Template:12TeamBracket-NFL/doc

This template is to generate a tournament bracket for the 12-team NFL playoffs, which began with the 1990 season. It is loosely based on Template:Round16 and its variations, with many modifications for the peculiar nature of the NFL playoffs. Changes in the format for the Arena Football League playoffs make it usable to portray the brackets there as well.

Re-seeding
The does not use a fixed bracket playoff system. The number 1 seed will host the lowest surviving seed from the first round (seed 4, 5 or 6), while the number 2 seed will play the other team (seed 3, 4 or 5). See Current NFL Playoff system for more information.

Because of the 're-bracketing' done after the first round, second round match-ups are not determined until the 3/6-seed games in the Wild Card Round are completed. This template will render dotted lines connecting the Wild Card winners to the Divisional round until at least one Divisional visiting team seed number is filled in for that conference, at which point the lines become solid. If either conference shows dotted lines, there is also a note at the bottom of the template that explains the re-bracketing process.

It is recommended to show the initial pairings under the assumption that the home team wins every game. During the course of the playoffs, if the team with the best seed in a round for a particular conference loses, the games for that conference in that round (and preceding rounds if any) need to be "flipped" to show the new pairings: 6             5              6 3              4  4           3  6   2              2              1  6

5             6              5 4              3  6           4  4  2   1              1              2

Super Bowl "home" team
The Super Bowl is played at a neutral site. The conference champions take turns being designated the 'home' team for the purposes of uniform selection and coin toss. This template assumes that the NFC champion will be the 'home' team in the Super Bowl, which is correct when played in odd-numbered bowls/years (XXXIX:2005, XLI:2007), so that the AFC is shown on top and the NFC on bottom. In even-numbered bowls/years (XL:2006, XLII:2008), this needs to be overridden; use the named parameters G1=NFC and G2=AFC. For use with the Arena Football League, the parameters League=AFL, G1=American, G2=National (or vice versa), RD2=Quarterfinals, and RD4=Arena Bowl __ should be used

Generic bracket example
The following is a generic bracket example: