louis Cardinals
  • Western - Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco
• Plan 3
  • Eastern - Dallas, New York Giants, Philadelphia, St. Louis Cardinals, Washington
  • Central - Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, Minnesota
  • Western - Atlanta, Los Angeles Rams, New Orleans, San Francisco
• Plan 4
  • Eastern - Minnesota, New York Giants, Philadelphia, St. Louis Cardinals, Washington
  • Central - Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay
  • Western - Dallas, New Orleans, Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco
• Plan 5
  • Eastern - Detroit, Minnesota, New York Giants, Philadelphia, Washington
  • Central - Chicago, Dallas, Green Bay, St. Louis Cardinals
  • Western - Atlanta, Los Angeles Rams, New Orleans, San Francisco

Three expansion teams have joined the NFC since the merger, thus making the current total 16. When the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers joined the league in 1976, they were temporarily placed in the NFC and AFC, respectively, for one season before they switched conferences. The Seahawks returned to the NFC as a result of the 2002 realignment. The Carolina Panthers joined the NFC in 1995.

Since 1970, NFC teams have won 25 out of 45 Super Bowls.^[3]

Since the 2002 realignment, no NFC team has made back-to-back Super Bowl appearances. Since 2001--when the St. Louis Rams lost Super Bowl XXXVI to the New England Patriots--the NFC has sent 10 of 16 teams to the Super Bowl, with only Atlanta (which appeared in Super Bowl XXXIII just three years prior), Dallas (last appeared in Super Bowl XXX), Detroit (never appeared in a Super Bowl), Minnesota (last appeared in Super Bowl XI, currently the longest such drought in the NFC), San Francisco (last appeared in Super Bowl XXIX), and Washington (last appeared in Super Bowl XXVI) having not appeared for the conference, although the Falcons and Vikings have appeared in the NFC Championship Game in that span. By contrast, the AFC have sent either the Indianapolis Colts, New England Patriots, or the Pittsburgh Steelers in every year in that same span except for 2002, when the Oakland Raiders lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl XXXVII.

Logo

The original NFC logo, in use from 1970–2009, depicted a blue 'N' with three stars across it. The three stars represented the three divisions that were used from 1970-2001 (Eastern, Central and Western).^[4] The 2010 NFL season brought an updated NFC logo. Largely similar to the old logo, the new logo has a fourth star, representing the four divisions that have comprised the NFC since 2002.^[5]

References

1. ^ "Pro Football - HISTORY". http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com/WAKI-ViewArticle.aspx?pin=x-fo055624a&article_id=608&chapter_id=13&chapter_title=Sports&article_title=Pro_Football_History. Retrieved 2009-04-03. 
2. ^ Stellino, Vito (1999-10-07). "NFL to try realign play". Baltimore Sun. http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1999-10-07/sports/9910070115_1_nfc-central-nfc-west-division-afc-central. Retrieved 2010-01-24. 
3. ^ "Chronology of Professional Football". http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/history/pdfs/History/Chronology.pdf. Retrieved 2010-09-23/. 
4. ^ "National Football Conference Logo". http://www.sportslogos.net/logo.php?id=4715. Retrieved 2009-12-29. 
5. ^ Paul Lukas. "But I Absolutely Refuse to Write About the Draft Caps". Uni Watch blog. http://www.uniwatchblog.com/2010/03/02/but-i-absolutely-refuse-to-write-about-the-draft-caps/. Retrieved 2010-04-16.