Understanding American football : the playoff bracket

This issue of understanding American football has 

Understanding the playoff bracket 

Who gets what seed 

Who plays who 

The bracket and seeding 

Let’s start simple and break it right down , 7 teams will enter the playoffs from each conference , 1 team with the best record will receive a first round bye and will not play until the second game week known as the divisional round. The other 6 teams will play in the first week known as wildcard weekend, the 6 teams conclude of 3 division winners and the 3 best records outside of the 4 division winners. In week one the 2 seed plays the 7 seed , the 3 seed plays the six seed , and the 4 plays the 5. Note before we traverse any further , the 4 division winners will all receive a home game. Pretty simple concept right, well sort of , this is where things get interesting and we enter our second paragraph.

Who plays who?!

You might be thinking from there it’s just a normal bracket where they play horizontally across the bracket? Sadly , incorrect. Instead the 1 seed will play the lowest remaining seed , leaving 2 teams remaining for the divisional round. After this round of games it’s a straightforward road to the Super Bowl where the 2 winners will play each other in the NFC/AFC conference championship, the winners of both games will then find themselves in the big game.

Some diagrams I’ve compiled to help you understand 

This is a diagram of before wildcard weekend.

This is the diagram before the divisional round and as you can see , the lowest seed plays the 1 seed and the other 2 fight it out 

This is the diagram for the AFC / NFC championship, as you can see both winners wind up playing each-other for an attempt at a superbowl appearance 

And finally , the superbowl diagram where both conference winners fight it out.