American Football Conference The American Football Conference ( AFC ) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League ( NFL ) . This conference and its counterpart , the National Football Conference ( NFC ) , currently contain 16 teams each , making up the 32 teams of the NFL . The American Football Conference originated as the American Football League ( AFL ) , which joined with the NFL in the AFL – NFL merger of 1970 . As such most of its teams originally played in the AFL , while three others were NFL teams that were added to the AFC to equalize the number of franchises , and another three are more recent expansion teams . Current teams . Since 2002 , the AFC has comprised 16 teams , organized into four divisions each containing four teams : East , North , South , and West . Season structure . Each AFC team plays the other teams in its division twice ( home and away ) during the regular season , in addition to 10 other games assigned to their schedule by the NFL the previous May . Two of these games are assigned on the basis of the team ' s final division standing 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 AFC West played one game against each team in both the AFC South and the NFC North . In this way division competition consists of common opponents , with the exception of the 2 games assigned on the strength of each team ' s prior division standing . ( i . e . the division winner will face the other two division winners in the AFC divisions that they are not scheduled to play ) The NFC operates according to the same system . At the end of each football season , there are playoff games involving the top six teams in the AFC ( the four division champions by place standing and the top two remaining non - division - champion teams ( " wild cards " ) by record ) . The last two teams remaining play in the AFC Championship game with the winner receiving the Lamar Hunt Trophy . The AFC champion plays the NFC champion in the Super Bowl . After Super Bowl XLIII the AFC has won 19 Super Bowls to the 21 won by the NFC . Since losing 13 consecutive Super Bowls in the 1980s and 1990s ( XIX – XXXI ) , the AFC has won 9 of the last 12 . The losing coach of the AFC Championship game is the coach of the Pro Bowl . History . The AFC was created after the NFL merged with the American Football League ( AFL ) in 1970 . All of the 10 former AFL teams along with the NFL ' s Cleveland Browns , Pittsburgh Steelers , and the then - Baltimore Colts joined the AFC . The two AFL divisions ( East and West ) were more or less intact , while the NFL ' s Century Division became the AFC Central . Since the merger , five expansion teams have joined the AFC and two have left , 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 . This arrangement lasted for one season only before the two teams switched conferences . The Seahawks eventually returned to the NFC as a result of the 2002 realignment . The expansion Jacksonville Jaguars joined the AFC in 1995 . Due to the relocation controversy of the Cleveland Browns , a new AFC franchise called the Baltimore Ravens was officially established in 1996 while the Browns were reactivated in 1999 . The Houston Texans were then added to the league in 2002 , joining the AFC . Logo . The merged league created a new logo for the AFC that took elements of the old AFL logo , specifically the " A " and the six stars surrounding it . The AFC logo basically remained unchanged from 1970 to 2009 . The 2010 NFL season introduced an updated AFC logo , with the most notable revision being the removal of two stars ( leaving four representing the four divisions of the AFC ) , and moving the stars inside the letter , similar to the NFC logo .