National Football Conference The National Football Conference ( NFC ) is one of the two ( NFC and AFC ) conferences of the National Football League ( NFL ) . This conference and its counterpart , the American Football Conference ( AFC ) , currently contain 16 teams each , making up the 32 teams of the NFL . Current teams . Since 2002 , the NFC has comprised 16 teams , organized into four divisions each containing four teams : East , North , South , and West . Season structure . Each NFC team plays the other teams in their division twice ( home and away ) during the regular season , in addition to 10 other games assigned to their schedule by the NFL in the April before . Two of these games are assigned on the basis of the teams ' final record in the previous season . The remaining 8 games are split between the roster of two other NFL divisions . This assignment shifts each year . For instance , in the 2007 regular season , each team in the NFC West will play a game apiece against each team in both the AFC North and the NFC South . In this way division competition consists of common opponents , with the exception of the 2 games assigned on the strength of the each team ' s prior season record . At the end of each season , a series of playoff games are contested among the top six teams in the NFC , consisting of the four division champions ( by place standing ) and the two other teams ( " wild cards " ) with the best win - loss records . The NFC playoffs culminate in the NFC Championship Game for the George Halas Trophy . The NFC Champion plays the AFC Champion in the Super Bowl . History . The NFC was created after the NFL merged with the American Football League ( AFL ) in 1970 . While all of the former AFL teams along with the NFL ' s Cleveland Browns , Pittsburgh Steelers , and Baltimore Colts formed the American Football Conference ( AFC ) , the remaining 13 NFL teams formed the NFC . The NFL Capitol , Central , and Coastal Divisions became the NFC East , Central and West Divisions , respectively . However , team owners could not agree to a plan on how to align the clubs in the NFC . The alignment proposals were narrowed down to five finalists , and then the plan that was eventually selected was picked out of a glass bowl by then - NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle ' s secretary , on January 16 , 1970 . Three expansion team s have joined the NFC since the merger , thus making the current total 16 . When the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers joined the league in 1976 , they were temporarily placed in the NFC and AFC , respectively , for one season before they switched conferences . The Seahawks returned to the NFC as a result of the 2002 realignment . The Carolina Panthers joined the NFC in 1995 . Since 1970 , NFC teams have won 22 out of 41 Super Bowls . Logo . The original NFC logo , in use from 1970 – 2009 , depicted a blue ' N ' with three stars across it . The three stars represented the three divisions that were used from 1970 - 2001 ( Eastern , Central and Western ) . The 2010 NFL season brought an updated NFC logo . Largely similar to the old logo , the new logo has a fourth star , representing the four divisions that have comprised the NFC since 2002 .