NFL Playoff Rules: Wild Card

The National Football League playoff system allows each of the four division winners and the next two best teams per conference to claim a spot in the playoffs. This arrangement allows for fans in many markets to have playoff hopes late in the season, but at the same time does not water down the playoff quality with too many teams.

  1. Wild Card Standings

    • In each of the four divisions in each conference, the division winner gets an automatic berth in the playoffs. The next two spots are taken by the teams with the next two best records, regardless of the division in which they play. Thus, three teams from one division can make the playoffs, though this is not very likely in the current conference structure of four divisions of four teams each. Should multiple teams be tied for any of the playoff spots, the standard NFL tie-breaking rules apply, starting with head-to-head match up result and moving on through conference record, common-games record and more, if needed.

    Who Plays Who

    • The top two seeded teams do not play the first week of the playoffs, also called “wild card weekend” and so called because in previous playoff structures only wild card teams played on this weekend. The structure—in theory—rewards more successful teams by allowing the existing highest-seeded team to play the lowest-seeded team at home. The two wild card teams are the fifth and sixth seeds in the playoffs, so the sixth seed plays at the third seed and the fifth seed plays at the fourth seed in this first weekend. Should the sixth seed team win, its next game would be at the first seed’s home field. If the sixth seed loses and the fifth seed wins, the fifth seed will play at the first seed.

    Criticisms

    • In the current playoff structure, one—or even both—wild card team may have a better record than a division winner, yet still not enjoy the advantages that come with winning a division. For instance, if a team wins the AFC East with a 13-3 record, the second place team in that division could be a 12-4 wild card team. This record could be better than a theoretical winner of the AFC North at 11-5. This most notably happened in the 2008 season when the fourth seeded AFC West champs San Diego Chargers at 8-8 hosted—and defeated—the 12-4 and fifth seeded wild card Indianapolis Colts. Though some have criticized this system, the NFL keeps it in that it stresses the importance of winning a division—and thus divisional games—over general overall record.