GlossaryAmerican football (NFL)
How NFL playoff seeding works
Each conference sends seven teams to the playoffs — the four division winners (seeded 1–4 by record) and three wild cards (5–7); the No. 1 seed gets a first-round bye.
Division winners are always seeded above wild-card teams, even if a wild card has a better record. The top seed skips the first round (the bye) and every round is played at the higher seed's stadium, which is why late-season games that decide seeding matter almost as much as making the field.
See it in the numbers
Open the spreadsheet and watch this appear in live scores and standings — disguised as work.
Related terms
Down & distance ('3rd & 7')
'3rd & 7' means it's third down with 7 yards to go for a new set of downs; an offense gets four downs to gain 10 yards or it turns the ball over.
How to read a league table
A league table ranks teams by points; the columns to its right show how those points were earned — games played, wins, draws, losses, goals for and against, and goal difference.
How points work (3-1-0)
In most football leagues a win is worth 3 points, a draw 1 and a loss 0; the team with the most points at the end of the season wins the title.
Form (the W-D-L run)
Form is a team's recent results shown as a short string of letters — W for a win, D for a draw, L for a loss — usually the last five games, most recent last.