American Football Conference

American Football Conference

American Football Conference logo (2010-present)
League	National Football League
Sport	American Football
Formerly	American Football League (AFL)
Founded	1970
Teams
No. of teams	16
Championships
Most recent champion(s)	New England Patriots (8th Title)
Most American Football Conference titles	Tied, Pittsburgh Steelers (8 titles), New England Patriots (8 titles)

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

Current teams

Since 2002, the AFC has 16 teams, organized into four divisions each with four teams: East, North, South and West.

Division	Team	City/Town	Stadium
East	Buffalo Bills	Orchard Park, NY	Ralph Wilson Stadium
	Miami Dolphins	Miami Gardens, FL	Sun Life Stadium
	New England Patriots	Foxborough, MA	Gillette Stadium
	New York Jets	East Rutherford, NJ	MetLife Stadium
North	Baltimore Ravens	Baltimore, MD	M&T Bank Stadium
	Cincinnati Bengals	Cincinnati, OH	Paul Brown Stadium
	Cleveland Browns	Cleveland, OH	FirstEnergy Stadium
	Pittsburgh Steelers	Pittsburgh, PA	Heinz Field
South	Houston Texans	Houston, TX	NRG Stadium
	Indianapolis Colts	Indianapolis, IN	Lucas Oil Stadium
	Jacksonville Jaguars	Jacksonville, FL	EverBank Field
	Tennessee Titans	Nashville, TN	Nissan Stadium
West	Denver Broncos	Denver, CO	Sports Authority Field at Mile High
	Kansas City Chiefs	Kansas City, MO	Arrowhead Stadium
	Oakland Raiders	Oakland, CA	O.co Coliseum
	San Diego Chargers	San Diego, CA	Qualcomm Stadium

Season structure

Main article: National Football League § Season structure

A sample scheduling grid, with a single team's (the Browns) schedule highlighted. Under this hypothetical schedule, the Browns would play the teams in blue twice and the teams in yellow once, for a total of 16 games.

Each AFC team plays the other teams in its division twice (home and away) during the regular season, in addition to 10 other games assigned to their schedule by the NFL the previous May. Two of these games are assigned on the basis of the team's final division standing 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 AFC West played one game against each team in both the AFC South and the NFC North. In this way division competition consists of common opponents, with the exception of the 2 games assigned on the strength of each team's prior division standing. (i.e. the division winner will face the other two division winners in the AFC divisions that they are not scheduled to play) The NFC operates according to the same system.

At the end of each football season, there are playoff games involving the top six teams in the AFC (the four division champions by place standing and the top two remaining non-division-champion teams ("wild cards") by record). The last two teams remaining play in the AFC Championship game with the winner receiving the Lamar Hunt Trophy. The AFC champion plays the NFC champion in the Super Bowl. After Super Bowl XLIX the AFC has won 21 Super Bowls to the 24 won by the NFC. Since losing 13 consecutive Super Bowls in the 1980s and 1990s (XIX–XXXI), the AFC has won 11 of the last 17. The coach of the team with the best record that lost in the AFC Divisional round is the coach of the Pro Bowl.

History

File:Oldafclogo.JPG

Original American Football Conference logo, based on the AFL logo with blue stars

Both the AFC and the NFC were created after the NFL merged with the American Football League (AFL) in 1970. The AFL began play in 1960 with eight teams, and added two more expansion clubs (the Miami Dolphins in 1966 and the Cincinnati Bengals in 1968) before the merger. In order to equalize the number of teams in each conference, three NFL teams that predated the AFL's launch (the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, and the then-Baltimore Colts) joined the ten former AFL teams to form the AFC. The two AFL divisions AFL East and AFL West were more or less intact, while the Century Division, in which the Browns and the Steelers had played since 1967, was moved from the NFL to become the new AFC Central.

Since the merger, five expansion teams have joined the AFC and two have left, 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. This arrangement lasted for one season only before the two teams switched conferences. The Seahawks eventually returned to the NFC as a result of the 2002 realignment. The expansion Jacksonville Jaguars joined the AFC in 1995.

Due to the relocation controversy of the Cleveland Browns, a new AFC franchise called the Baltimore Ravens was officially established in 1996 while the Browns were reactivated in 1999.

The Houston Texans were then added to the league in 2002, joining the AFC.

Between 2000 and 2014, the AFC had sent either the Baltimore Ravens (2 times), the Denver Broncos (1 time), the Indianapolis Colts (2 times), the Oakland Raiders (1 time), the New England Patriots (6 times), and the Pittsburgh Steelers (3 times) to the Super Bowl. By contrast, the NFC has sent 11 different teams during that same time frame.

Logo

2nd American Football Conference logo used from 1970 to 2009

The merged league created a new logo for the AFC that took elements of the old AFL logo, specifically the "A" and the six stars surrounding it. The AFC logo basically remained unchanged from 1970 to 2009. The 2010 NFL season introduced an updated AFC logo, with the most notable revision being the removal of two stars (leaving four representing the four divisions of the AFC), and moving the stars inside the letter, similar to the NFC logo.