<Tr> <Th> Most American Football Conference titles </Th> <Td> New England Patriots (9 titles) </Td> </Tr> <P> The American Football Conference (AFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL), the highest professional level of American football in the United States . This conference and its counterpart, the National Football Conference (NFC), currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL . Both conferences were created as part of the 1970 merger with the rival American Football League (AFL), with all ten of the former AFL teams and three NFL teams forming the AFC, and the remaining thirteen NFL clubs forming the NFC . A series of league expansions and division realignments have occurred since the merger, thus making the current total 16 clubs per each conference . </P> <P> Since the 1970 AFL--NFL merger, the New England Patriots have won nine AFC titles, the most of any team in the conference (and of any team in either conference since the merger), and are its current title holder . </P> <P> Since 2002, the AFC has 16 teams, organized into four divisions each with four teams: East, North, South and West . </P>

Are the patriots in the afc or nfc