 American Football Conference logo (2010–present) | |
| Formerly | American Football League (AFL) |
|---|---|
| League | National Football League |
| Sport | American football |
| Founded | 1970 |
| No. of teams | 16 |
| Most recent champion | Kansas City Chiefs (5th title) |
| Most titles | New England Patriots (11 titles) |
TheAmerican Football Conference (AFC) is one of the twoconferences of theNational Football League (NFL), the highest level of professionalAmerican football in the United States. The AFC and its counterpart, theNational Football Conference (NFC), each have 16 teams organized into fourdivisions. Both conferences were created as part of the1970 merger between the National Football League, and theAmerican Football League (AFL). All ten of the AFL teams, and three NFL teams, became members of the new AFC, with the remaining thirteen NFL teams forming the NFC. A series of league expansions and division realignments have occurred since the merger, thus making the current total of 16 teams in each conference. The current AFC champions are theKansas City Chiefs, who defeated theBuffalo Bills in the2024 season'sAFC Championship Game for their fifth conference championship and went on to loseSuper Bowl LIX against thePhiladelphia Eagles.
As of 2025 the AFC only has one defined officer, the president, which is essentially an honorary position with few powers and mostly ceremonial duties, including awarding the conference championship trophy.
Like the NFC, the conference has 16 teams organized into fourdivisions each with four teams:East,North,South andWest.[1][2][3]
| POS | AFC East | AFC North | AFC South | AFC West |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Bills | Ravens | Texans | Chiefs |
| 2nd | Dolphins | Steelers | Colts | Chargers |
| 3rd | Jets | Bengals | Jaguars | Broncos |
| 4th | Patriots | Browns | Titans | Raiders |
| POS | NFC East | NFC North | NFC South | NFC West |
| 1st | Eagles | Lions | Buccaneers | Rams |
| 2nd | Commanders | Vikings | Falcons | Seahawks |
| 3rd | Cowboys | Packers | Panthers | Cardinals |
| 4th | Giants | Bears | Saints | 49ers |
Currently, the fourteen opponents each team faces over the 17-game regular season schedule are set using a predetermined formula:
Each AFC team plays the other teams in their respective division twice (home and away) during the regular season, in addition to eleven other games assigned to their schedule by the NFL: three games are assigned on the basis of a particular team's final divisional standing from the previous season, and the remaining eight games are split between the roster of two other NFL divisions. This assignment shifts each year and will follow a standard cycle. Using the 2023 regular season schedule as an example, each team in the AFC West plays against every team in the AFC East and NFC North. In this way, non-divisional competition will be mostly among common opponents – the exception being the three games assigned based on the team's prior-season divisional standing.
At the end of each season, the four division winners and threewild cards (non-division winners with best regular season record) in the AFC qualify for theplayoffs. The AFC playoffs culminate in theAFC Championship Game, with the winner receiving theLamar Hunt Trophy. The AFC champion then plays theNFC champion in theSuper Bowl. As of 2025 the AFC representative team has won the Super Bowl 27 out of the 55 total editions, with theKansas City Chiefs being the most recent AFC Super Bowl winner in2024. TheNew England Patriots have won the most AFC championships with 11, and share the record for the most Super Bowls won by a member of the conference with thePittsburgh Steelers who won 8 AFC championships with 6.
With the impendingmerger with theAmerican Football League (AFL) for the1970 NFL season, the league had careful discussion over the nature of which teams would play in the newly instituted conferences. Then-NFL President and owner of theCleveland BrownsArt Modell had suggested of a format in which three teams from the NFL would move to the AFC to create two thirteen-team conferences. But negotiations between NFL commissionerPete Rozelle and other owners was rampant in who would move (for his part, Modell had first assumed the three most recent expansion NFL teams -Minnesota Vikings,Atlanta Falcons,New Orleans Saints would be the ones to move to the AFC), since others wanted to simply have no realignment of NFL teams.[20][21] The AFL had begun play in 1960 with eight teams before adding two more expansion clubs (theMiami Dolphins in 1966 and theCincinnati Bengals in 1968) before the merger.
Modell was hospitalized for internal bleeding around the time negotiations were still going. Moreover, Modell was struggling to service the debt he incurred from his purchase of the Browns. Furthermore, he realized there was an opportunity to establish alucrative in-state rivalry with the newly established Bengals, who had been founded byPaul Brown after Modell had forced him out of Cleveland after purchasing the team.
When Modell was visited in the hospital byArt Rooney (owner of thePittsburgh Steelers) andWellington Mara (owner of theNew York Giants), Modell offered to have his franchise move to the AFC, provided two other "old guard" franchises did so as well and the three affected teams to move were adequately compensated for joining what was still looked down on in NFL circles as a "junior" or "inferior" circuit. Not wanting to lose hislong-established rivalry with Cleveland, the equally cash-strapped Rooney quickly agreed to join the Browns in the AFC. The other NFL owner to ultimately agree to move was theBaltimore Colts'Carroll Rosenbloom.
Thus, in order to equalize the number of teams in each conference, three NFL teams that predated the AFL's launch (theCleveland Browns,Pittsburgh Steelers, and the then-Baltimore Colts) joined the ten former AFL teams to form the AFC in exchange for $3 million each in indemnities, with the announcement coming on May 10, 1969.[22] The two AFL divisionsAFL East andAFL West were more or less intact, while the NFL'sCentury Division, in which the Browns and the Steelers had played since 1967, was moved from the NFL to become the new AFC Central. Upon the completion of the merger of the AFL and NFL in 1970, the newly minted American Football Conference had already agreed upon their divisional setup along mostly geographical lines for the1970 season; the National Football Conference, however, could not agree upon their setup, and one was chosen from a fishbowl on January 16, 1970.
Since the merger, five expansion teams have joined the AFC and two have left, thus making the current total 16. When theSeattle Seahawks and theTampa 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 the2002 realignment. The expansionJacksonville Jaguars joined the AFC in 1995. There have been five teams that have relocated at least once. In 1984, theBaltimore Coltsrelocated to Indianapolis. In 1995, theCleveland Browns had attempted to move to Baltimore; the resultingdispute between Cleveland and the team led to Modell establishing theBaltimore Ravens with the players and personnel from the Browns, while the Browns were placed in suspended operations before they were reinstated by the NFL. The Ravens were treated as an expansion team.
InCalifornia, theOakland Raiders relocated toLos Angeles in 1982, back to Oakland in 1995, and then toLas Vegas in 2020, while theSan Diego Chargers returned toLos Angeles in 2017 after 56 years inSan Diego.
TheHouston Oilers moved toTennessee in 1997, where they were renamed the Tennessee Oilers. The team would change its name again, two years later, to theTennessee Titans.
The NFL would again expand in 2002, adding theHouston Texans to the AFC. With the exception of the aforementioned relocations since that time, the divisional setup has remained static ever since.
Between 1995 and 2022, the AFC has sent only 9 of its 16 teams to theSuper Bowl:New England Patriots (10 times),Pittsburgh Steelers (4 times),Denver Broncos (4 times),Baltimore Ravens (2 times),Indianapolis Colts (2 times),Kansas City Chiefs (3 times),Cincinnati Bengals (1 time),Las Vegas Raiders (1 time),Tennessee Titans (1 time). By contrast, theNFC has sent 13 of the 16 NFC teams during that same time frame with only theDetroit Lions,Minnesota Vikings, andWashington Commanders missing out on an appearance in theSuper Bowl. 17 of the 19 AFC champions from 2001 to 2019 have started one of just three quarterbacks -Tom Brady,Peyton Manning andBen Roethlisberger - in the Super Bowl. The AFC has started 7 quarterbacks in the last 20 Super Bowls, while the NFC has started 16.
The original AFC logo was very similar to the AFL logo, however the merged league quickly created an updated logo for the AFC that, while preserving the basic elements of the old AFL logo, used a much bolder red "A" and six similarly bold red stars surrounding it, in contrast to the six blue AFL stars. The league also created a logo for the NFC in 1970, which like the AFL and AFC logos also contained only the first letter as opposed to a full abbreviation, but with only three stars (to represent the then-three divisions of the Conference). 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, which itself was updated at the same time to add a fourth star.[23]
Notably, theKansas City Chiefs (still owned by the descendants of AFL founderLamar Hunt) continue to regularly feature the original AFL logo on their jerseys as of 2025.
NBC aired the AFC's Sunday afternoon and playoff games from 1970 through the 1997 season. From 1998 to 2013,CBS was the primary broadcast rightsholder to the AFC; in those years, all interconference games in which the AFC team was the visiting team were broadcast on either NBC or CBS. Since 2014, the cross-flex policy allows select AFC games (that involve them playing an NFC team at home or intraconference games) to be moved from CBS to Fox. Since 1990, select AFC playoff games have been seen on ABC or ESPN.
What is capacity in the new Stadium? The capacity is being reduced from 76,018 to approximately 65,326 seats.
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