American Football Conference

American Football Conference or AFC is a conference under the big umbrella of the National Football League or NFL. The American Football Conference became an entity when the NFL decided to merge with the American Football League in the year 1970.

During the merger, some AFL teams were combined with the following teams from NFL: Indianapolis Colts, Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns. At the time of the merge, the other NFL teams were transferred to the National Football Conference. The fans of the previous cities, however, were not too happy with the new alignment.

Over the years, the merger has seen two AFC teams leave while 5 more joined the group. To date, there are 16 active teams participating in the American Football Conference. However, the league was not without controversy as one of the transferred teams, the Cleveland Browns, suffered from the relocation controversy. As a result, the AFC created a new franchise named the Baltimore Ravens. As for the Browns, although they were held inactive for quite awhile, in 1999, the said team was reactivated.

The current 16 teams are divided into 4 groups which make up the North, South, East and West divisions. During the regular season, each team plays against its fellow teams under their respective division twice. In addition to this, 10 games are assigned in their schedule to complete the rest of the regular season.

Much like in basketball, at the end of the regular season, a playoff series is held pitting the top 6 teams against each other. The six teams consist of the 4 top teams of each division, plus two wild card teams.

The AFC logo consists of the AFL “A” with surrounding 6 red stars, three on each side of the “A”.