<P> The NFL was the first league ever to use the wild - card format . The decision to implement a Wild Card coincided with the completion of the AFL - NFL merger in 1970 . Prior to the merger, the right to compete in the postseason for the NFL title was restricted to division / conference champions . Until 1967, a tiebreaker game was played to resolve a deadlock for first place in either of the two conferences . When the league expanded to 16 teams, it realigned into four divisions and expanded the playoffs to two rounds . Tiebreaker games were eliminated in favor of the use of performance - based criteria to determine division champions . The rival American Football League, which reached a final size of ten teams in two divisions, also restricted its postseason to division winners until the 1969 season (the AFL's last as a separate league) when it expanded the playoffs to include division runners - up . The runners - up played the winners of the opposite divisions for the right to contest the AFL Championship Game . </P> <P> Following AFL upsets in the last two Super Bowls prior to the merger, the merged league realigned into two conferences of thirteen teams each, with three "old - line" NFL teams joining the AFL teams in the newly - formed American Football Conference . The decision to make the conferences equal in size meant they could not feasibly align into anything except three divisions of four and five teams each . This led to a debate as to how the postseason of the merged league should be structured . Both the NFL and AFL playoff formats of 1969 had attracted fierce critics . The NFL format was criticized for its ability to cause a team tied for first overall in the league to miss the playoffs (this happened once, in 1967, when the Baltimore Colts missed the postseason despite a . 917 winning percentage after losing a tiebreaker to the Los Angeles Rams). The AFL's 1969 playoffs were criticized by NFL purists for breaking with longstanding tradition, also, due to the fact that they allowed runners - up to qualify no matter how much disparity existed between the divisions, the AFL playoff structure could allow a mediocre team to qualify - this did occur when the Houston Oilers, a . 500 team, finished second in the Eastern Division - the Oilers were throttled in the playoffs 56 - 7 by the Western champion Oakland Raiders . The Raiders went on to lose the AFL title game to the Western runner - up (and eventual Super Bowl IV champion) Kansas City Chiefs . </P> <P> Despite Kansas City's win, some purists argued for the tradition of having only division champions contest the playoffs to continue . Had they prevailed, the post-merger NFL playoffs would have consisted of six teams and might have closely resembled the playoffs of the modern Canadian Football League, with the regular season champion of each conference earning the right to host the championship game against the winner of a game between the champions of the other two divisions . However, the old - line NFL owners, who still expected their teams to dominate the merged league for at least the first half of the 1970's, thought a repeat of the 1967 Colts - Rams fiasco would be very likely under the new alignment combined with a six team format . In any event, most owners in both conferences wanted to keep the even four - team playoff field in each conference . This was established by having the three division champions in each conference joined by the best second - place finisher in the conference . </P> <P> As with much of the NFL's nomenclature, the "wild card" was not initially referred to as such and was instead referred as the "Best Second - Place Team" (or sometimes simply as the "Fourth Qualifier"). The media, however, began referring to the qualifying teams as "wild cards". Eventually, the NFL officially adopted the term . During the 1975, 1976, and 1977 seasons, the divisional playoffs featured the #1 seed hosting the wild card team and the #2 seed hosting the #3 seed unless the #1 seed and wild card team were divisional rivals . In that case, the #1 seed hosted the #3 seed and the #2 seed hosted the wild card team . This was also the format used in Major League Baseball from 1995 through 2011 . </P>

Who plays in the wild card games this weekend