National Football League STANDINGS

NFL standings guide

The National Football League is the leading American football competition in the world. Thirty-two teams contest it, split between the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference, each divided into four divisions of four. Each team plays 17 regular-season games across 18 weeks, with one bye week in the schedule, and the same four-division structure has been in place since the league last realigned in 2002.

The standings are ordered on win percentage, and ties are settled first on head-to-head record, then on division and conference record. The four division winners in each conference reach the play-offs automatically, joined by three wild-card teams — the best remaining records in the conference — for seven play-off teams per conference. The top seed in each conference gets a first-round bye and home advantage throughout the play-offs. A club that sweeps its division therefore holds the tiebreaker over every rival it may finish level with, whatever the overall records say.

The play-offs are single-elimination: one defeat ends a season. The divisional rounds lead to the conference championship games, and the two conference champions meet in the Super Bowl. Because every play-off game is win-or-go-home, the regular-season table matters twice over — it decides who qualifies, and it decides who plays at home.

The table on this page shows every team’s position, win percentage and recent form in one view. Use it to follow the divisional races, the wild-card cut-off, and the fight for the first seed and its bye.

The season opens in September, the play-offs follow in January, and the Super Bowl closes the season in February. The schedule is built so every club faces its division rivals twice — home and away — which makes the six divisional games the most important on any club’s calendar: winning the division is the surest route into the play-offs, and it guarantees at least one home game there.