The NFC South is a division in the National Football Conference of the National Football League. It was created prior to the 2002 NFL season, when the league realigned divisions after expanding to 32 teams. The NFC South currently has four members: the Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Prior to the 2002 season, the Buccaneers belonged to the AFC West (1976) and NFC Central (1977–2001), while the other three teams were part of the geographically inaccurate NFC West.
The NFC South has been nicknamed by Fox NFL Sunday as the "NASCAR Division," due to its geographic location in traditional "NASCAR Country," and NASCAR's coverage on Fox (Fox is also the home of most NFC games).[citation needed] Additionally, two of the division's cities (Atlanta and Charlotte) host NASCAR races, while a third (Tampa) is within driving distance of another major NASCAR city (Daytona), and the Charlotte area is the home base for most drivers and their crews.
The NFC South is the only division since the 2002 realignment to have each of its teams make a conference championship game appearance: Tampa Bay (2002), Atlanta (2004), Carolina (2003 and 2005), and New Orleans (2006 and 2009). All four teams have also made a Super Bowl appearance: Atlanta, when they were in the NFC West Division, (XXXIII), Tampa Bay (XXXVII), Carolina (XXXVIII), and New Orleans (XLIV), with Tampa Bay and New Orleans having won. All four members of the NFC South have made postseason appearances before entering the division in 2002. Also since 2002, each team has got at least two division titles, the only such division in the league.
[edit] Total Divisional Bracket since 2001
| Team |
Division Championships |
Playoff Berths |
Super Bowl Appearances |
Super Bowl Wins |
| Atlanta Falcons |
2 (2004, 2010) |
5 (2002, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2011) |
none1 |
none |
| Carolina Panthers |
2 (2003, 2008) |
3 (2003, 2005, 2008) |
1 (XXXVIII) |
none |
| New Orleans Saints |
3 (2006, 2009, 2011) |
4 (2006, 2009, 2010, 2011) |
1 (XLIV) |
1 (XLIV) |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
3 (2002, 2005, 2007) |
3 (2002, 2005, 2007) |
1 (XXXVII) |
1 (XXXVII) |
1 Atlanta appeared in Super Bowl XXXIII as a member of the NFC West. This table, however, only reflects championships (divisional, conference and league) and playoff berths earned as a member of the NFC South.
[edit] Division champions
[edit] Wild Card qualifiers
[edit] Schedule rotation
Intra-conference games
- NFC North: 2002, 2005, 2008, 2011
- NFC East: 2003, 2006, 2009, 2012
- NFC West: 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013
Interconference games
- AFC North: 2002, 2006, 2010
- AFC South: 2003, 2007, 2011
- AFC West: 2004, 2008, 2012
- AFC East: 2005, 2009, 2013
[edit] Postseason oddities
- From 2003 to 2009, the team that placed last in the division the previous year would improve enough to reach the playoffs, usually by winning the division. Tampa Bay almost continued this trend in 2010, stopped only by losing a tiebreaker to Green Bay.
- Carolina finished last in 2002 (7–9) and finished first in 2003 (11–5).
- Atlanta finished last in 2003 (5–11) and finished first in 2004 (11–5).
- Tampa Bay finished last in 2004 (5–11) and finished first in 2005 (11–5).
- New Orleans finished last in 2005 (3–13) and finished first in 2006 (10–6).
- Tampa Bay finished last in 2006 (4–12) and finished first in 2007 (9–7).
- Atlanta finished last in 2007 (4–12) and finished second with a playoff berth in 2008 (11–5).
- New Orleans finished last in 2008 (8–8) and finished first in 2009 (13–3).
- Tampa Bay finished last in 2009 (3-13) but despite finishing third in 2010 with a 10-6 record, did not make the playoffs, due to Green Bay holding the wild-card tiebreakers.
- Carolina finished last in 2010 (2-14) and was eliminated from playoff contention in week 14 of the 2011 season after going 4-9, becoming the first NFC South team to have a losing season after placing last in the division.
- From 2003-2007 and again in 2009, the team which finished last the previous season won the division.
- From 2002 to 2009, no team in the NFC South earned back-to-back playoff appearances. In Week 16 of the 2010 season, New Orleans clinched a wild-card berth, becoming the first NFC South team to earn consecutive playoff appearances; however, no team in the NFC South has earned back-to-back division championships.
- Each team has won the division at least twice and made a playoff appearance at least three times since the division's formation. Tampa Bay is the only team which has not made the playoffs as a wild-card.
[edit] See Also
[edit] References
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