The NFL splits its 32 teams into 8 divisions, four in the AFC and four in the NFC, with four teams in each division. NFL teams by division have stayed in the same alignment since 2002. That’s when the Houston Texans joined as an expansion franchise and forced the league to create its first-ever AFC South. Every team’s schedule, playoff path, and biggest rivalries flow directly from which of those 8 groups it belongs to.
This guide lists all 32 teams by division. It breaks down which division has actually won the most Super Bowls, plus the rivalries that provide each division its identity.
How Many Divisions Does the NFL Have?
Eight, and that number has held steady for more than two decades. The NFL organized itself into divisions back in 1970, when the AFL-NFL merger created the American and National Football Conferences. Each conference ran three divisions for over 30 years. That changed in 2002, once the arrival of the Houston Texans pushed the AFC to 16 teams and forced a fourth division in each conference.
That 2002 realignment is the version still in place today. Every team you see below has played in the same division since then, aside from a handful of relocations that moved a franchise’s city but not its division.
The AFC’s Four Divisions
AFC East
The Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, and New York Jets make up the AFC East. New England’s six Super Bowl titles carried this division through the 2000s and 2010s. The Bills-Patriots and Jets-Patriots matchups still anchor the division’s identity, even now that Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have moved on.
AFC North
The Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers form the AFC North. Every team here plays a physical, defense-first style. The Ravens-Steelers rivalry, born the moment Baltimore replaced Cleveland as Pittsburgh’s chief antagonist in 1996, remains one of the league’s most consistently brutal series.
AFC South
The Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Tennessee Titans round out the AFC South. The league created this division specifically to accommodate Houston’s 2002 arrival. It’s also the youngest division by identity, since two of its four teams, Houston and Jacksonville, didn’t exist as NFL franchises before the mid-1990s.
AFC West
The Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, and Los Angeles Chargers make up the AFC West. Three of these four franchises trace back to the old AFL. The Chiefs-Raiders rivalry started in that league’s inaugural 1960 season, and it still carries the same edge decades later.
The NFC’s Four Divisions
NFC East
The Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, and Washington Commanders make up the NFC East. This division has produced more combined Super Bowl history than any other. Cowboys-Eagles alone ranks among the most bitter rivalries in the sport.
NFC North
The Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, and Minnesota Vikings form the NFC North. Packers-Bears is the oldest rivalry in the American football world. It dates back to 1921, decades before either team’s current division even existed on paper.
NFC South
The Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers constitute the NFC South, the youngest division in the league. It didn’t exist until the 2002 realignment split apart the old NFC West. None of its four rivalries carry the multi-generational weight of divisions that formed decades earlier.
NFC West
The Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers, and Seattle Seahawks round out the NFC West. The 49ers’ dynasty years of the 1980s and 1990s still define the division’s national reputation. The Seahawks-49ers game has supplied most of the division’s best football since Seattle’s rise in the early 2010s, though.
Division Records: Which Division Has Won the Most Super Bowls
The NFC East leads every other division by a wide margin. The real number is even higher than the figure most sites still repeat. Cowboys (5), Giants (4), Commanders (3), and Eagles (2) combine for 14 Super Bowl titles, once you count Philadelphia’s win in Super Bowl LIX. Several older roundups miss that total, since they never updated after that game.
| Division | Combined Super Bowl Titles | Leading Team |
|---|---|---|
| NFC East | 14 | Cowboys (5) |
| AFC West | 10 | Chiefs (4) |
| AFC East | 9 | Patriots (6) |
| NFC West | 9 | 49ers (5) |
| AFC North | 8 | Steelers (6) |
| NFC North | 5 | Packers (4) |
| NFC South | 3 | Buccaneers (2) |
| AFC South | 2 | Colts (2) |
The AFC South sits at the bottom for a reason tied directly to age. Two of its four franchises, the Texans and Jaguars, didn’t exist before 1995. That leaves the division’s entire championship history resting on a pair of Colts titles, one won as the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl V and one won as Indianapolis in Super Bowl XLI.
The NFL’s Oldest and Fiercest Division Rivalries
The Packers-Bears hold the title of the oldest continuously active rivalry in the league. The two teams first met in 1921, nearly 50 years before either team’s current division even existed. A handful of team-history purists point to the Bears-Cardinals as technically older by franchise founding date. That matchup stopped being a division rivalry decades ago, though, once the Cardinals moved on to St. Louis and eventually Arizona.
The Cowboys-Eagles game carries the modern era’s sharpest edge. Dallas won 21 of 23 meetings between 1967 and 1978, and the rivalry hasn’t cooled since. It spilled into a pregame brawl as recently as 2018. Steelers-Ravens works differently, built entirely on tough, physical football rather than blowouts in either direction. The series has rarely produced the lopsided stretches the Cowboys and Eagles once had.
Cowboys-Commanders deserves its mention for pure championship weight. The two franchises have combined for 37 division titles and 8 Super Bowl wins between them. Yet they’ve only met twice in the playoffs, both times in NFC Championship games, with Washington winning both. That’s a rare case of a rivalry built almost entirely on regular-season stakes rather than postseason history.
Why Divisions Exist and How Realignment Works
Divisions exist to simplify scheduling across a 32-team league. Every team plays its three division rivals twice a year, home and away. That locks in six of a team’s 17 games before the league even touches the rest of the schedule. This structure also feeds directly into how the playoff bracket gets built, since all four division winners in each conference qualify automatically no matter how their record compares to the rest of the league.
Realignment doesn’t happen often. The league has only redrawn its divisional map twice since the 1970 merger: once in 2002, and never since. No expansion or relocation is currently in motion that would force a third.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many divisions are in the NFL?
Eight. Each conference, the AFC and the NFC, has four divisions of four teams each, for a total of 32 teams in the league.
What teams are in the AFC North?
The Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers make up the AFC North, one of the league’s most physical, defense-driven divisions.
What teams are in the NFC West?
The Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers, and Seattle Seahawks make up the NFC West.
Which NFL division has won the most Super Bowls?
The NFC East, with 14 combined titles from the Cowboys, Giants, Eagles, and Commanders. That’s more than any other division by a wide margin.
What is the oldest rivalry in the NFL?
The Packers and Bears first played in 1921. Some team historians argue Bears-Cardinals is technically older by founding date, but it hasn’t functioned as an active division rivalry in decades.
When did the NFL last realign its divisions?
2002, when the Houston Texans joined the league and pushed the AFC to 16 teams. That forced the creation of the AFC South, and the league hasn’t changed its divisional map since.
Why does the NFL organize teams into divisions?
Divisions simplify scheduling across 32 teams and guarantee each team plays its closest rivals twice a season. They also determine automatic playoff qualification for each division’s winner.
What teams are in the AFC South?
The Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Tennessee Titans make up the AFC South, the division with the fewest combined Super Bowl titles in the league.
Which division has the fewest Super Bowl titles?
The AFC South has just 2 teams, all of which belong to the Colts franchise. Two of the division’s four teams, the Texans and Jaguars, didn’t exist as franchises before the mid-1990s.
Are the Steelers and Ravens in the same division?
Yes, both play in the AFC North alongside the Bengals and Browns. Their rivalry began in 1996, when the Ravens relocated from Cleveland to Baltimore.
NFL teams by division comes down to a simple structure: 8 groups of 4 that hasn’t changed since 2002, despite two decades of roster turnover, relocations, and new stadiums. The records and rivalries built inside those divisions keep shifting every season, though. The complete list of all 32 franchises is worth bookmarking alongside this one for whenever the alignment questions come up again.
