Daily Blog •July 30, 2012

Will the same NFL teams repeat as
division champs this year? PROBABLY NOT!

In the inaugural Phil Steele’s Pro Football Preview, I made a forecast for each division and I am very pleased to announce that I correctly forecasted 7 of the 8! I was the ONLY major magazine to pick the Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints to win the NFC South. I followed that performance up by picking NINE first place teams in the last two years for an impressive 3 year record of 16 of 24 division winners or 67%.

The NFL is certainly a league of parity and in fact going back to 1998 only 30% of the time has a team repeated as a division winner. In 2002, the NFL went to four divisions of four teams each, making it much easier to repeat. Taking those 10 seasons plus the previous two, only 28 of the 80 division winners or 35% repeated. Those numbers include both New England and Indianapolis who dominated the AFC East & AFC South. From 2003-'10 each repeated 5 times and NE was the ONLY team to repeat for a 6th time last season.

Since the start of this decade there have been 92 division winners but ONLY 11 of the NFL’s 32 teams have been consistent enough to bag B2B division titles. I mentioned NE & Indy and they are followed by San Diego, Philadelphia and Seattle with 3 repeats. Oakland and Green Bay each have 2 while Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Minnesota, Chicago and Arizona each have 1 repeat.

While I wrote earlier that with eight 4 team divisions it was easier to have a repeat winner, it must still be noted that only 3 of the divisions have had multiple B2B division winners and the NFC North is the only division to have three B2B winners as GB won the title in ’03 & ’04, CHI in ’05 & ’06 and MIN won it in ’08 & ’09. With New Orleans winning the NFC South it is sill the only division to have not had a repeat winner since the new format in 2002. The NFC South is also 1 of 3 divisions since 2002 to have all 4 members win the division title along with the AFC West & the NFC West.

NFL Division Champs 1998-2011

AFC EAST AFC NORTH
Year Champ Playoff Result Year Champ Playoff Result
2011 New England Lost SB 2011 Baltimore Lost CF
2010 New England Lost CSF 2010 Pittsburgh Lost SB
2009 New England Lost WC 2009 Cincinnati Lost WC
2008 Miami Lost WC 2008 Pittsburgh WON SB
2007 New England Lost SB 2007 Pittsburgh Lost WC
2006 New England Lost CF 2006 Baltimore Lost CSF
2005 New England Lost CSF 2005 Cincinnati Lost WC
2004 New England WON SB 2004 Pittsburgh Lost CF
2003 New England WON SB 2003 Baltimore Lost WC
2002 NY Jets Lost CSF 2002 Pittsburgh Lost CSF
2001 New England WON SB – No AFC North –
2000 Miami Lost CSF – No AFC North –
1999 Indianapolis Lost CSF – No AFC North –
1998 NY Jets Lost CF – No AFC North –
AFC CENTRAL AFC SOUTH
Year Champ Playoff Result Year Champ Playoff Result
2011 – No AFC Central – 2011 Houston Lost CSF
2010 – No AFC Central – 2010 Indianapolis Lost WC
2009 – No AFC Central – 2009 Indianapolis Lost SB
2008 – No AFC Central – 2008 Tennessee Lost CSF
2007 – No AFC Central – 2007 Indianapolis Lost CSF
2006 – No AFC Central – 2006 Indianapolis WON SB
2005 – No AFC Central – 2005 Indianapolis Lost CSF
2004 – No AFC Central – 2004 Indianapolis Lost CSF
2003 – No AFC Central – 2003 Indianapolis Lost CF
2002 – No AFC Central – 2002 Tennessee Lost CF
2001 Pittsburgh Lost CF – No AFC South –
2000 Tennessee Lost CSF – No AFC South –
1999 Jacksonville Lost CF – No AFC South –
1998 Jacksonville Lost CSF – No AFC South –
AFC WEST NFC EAST
Year Champ Playoff Result Year Champ Playoff Result
2011 Denver Lost CSF 2011 NY Giants WON SB
2010 Kansas City Lost WC 2010 Philadelphia Lost WC
2009 San Diego Lost CSF 2009 Dallas Lost CSF
2008 San Diego Lost CSF 2008 NY Giants Lost CSF
2007 San Diego Lost CF 2007 Dallas Lost CSF
2006 San Diego Lost CSF 2006 Philadelphia Lost CSF
2005 Denver Lost CF 2005 NY Giants Lost WC
2004 San Diego Lost WC 2004 Philadelphia Lost SB
2003 Kansas City Lost CSF 2003 Philadelphia Lost CF
2002 Oakland Lost SB 2002 Philadelphia Lost CF
2001 Oakland Lost CSF 2001 Philadelphia Lost CF
2000 Oakland Lost CF 2000 NY Giants Lost SB
1999 Seattle Lost WC 1999 Washington Lost CSF
1998 Denver WON SB 1998 Dallas Lost WC
NFC NORTH NFC CENTRAL
Year Champ Playoff Result Year Champ Playoff Result
2011 Green Bay Lost CSF – No NFC Central –
2010 Chicago Lost CF – No NFC Central –
2009 Minnesota Lost CF – No NFC Central –
2008 Minnesota Lost WC – No NFC Central –
2007 Green Bay Lost CF – No NFC Central –
2006 Chicago Lost SB – No NFC Central –
2005 Chicago Lost CSF – No NFC Central –
2004 Green Bay Lost WC – No NFC Central –
2003 Green Bay Lost CSF – No NFC Central –
2002 Green Bay Lost WC – No NFC Central –
– No NFC North – 2001 Chicago Lost CSF
– No NFC North – 2000 Minnesota Lost CF
– No NFC North – 1999 Tampa Bay Lost CF
– No NFC North – 1998 Minnesota Lost CF
NFC SOUTH NFC WEST
Year Champ Playoff Result Year Champ Playoff Result
2011 New Orleans Lost CSF 2011 San Francisco Lost CF
2010 Atlanta Lost CSF 2010 Seattle Lost CSF
2009 New Orleans WON SB 2009 Arizona Lost CSF
2008 Carolina Lost CSF 2008 Arizona Lost SB
2007 Tampa Bay Lost WC 2007 Seattle Lost CSF
2006 New Orleans Lost CF 2006 Seattle Lost CSF
2005 Tampa Bay Lost WC 2005 Seattle Lost SB
2004 Atlanta Lost CF 2004 Seattle Lost WC
2003 Carolina Lost SB 2003 St. Louis Lost CSF
2002 Tampa Bay WON SB 2002 San Francisco Lost CSF
– No NFC South – 2001 St. Louis Lost SB
– No NFC South – 2000 New Orleans Lost CSF
– No NFC South – 1999 St. Louis WON SB
– No NFC South – 1998 Atlanta Lost SB

 

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