Top seeds

The odds of Super Bowl LII featuring the top seed from each conference are a long shot.

Since 1975 when the NFL’s playoff format began basing home field advantage on teams’ regular season winning percentages, Super Bowl LII (2017 season) will mark just the thirteenth time the game will showcase the conference’s top seeds.

Following the NFL-AFL merger in 1970 and through 1974, 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.

Since home field advantage counted in the post-merger playoffs, 24 of the NFC’s top seeds have reached the Super Bowl. The 2016 New England Patriots are just the 23rd top seeded AFC team to reach the Super Bowl but only eight 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.