In sport , a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion .
24-632: The Leinster colleges senior football "A" championship , is the top level Gaelic football competition for secondary schools in Leinster . The winners receive the Brother Bosco (Mulhare) Cup and advance to the All-Ireland colleges "A" senior football championship, where they compete for the Hogan Cup . St Mel's College of Longford hold the record for number of wins and this includes a record of six title wins in
48-537: A blue 'N' with three stars across it. The new logo was similar to that of the AFC (which itself was similar to the AFL logo) in that unlike the NFL logo it consisted of a single letter instead of a full abbreviation. The three stars represented the three divisions that were used from 1970 to 2001 (Eastern, Central and Western). The 2010 NFL season brought an updated NFC logo. Largely similar to
72-409: A hybrid system that combines traits of two or more of these systems. The game show Jeopardy! uses a title match system during regular play, then holds a Tournament of Champions with the longest-running champions under the title match system that operates on a tournament system to determine that season's "Grand Champion." This type of system works best in competitions with numerous competitions in
96-503: A mixed format with a group stage followed by knockout rounds, such as used in the European Football Championships . A variation of the knockout format is the "best-of-X" or series format where two teams face each other for a specified number of times until one team wins the majority of specified games, most of the time the remaining games are not played anymore; only then is the losing team eliminated from contention and
120-404: A row and a total of eight in the same decade. They also reached fourteen straight finals between 1930 and 1943. Naas CBS are the current title holders. Championship Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. In this system, a competitor has to challenge the current champion to win the championship. A competitor (called number 1 contender ) can challenge
144-478: A short period of time (game shows such as Jeopardy! , in particular, fit this description, since there are five new title matches every week). In many sport leagues, a playoff system is used to determine a championship winner. Teams compete in a regular season of varying formats and a limited number of teams qualify for playoffs . Although this system is mostly identified with the United States and Canada , it
168-411: Is frequently found in other North American countries, and is also standard in sports influenced by North America (e.g. basketball, baseball, ice hockey) as well as most football codes other than soccer. The playoffs (known in some countries, notably Australia , as the "finals series") are a tournament where teams play head-to-head in knockout competition. The championship is often considered the final of
192-518: Is the St. Louis Cardinals , who moved in 1988 to Phoenix suburb of Tempe (they moved to Glendale in 2006). The Los Angeles Rams moved to St. Louis in 1995, but moved back to Los Angeles in 2016. None of the expansion teams added after 1970 have relocated. With the exception of the aforementioned relocations since that time, the divisional setup established in 2002 has remained static ever since. The original NFC logo, in use from 1970 to 2009, depicted
216-613: The 2002 realignment . The Carolina Panthers joined the NFC in 1995 . Parity is generally greater among NFC teams than AFC teams. The only NFC team that has never made a Super Bowl appearance is the Detroit Lions . Since the 2002 division realignment, the NFC has sent 12 different teams to the Super Bowl -- all except the Lions, Vikings, Cowboys, and Commanders -- whereas the AFC has only sent 8:
240-473: The American Football Conference (AFC), each have 16 teams organized into four divisions . Both conferences were created as part of the 1970 NFL merger with the rival American Football League (AFL). All ten of the former AFL teams and three NFL teams formed the AFC while the remaining thirteen NFL clubs formed the NFC. A series of league expansions and division realignments have occurred since
264-474: The American Football League (AFL) in 1970. When the AFL began play in 1960 with eight teams, the NFL consisted of 13 clubs. By 1969, the AFL had expanded to ten teams and the NFL to 16 clubs. In order to balance the merged league, all ten of the former AFL teams along with the NFL's Cleveland Browns , Pittsburgh Steelers , and Baltimore Colts formed the AFC, while the remaining 13 NFL teams formed
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#1733270517692288-984: The Baltimore Ravens (1 time), the Cincinnati Bengals (1 time), the Las Vegas Raiders (1 time), the Kansas City Chiefs (2 times), the Denver Broncos (2 times), the Indianapolis Colts (2 times), the Pittsburgh Steelers (3 times) and the New England Patriots (8 times). The only NFC team to make back to back Super Bowls since 2002 are the Seattle Seahawks . As of 2021, the only pre-merger team that does not play in its 1969 market
312-470: The 17-game regular season schedule are set using a predetermined formula: Each NFC team plays the other teams in their respective division twice (home and away) during the regular season, in addition to eleven other games assigned to their schedule by the NFL: three games are assigned on the basis of a particular team's final divisional standing from the previous season, and the remaining eight games are split between
336-465: The NFC in 1970 were as follows, with Plan 3 eventually selected: Three expansion teams have joined the NFC since the merger, thus making the 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
360-513: The NFC. While the newly formed AFC had already agreed upon and set up their divisional alignment plan along almost purely geographic lines, 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 (each one sealed in an envelope), and then the plan that was eventually selected was picked out of a glass bowl by then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle 's secretary, Thelma Elkjer, on January 16, 1970. The five alignment plans for
384-426: The current champion after defeating other challengers. This form of championship is used in individual head-to-head competitions and is particularly associated with combat sports such as wrestling , boxing and mixed martial arts . The term championships (in the plural) is often used to refer to tournament competitions , either using a knockout format , such as at Wimbledon and other championships in tennis , or
408-620: The end of each season, the four division winners and three wild cards (non-division winners with best regular season record) in the NFC qualify for the playoffs . The NFC playoffs culminate in the NFC Championship Game with the winner receiving the George S. Halas Trophy. The NFC champion then plays the AFC champion in the Super Bowl . Both the AFC and NFC were created after the NFL merged with
432-523: The merger, thus making a total of 16 clubs in each conference. The defending champions of the NFC are the San Francisco 49ers , who defeated the Detroit Lions in the 2023 season 's NFC Championship Game for their eighth conference championship in the team's history. Since 2002, like the AFC, the NFC has 16 teams that organized into four divisions each with four teams: East , North , South , and West . The fourteen opponents each team faces over
456-405: The old logo, the new logo has a fourth star, representing the four divisions that have composed the NFC since 2002, with the AFC logo being simultaneously updated in a similar manner. CBS aired the NFC's Sunday afternoon and playoffs games from 1970 through the 1993 season. From 1994 to 2013, Fox was the primary rightsholder to the NFC's games. In those years, all interconference games in which
480-612: The playoffs (e.g., Super Bowl , Stanley Cup Finals , NBA Finals , World Series , etc.). The playoff system can be seen as a hybrid between the league system and tournament system, where a league is used to determine qualifiers for the tournament. In the NFL , the term "Championship game" is used to refer to the matches which decide the champions of each of the two conferences, the NFC ( NFC Championship Game ) and AFC ( AFC Championship Game ). These games are effectively semi-finals as they determine
504-526: The roster of two other NFL divisions. This assignment shifts each year and will follow a standard cycle. Using the 2023 regular season schedule as an example, each team in the NFC East plays against every team in the NFC West and AFC East. In this way, non-divisional competition will be mostly among common opponents – the exception being the three games assigned based on the team's prior-season divisional standing. At
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#1733270517692528-621: The top positions. At the end of the season, the driver/team with the most points wins the championship. Examples include Formula 1 and the World Rally Championship . National Football Conference The National Football Conference ( NFC ) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional American football in the United States. The NFC and its counterpart,
552-511: The two competitors in the Super Bowl. The quirk in naming stems from when the NFC and AFC were separate leagues (see: American Football League ) with a respective NFL Championship and AFL Championship , the winners of which would in the AFL's later years meet in the World Championship, now known as the Super Bowl . In sports such as motor racing, a season consists of a number of individual races, with points being awarded for finishing in
576-461: The winning team advances to the next level. This format is predominant in American sports such as baseball, ice hockey and basketball, and on test cricket. Championships in various sports, including rugby union and soccer use a league system in which all competitors in the league play each other, either once or a number of times. This is also known as a round robin system. Some competitions use
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