Changes

==Arrangement and League Play==

==Arrangement and League Play==

The league is composed of 32 professional [[American Football|football]] teams from the [[United States]] (of the four major professional sports leagues it is the only one not to have a team located in [[Canada]]), divided into two conferences (the American and the National), each of which have four, four-team divisions.  Although the divisions have "directional" names (East, North, South, and West) they have little meaning geographically (for example, the NFC East is comprised of the New York Giants, Philadelphia, Washington and Dallas, notwithstanding that Carolina is further east and geographically closer than Dallas to the other three teams) and much to do with rivalry and media (the aforementioned NFC East comprises four top-10 media markets, and all four teams have long-standing historic rivalries with each other; Dallas-Washington being the most well-known).

The league is composed of 32 professional [[American Football|football]] teams from the [[United States]] (of the four major professional sports leagues it is the only one not to have a team located in [[Canada]], and in its long history never has), divided into two conferences (the American and the National), each of which have four, four-team divisions.  Although the divisions have "directional" names (East, North, South, and West) they have little meaning geographically (for example, the NFC East is comprised of the New York Giants, Philadelphia, Washington and Dallas, notwithstanding that Carolina is further east and geographically closer than Dallas to the other three teams) and much to do with rivalry and media (the aforementioned NFC East comprises four top-10 media markets, and all four teams have long-standing historic rivalries with each other; Dallas-Washington being the most well-known).

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Teams play sixteen regular season games over seventeen weeks (each team receives a "bye" week in which it doesn't play), comprised of six games in a home-and-home against the other three teams in its division, six games against other conference opponents (two from each of the other conference divisions, over a six-year period every team will play every other conference opponent home-and-home), and four teams against all the opponents of a division from the other conference (over an eight-year period, every team will play every other team in the other conference home-and-home).

At season's end, seven teams from each conference (the winners of each division and three "wild-card" teams which are the teams in each conference with the best record among non-division winners), or 14 teams total, make the playoffs.  The remaining 18 teams, in strict reverse order of finish, receive the first 18 picks in each of the seven rounds of the subsequent NFL Draft (the NFL does not use a "lottery" system like the [[NBA]]), which can be freely traded between teams subject to league rules (or, if a team is disciplined for conduct, can be forfeited).

Fourteen teams qualify for the playoffs (the winners of each division and three "wild-card" teams which are the teams in each conference with the best record among non-division winners).  The playoff consists of four rounds:

The playoff teams are seeded in each conference as 1 (the division winner with the best record in the conference; that team gives a first-round bye and has home-field advantage through the conference championship), 2 through 4 (the next three division winners based on record; they will have home-field advantage against any lower-seeded opponent through the conference championship), and 5 through 7 (the three wild-card teams based on record; they will play their initial playoff games on the road and would only host a playoff game against a lower-seeded wild-card team with the 7 seed not able to host any games).  A division winner will always be seeded higher than a wild-card team even if the wild-card team has a better regular-season record.

*The first round features the three wild card teams from each conference against the three division winners with the poorer records (the division winner with the best record is given a bye).

 

*The second round features the winners from the first round, the lowest-seeded winner goes up against the division winner that had the first-round bye, while the other two teams play each other with the higher seeded team hosting.

The playoff consists of four rounds:

*The first round features the 2 through 4 division winners vs. the 5 through 7 wild-card teams, with the matchups being 2-7, 3-6, and 4-5.

*The second round features the winners from the first round and the 1 seed; the playoff matchups are based on the prior week's results with the 1 seed hosting the lowest-remaining seed and the highest-remaining seeded team hosting the second-lowest seeded team remaining (for example, if the 2, 4, and 6 seeds win, the matchups would be 1-6 and 2-4).

*The third round is the "conference championship", featuring each second round winner; the team with the highest seed hosts.

*The third round is the "conference championship", featuring each second round winner; the team with the highest seed hosts.

*The playoffs culminate in the NFL's championship game, the [[Super Bowl]], featuring the winners from each conference.  The Super Bowl is played at a pre-determined location: not until Super Bowl LV would a team play a Super Bowl game in its own stadium (the [[Tampa Bay Buccaneers]] in Raymond James Stadium).

*The playoffs culminate in the NFL's championship game, the [[Super Bowl]], featuring the winners from each conference.  The Super Bowl is played at a pre-determined location: not until Super Bowl LV would a team play a Super Bowl game in its own stadium (the [[Tampa Bay Buccaneers]] in Raymond James Stadium).