Editing (section) History of National Football League Championship 0 You are not logged in. The rich text editor does not work with JavaScript switched off. Please either enable it in your browser options, or visit your preferences to switch to the old MediaWiki editor <h3>The institution of "home-field advantage"</h3> <p data-rte-fromparser="true">In <span class="placeholder placeholder-double-brackets" data-rte-instance="24816-1170455735df01dcac03b2" data-rte-meta="%7B%22type%22%3A%22double-brackets%22%2C%22wikitext%22%3A%22%7B%7Bnfly%7C1975%7D%7D%22%2C%22lineStart%22%3A%22%22%2C%22title%22%3A%22nfly%22%2C%22placeholder%22%3A1%7D" contenteditable="false">​<a data-rte-meta="%7B%22type%22%3A%22internal%22%2C%22wikitextIdx%22%3Anull%2C%22text%22%3A%221975%22%2C%22link%22%3A%221975%20NFL%20season%22%2C%22wasblank%22%3Afalse%2C%22noforce%22%3Atrue%7D" data-rte-instance="24816-1170455735df01dcac03b2" href="/wiki/1975_NFL_season" title="1975 NFL season">1975</a>​</span>, the league modified its 1970 playoff format by instituting a seeding system. The surviving clubs with the higher seeds were made the <a data-rte-meta="%7B%22type%22%3A%22internal%22%2C%22text%22%3A%22home%20team%22%2C%22link%22%3A%22home%20team%22%2C%22wasblank%22%3Atrue%2C%22noforce%22%3Atrue%2C%22wikitext%22%3A%22%5B%5Bhome%20team%5D%5D%22%7D" data-rte-instance="24816-1170455735df01dcac03b2" href="/wiki/Home_team" title="Home team">home teams</a> for each playoff round. The three division champions in each conference were seeded first through third based on their regular-season records, with the wild-card team in each conference as the fourth seed. </p><p data-rte-fromparser="true" data-rte-empty-lines-before="1">Teams that earned the top seed became known as clinching "<a data-rte-meta="%7B%22type%22%3A%22internal%22%2C%22text%22%3A%22home-field%20advantage%22%2C%22link%22%3A%22Home%20team%22%2C%22wasblank%22%3Afalse%2C%22noforce%22%3Atrue%2C%22wikitext%22%3A%22%5B%5BHome%20team%7Chome-field%20advantage%5D%5D%22%7D" data-rte-instance="24816-1170455735df01dcac03b2" href="/wiki/Home_team" title="Home team">home-field advantage</a>" throughout the playoffs, since they played all of their playoff games at their home stadium (except for the Super Bowl, played at a neutral site). </p><p data-rte-fromparser="true" data-rte-empty-lines-before="1">However, the league continued to prohibit meetings between teams from the same division in the Divisional Playoffs. Thus, there would be times when the pairing in that round would pit the first seed versus the third, and the second versus the fourth. This system is identical to that now in use by <a data-rte-meta="%7B%22type%22%3A%22internal%22%2C%22text%22%3A%22Major%20League%20Baseball%22%2C%22link%22%3A%22Major%20League%20Baseball%22%2C%22wasblank%22%3Atrue%2C%22noforce%22%3Atrue%2C%22wikitext%22%3A%22%5B%5BMajor%20League%20Baseball%5D%5D%22%7D" data-rte-instance="24816-1170455735df01dcac03b2" href="/wiki/Major_League_Baseball" title="Major League Baseball">Major League Baseball</a>. </p><p /> <!-- Saved in parser cache with key footbal:rte-parser-cache:15302 --> Loading editor Below are some commonly used wiki markup codes. Simply click on what you want to use and it will appear in the edit box above. Insert: – — … ° ≈ ≠ ≤ ≥ ± − × ÷ ← → · § Sign your username: ~~~~ Wiki markup: {{}} | [] [[]] [[Category:]] #REDIRECT [[]] <s></s> <sup></sup> <sub></sub> <code></code> <blockquote></blockquote> <ref></ref> {{Reflist}} <references/> <includeonly></includeonly> <noinclude></noinclude> {{DEFAULTSORT:}} <nowiki></nowiki> <!-- --> <span class="plainlinks"></span> Symbols: ~ | ¡ ¿ † ‡ ↔ ↑ ↓ • ¶ # ¹ ² ³ ½ ⅓ ⅔ ¼ ¾ ⅛ ⅜ ⅝ ⅞ ∞ ‘ “ ’ ” «» ¤ ₳ ฿ ₵ ¢ ₡ ₢ $ ₫ ₯ € ₠ ₣ ƒ ₴ ₭ ₤ ℳ ₥ ₦ № ₧ ₰ £ ៛ ₨ ₪ ৳ ₮ ₩ ¥ ♠ ♣ ♥ ♦ View this template This field is a spam trap. DO NOT fill it in! Edit summary Preview Mobile Desktop Show changes