How the NFL Works

The Regular Season

Each conference has four divisions (East, North, South and West) of four teams. Every team plays its three division rivals twice, home and away, which makes six of its 17 games; the rest of the schedule rotates by year against other divisions. Division games carry extra weight because division winners are guaranteed a playoff spot.

Regular-season games can end in a tie (see overtime below). In the standings a tie counts as half a win and half a loss.

When teams finish with the same record, the NFL applies a list of tiebreakers in order: head-to-head results first, then records within the division or conference, against common opponents, and several steps beyond.

Overtime Rules

If the score is tied after four quarters, the game goes to overtime. A coin toss decides who gets the ball first. Since 2025 the regular season and the playoffs share the same core rule: both teams are guaranteed a possession, even if the first team scores a touchdown.

How the possessions play out:

• If the first team scores a touchdown, the second team gets the ball and needs a touchdown of its own to keep the game going.
• If the first team kicks a field goal, the second team can tie it with a field goal or win it with a touchdown.
• If the first team doesn’t score, the second team can win with any score.
• The only way the game ends on the first possession is if the defense scores: an interception or fumble returned for a touchdown, or a safety (the offense tackled in its own end zone).
• Once both teams have had the ball and it’s still tied, it becomes sudden death: the next score of any kind wins.

Regular season

Overtime is a single 10-minute period. If it’s still tied when the 10 minutes run out, the game ends in a tie. The clock matters: if the first team’s drive uses up all 10 minutes, the other team never gets the ball.

Playoffs

Overtime periods are 15 minutes, and play continues through as many periods as it takes. Playoff games can’t end in a tie.

On SportRec’s charts, overtime appears as its own section after the fourth quarter. A game that ends early in overtime stops the chart at the winning score.

The Playoffs

Seven teams from each conference make the playoffs, 14 in all:

• The four division winners are seeded 1 through 4 by record. Winning the division guarantees a home playoff game, even over a wild card team with a better record.
• The three best remaining teams are the wild cards, seeded 5 through 7.

Every round is a single game, and the higher seed hosts every game before the Super Bowl.

Wild Card Round

The No. 1 seed in each conference gets a bye and skips this round. The other six teams play: 2 hosts 7, 3 hosts 6, and 4 hosts 5. That makes six games, typically spread across one weekend.

Divisional Round

The bracket is reseeded within each conference: the No. 1 seed hosts the lowest-seeded team left in its conference, and the other two winners play at the higher seed’s stadium. That’s two games per conference, four in all.

Conference Championships

The two remaining teams in each conference meet in the AFC Championship and the NFC Championship, hosted by the higher seed. The winners are the conference champions and advance to the Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl

The AFC champion plays the NFC champion at a neutral site chosen years in advance, typically two weeks after the conference championships. Overtime follows the playoff rules above.