National Football Conference

The National Football Conference (NFC) is one of the two main groups in the National Football League (NFL), the top professional American football league in the United States. The NFC has 16 teams, just like its partner group, the American Football Conference (AFC). These two groups were formed in 1970 when the NFL joined with another league called the American Football League (AFL).

Originally, the NFC was made up of thirteen older NFL teams, while the AFC included all ten AFL teams and three other NFL teams. Since then, the league has grown and changed the way teams are grouped, but each conference still has 16 teams.

The most recent NFC champions are the Seattle Seahawks, who won the 2025 season NFC Championship Game against the Los Angeles Rams. This was their fourth time winning the NFC title.

Today, the NFC has only one main officer, called the president. This role is mostly for special events and ceremonies, such as giving out the conference championship trophy.

Teams

Since 2002, the NFC has had 16 teams, just like the other conference. These teams are split into four groups, called divisions. Each division has four teams: East, North, South, and West.

Season structure

Main articles: NFL regular season and NFL playoffs

Each team in the National Football Conference (NFC) plays 17 games during the regular season. They play their division rivals twice, and the rest of their games are against teams from other divisions based on a set schedule.

At the end of the season, the top teams from each division and the best teams that didn’t win their division compete in the playoffs. The winner of the NFC playoffs gets to play the winner of the American Football Conference (AFC) playoffs in the Super Bowl. So far, NFC teams have won the Super Bowl 29 times out of 55 games. The Philadelphia Eagles were the last NFC team to win the Super Bowl. The Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers have each won the NFC championship the most times.

History

The National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC) were created when the National Football League (NFL) merged with the American Football League (AFL) in 1970. Before the merger, the AFL had ten teams, and the NFL had 16 teams. After the merger, the AFC was formed from the ten AFL teams plus three NFL teams: the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Baltimore Colts. The remaining 13 NFL teams formed the NFC.

The NFC's divisions were decided in an unusual way. Five different division plans were created, and the final plan was chosen by picking an envelope out of a glass bowl. Plan 3 was selected, which created the Eastern, Central, and Western divisions. Since then, three new teams have joined the NFC, bringing the total to 16 teams. These teams are the Seattle Seahawks, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Carolina Panthers. The NFC has sent many teams to the Super Bowl, but the Detroit Lions have never been there.

Logo

The original NFC logo, used from 1970 to 2009, showed a blue "N" with three stars. These stars stood for the three divisions in the NFC during that time: Eastern, Central, and Western. In 2010, the NFC logo was updated to include a fourth star, representing the four divisions that have been part of the NFC since 2002. The new logo looked similar to the one used by the AFC.

Television

Further information: NFL on television and History of the NFL on television

After the 1970 merger was completed, the league kept working with CBS and NBC. CBS showed games from the NFC teams, while NBC showed games from the AFC teams. For games between the two conferences, CBS showed the game if the visiting team was from the NFC, and NBC showed it if the visiting team was from the AFC. A special game called Monday Night Football (MNF) was shown on ABC, no matter which teams were playing.

Over time, these broadcasting deals changed. The NFC games moved from CBS to Fox in 1994. In 1998, CBS started showing AFC games instead of NBC. In 2014, the league began "cross-flexing," which means CBS and Fox could show games from the other conference if they wanted. ESPN started showing Sunday Night Football (SNF) in 1987, and later NBC took over SNF in 2006. Monday Night Football moved from ABC to ESPN in 2006. Thursday Night Football (TNF) games were shown on different networks before Amazon Prime Video got the exclusive rights in 2022.