1968 AFL season

1968 American Football League season
Regular season	September 6, 1968 - December 15, 1968
Champions
All-Star game

The 1968 American Football League season was the ninth regular season of the American Football League, and its penultimate season prior to the AFL-NFL Merger.

The season ended when the New York Jets defeated the Oakland Raiders in the AFL Championship Game; the Jets then defeated the National Football League's Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III in one of the biggest sports upsets in history.

Division races

With the addition of the Cincinnati Bengals, the AFL's ten teams were grouped into two divisions. Each team would play a home-and-away game against the other four teams in its division, one game against each of the five teams in the opposite division, and a second game against one of the other division's teams.

The best team in the Eastern Division would play against the best in the Western Division in a championship game. If there was tie in the standings (as happened when Oakland and Kansas City both finished at 12-2-0), a playoff would be held to determine the division winner.

Week	EASTERN		WESTERN
1	BOSTON	1-0-0	Tie (KC, SD)	1-0-0
2	Tie (Bos, NYJ)	1-0-0	Tie (Oak, SD)	1-0-0
3	N.Y. JETS	2-0-0	Tie (Oak, SD)	2-0-0
4	Tie (Bos, NY)	2-1-0	OAKLAND	3-0-0
5	N.Y. JETS	3-1-0	OAKLAND	4-0-0
6	N.Y. JETS	3-2-0	KANSAS CITY	5-1-0
7	N.Y. JETS	4-2-0	KANSAS CITY	6-1-0
8	N.Y. JETS	5-2-0	KANSAS CITY	7-1-0
9	N.Y. JETS	6-2-0	KANSAS CITY	7-2-0
10	N.Y. JETS	7-2-0	KANSAS CITY	8-2-0
11	N.Y. JETS	7-3-0	KANSAS CITY	9-2-0
12	N.Y. JETS	8-3-0	Tie (KC, Oak)	9-2-0
13	N.Y. JETS	9-3-0	Tie (KC, Oak)	10-2-0
14	N.Y. JETS	10-3-0	Tie (KC, Oak)	11-2-0
15	N.Y. JETS	11-3-0	Tie (KC, Oak)	12-2-0

Standings [1]

The Cincinnati Bengals joined the league as an expansion team.

Eastern Division
Team	W	L	T	PCT	PF	PA
*New York Jets	11	3	0	.786	419	280
Houston Oilers	7	7	0	.500	303	248
Miami Dolphins	5	8	1	.385	276	355
Boston Patriots	4	10	0	.286	229	406
Buffalo Bills	1	12	1	.077	199	367

Western Division
Team	W	L	T	PCT	PF	PA
*Oakland Raiders	12	2	0	.857	453	233
Kansas City Chiefs	12	2	0	.857	371	170
San Diego Chargers	9	5	0	.643	382	310
Denver Broncos	5	9	0	.357	255	404
Cincinnati Bengals	3	11	0	.214	215	329

* — Team qualified for Championship Game.
Italics mean team qualified for the playoffs.

Playoffs

Main article: AFL playoffs, 1968

• Western Division playoff
  • Oakland Raiders 41, Kansas City Chiefs 6, December 22, 1968, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland, California
• AFL Championship Game
  • New York Jets 27, Oakland Raiders 23, December 29, 1968, Shea Stadium, New York City

• Super Bowl III
  • N.Y. Jets (AFL) 16, Baltimore Colts (NFL) 7, at Orange Bowl, Miami, Florida

External links

• Football Database