playoffs in nfl (2026)
The playoffs in NFL football are a 14-team, single-elimination tournament that starts the weekend after the regular season ends and runs through the Super Bowl in February. Seven teams from the AFC and seven from the NFC qualify, four division winners and three wild cards per conference, with the top seed in each conference earning a bye through the first round.
How the NFL playoff format works
Since the 2020 season, the NFL has used a 14-team bracket, up from 12. Each conference sends its four division champions plus the three non-division-winning teams with the best records. Seeding runs 1 through 7 based on regular-season record, with head-to-head results, division record, and other tiebreakers used when teams finish tied.
The No. 1 seed in each conference is the only team to get a bye week. Everyone else plays in the wild card round, and the bracket reseeds after each round rather than following a fixed side-by-side structure like March Madness. That means the No. 1 seed always plays the lowest remaining seed, not a predetermined opponent.
2025-26 seeding structure
- Seed 1: Division winner with the best conference record, receives a first-round bye
- Seeds 2-4: Remaining three division winners, ranked by record
- Seeds 5-7: Wild card teams, the three non-division winners with the best records
The four rounds, explained
Wild card round
Six games, three per conference, played over a weekend in mid-January. The No. 2 seed hosts No. 7, No. 3 hosts No. 6, and No. 4 hosts No. 5. The No. 1 seed sits out.
Divisional round
Four games remain. The No. 1 seed now enters, hosting the lowest-seeded winner from wild card weekend. The other divisional game pairs the two remaining wild card winners, with the higher seed hosting.
Conference championships
The AFC and NFC each crown a champion in a single game, played on the same day. Winners advance to the Super Bowl; there’s no third-place or consolation game.
Super Bowl
The AFC and NFC champions meet at a neutral site roughly two weeks after the conference championships. Unlike every earlier round, home-field advantage doesn’t apply, the site is chosen years in advance by owner vote.
Typical playoff calendar
Dates shift slightly year to year, but the sequence stays consistent:
- Wild card weekend: mid-January
- Divisional round: following weekend
- Conference championships: following Sunday
- Super Bowl: roughly two weeks after conference championships, typically the first or second Sunday of February
A short history of playoff expansion
The NFL’s postseason traces back to the 1933 NFL Championship Game, which simply matched the two best division records with no bracket at all. Expansion came in stages:
- 1967: Four teams (division winners only)
- 1970 (post-AFL merger): Eight teams
- 1978: Ten teams, first wild card round introduced
- 1990: Twelve teams
- 2020: Fourteen teams, the current format
The NFL is the only major US pro league that uses single-elimination games at every stage of its postseason. The NBA, NHL and MLB all rely on best-of-series formats for at least part of their playoffs, which is part of why NFL upsets tend to feel more volatile: one bad half can end a season.
Tiebreakers and seeding quirks
When teams finish with identical records, the NFL runs through a set list of tiebreakers before falling back to a coin flip (which almost never happens at this stage). The order generally goes:
- Head-to-head record between the tied teams
- Division record (if teams are in the same division)
- Conference record
- Strength of victory, then strength of schedule
- Common opponents record
Strength of schedule and conference record matter most in years when three or four teams bunch up at 10 or 11 wins, which is common in a league built for parity through the salary cap and draft order.
Following the playoffs and betting on games
New York sportsbooks run some of the heaviest promotional activity of the year during the postseason. If you’re tracking lines or looking for sign-up offers, see FanDuel’s NFL playoffs bonus offer and the roundup of New York sports betting promos for championship weekend for what’s currently live.
If you’d rather trade on outcomes than bet fixed odds, PredictIt lists contracts on Super Bowl winners and conference champions that move with public sentiment and news, a different way to follow the bracket beyond straight wagering.
Watch parties are their own tradition once the games get bigger. For the Super Bowl specifically, the Super Bowl bingo watch party game is a low-stakes way to keep a room engaged even if your team didn’t make the bracket.
New York teams and the playoff picture
New York-based fans have had a rough recent stretch chasing a playoff berth. The Bills’ path to a Super Bowl has been a recurring storyline, covered in how a Buffalo Bills Super Bowl victory could finally happen. Earlier in the season, scheduling quirks also shape which games matter most down the stretch, something broken down in can’t-miss games for the Bills, Giants and Jets.
Beyond football: other games on PlayNY
Playoff season overlaps with plenty of downtime between games, and PlayNY covers more than football odds. Fire Kirin covers the popular fish-table sweepstakes game, while Skills and Slots breaks down skill-based slot machines and how they differ from traditional slots. Both are useful reads if you’re looking for something to do during the two-week gap between the conference championships and the Super Bowl.
