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AFC Championship Game is a football game played every year to determine the champion of the American Football Conference of the National Football League.
The game has been played every year since 1960. From 1960 to 1969, it was known as the AFL Championship Game and determined the winner of the American Football League. From 1965 to 1969, the champion of the American Football League faced the winner of the National Football League in the Super Bowl. When the AFL and NFL merged in 1970, the AFL became the American Football Conference of the NFL, and the championship game was renamed the AFC Championship Game with the winner advancing to face the NFC champion in the Super Bowl.
Playoff Structure
The current NFL is divided into two conferences, the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). Each conference is further divided into four divisions. Each division winner qualifies for a playoff berth. In addition, the two non division winning teams with the best records in each conference qualify as "wild card" teams.
The NFL playoff are a single elimination tournament. There are three rounds of the playoffs before the Super Bowl. The Wild Card Round, The Divisional Round, and The Conference Round. The AFC Championship Game is the Conference Round for the AFC.
WILD CARD ROUND
The two division winning teams with the best record in each conference are seeded # 1 and # 2 and given a "bye" (an automatic pass into the Divisional Round without the need to play and win a game) in the Wild Card Round. The two lower division winners are seeded # 3 and # 4 and play the two wild card teams (seeded # 5 and # 6) in the Wild Card Round. A wild card team is always seeded lower than a division winner, even if the wild card team has a better win/loss record than the division winner. Seeding is important because the higher seed has home field advantage. The # 3 seeded team plays the # 6 seeded team and the # 4 team plays the # 5 team.
DIVISIONAL ROUND
In the divisional round, the # 1 and # 2 seeded teams begin play. The # 1 seeded team plays a home game against the lowest remaining seed and the # 2 seeded team plays the remaining team. The winners of the two games advance to the Conference Round.
CONFERENCE ROUND
The AFC Championship Game acts as the Conference Round for the AFC, just as the NFC Championship Game does for the NFC. The higher remaining seed hosts the lower remaining seed in the game with the winner becoming champion of the AFC and advancing to the Super Bowl.
This curent playoff structure has been in use since 2002 when the NFL expanded to 32 teams.
Game History
A summary of each years game is found in the following table.
Latest AFC Championship Game
The 2005 AFC Championship game took place on January 23 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots. The latter team was the winner of the game and they are the current AFC Champions. They will play the Philadelphia Eagles, winners of the NFC, in Super Bowl XXXIX on February 6, 2005 at ALLTEL Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida.
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