Predictor · 2026
NFC division races
Click a team to make it the winner. The four division standings,
the tiebreakers and the road to the NFC Championship
update as you go.
Choose a team to fill in its whole schedule, or work through
every NFC game below. A pick made anywhere shows up everywhere —
both teams in a game share the one result.
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How the NFC breaks a division tie
NFC East, NFC North, NFC South, NFC West
- Two or more clubs are tied when they finish on the same won-lost-tied percentage in ALL games. Division ties are broken before anything else, because only the top club in a division is compared for a wild card at a time. how ties are defined
- Head-to-head: best won-lost-tied percentage in the games the tied clubs played against each other. With three or more clubs this is a sweep - one club that beat all the others, or lost to all of them.
- Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the division.
- Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games.
- Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference.
- Strength of victory: the combined record of every opponent this club beat.
- Strength of schedule: the combined record of every opponent this club played, won or lost.
- Best combined ranking among conference teams in points scored and points allowed. cannot follow from picks
- Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed. cannot follow from picks
- Best net points in common games. cannot follow from picks
- Best net points in all games. cannot follow from picks
- Best net touchdowns in all games. cannot follow from picks
- Coin toss. cannot follow from picks
A tie that shrinks starts over. If a step separates one club out of three, the two still level go back to step one rather than carrying on down the list. That is the rule, and it is why a three-way tie can be settled by head-to-head twice.
The procedure above is the NFL's own published playoff tiebreaking procedure. It is printed here rather than summarised so you can check this tool against the rulebook instead of trusting it.
How a wild card tie is broken
A different list, and the difference is real: clubs from
different divisions have no division record to compare, so the
procedure goes straight to conference record, and common games only count when
there are at least four of them.
- Only the highest-placed club in each division is eligible for a wild card at any one time, so every division tie is settled first. how ties are defined
- Head-to-head, where the tied clubs have played each other.
- Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference.
- Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games, minimum of four.
- Strength of victory.
- Strength of schedule.
- Best combined ranking among conference teams in points scored and points allowed. cannot follow from picks
- Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed. cannot follow from picks
- Best net points in conference games. cannot follow from picks
- Best net points in all games. cannot follow from picks
- Best net touchdowns in all games. cannot follow from picks
- Coin toss. cannot follow from picks