History Story

Ever since 1975, the playoff format has relied on teams’ regular season winning percentages to decide home field for the ever important postseason games. That was not always the case. Following the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, the realigned NFL set a predetermined postseason schedule for a four-year period based on specific divisions hosting playoff games regardless of the records of that season’s playoff teams. That explains why, in 1972, the 14-0 Miami Dolphins had to travel to Pittsburgh for the AFC championship game against the 11-3 Steelers. The format that year had the AFC Central Division champions hosting the game if they won the divisional playoff one week earlier.

The Dallas Cowboys defeated the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVIII, 30-13.

Today, much focus is placed on the two teams who compiled the best regular season record in their respective conferences to earn home field advantage throughout the playoffs. That distinction this year belonged to the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC and the Denver Broncos in the AFC. Both teams finished with 13-3-0 records in 2012.

If one studies the past success of top seeds, the fact remained there was a slim chance of the Falcons and Broncos meeting in New Orleans for Super Bowl XLVII. With their elimination from this year's playoffs, in the past 38 seasons, since 1975, only nine Super Bowls have featured the top seed from each conference. Prior to the matchup three years ago between the top-seeded New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts, the last time a Super Bowl featured each of the conference's top-ranked team was when the Dallas Cowboys downed the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVIII following the 1993 regular season.

History indicated that the Falcons should have liked their chances of reaching Super Bowl XLVII slightly better than the Broncos in the AFC. Since home field advantage counted in the post-merger playoffs, 21 of the NFC’s top seeds have reached the Super Bowl. Fourteen of the NFC teams were victorious. In the AFC, 19 of the top seeded teams made the Super Bowl but only six were crowned world champions.

Here is a look at the year-by-year summary of how the top seeded teams in the AFC and NFC fared since 1975.