AFC/NFC Playoff Betting - Bet NFL Conference Championship Odds

The AFC and NFC Wild Card games are scheduled to be played on January 7 and January 8, 2012. The Divisional Playoffs will be played on January 14 and January 15 and the NFL Conference Championship games will be played the following Sunday, January 22nd, with the Super Bowl on Feb. 5 in Indianapolis.

Four teams get byes in the first round, including the New England Patriots (13-3) and the Baltimore Ravens (12-4) in the AFC, and the Green Bay Packers (15-1) and San Francisco 49ers (13-3) in the NFC. The Patriots and the Packers are No. 1 seeds, so they control their own home-field destiny until the Super Bowl. More NFL Playoff handicapping tips and playoffs beting info.

NFL Playoff Betting

View the latest NFL lines for this season's wild card playoff games. To see this week's money lines visit the Gamblers Palace ( NFL playoffs odds ) page.

The best time of the year for big upsets and wild wins, is in the dead winter of January. Wildcard games are won with last second field goals and playoffs are won win last second kick returns for 90-yards.

2012 NFL Playoff Schedule (Wild Card Weekend)

Wild Card Weekend

AFC Playoffs Saturday Jan 7,  4:30 p.m. ET on NBC No. 6 Cincinnati Bengals (9-7) at No. 3 Houston Texans (10-6) Sunday Jan 8, 1 p.m. ET on FOX No. 5 Atlanta Falcons at No. 4 New York Giants (9-7) NFC Playoffs Saturday Jan 7,  8 p.m. ET on NBC No. 6 Detroit Lions at No. 3 New Orleans Saints (13-3) Sunday Jan 8, 4:30 p.m. ET on CBS No. 5 Pittsburgh Steelers (12-4) at No. 4 Denver Broncos (8-8)

Divisional Playoffs

AFC Divisional Round New England Patriots vs Denver Broncos January 14, 2012 - 4:30 P.M CBS Houston Texans vs. Baltimore Ravens January 15, 2012 - 1:00 P.M - 1 ET CBS NFC Divisional Round New Orleans Saints vs. San Francisco 49ers January 14, 2012 - 4:30 p.m. FOX New York Giants vs. Green Bay Packers January 15, 2012 - 4:30 PM ET (FOX)

Conference Championships

AFC Championship Game Sunday, Jan. 22 (CBS) NFC Championship Game Sunday, Jan. 22 (FOX)

Super Bowl XLV - Feb 5

At Indianapolis (NBC, 6:30 ET) Lucas Oil Stadium

Current playoff system

The tournament brackets are made up of six teams from each of the league's two conferences, the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC):

The four division champions from each conference (the team in each division with the best regular season won-lost-tied record), which are seeded 1 through 4 based on their regular season won-lost-tied record. Two wild card qualifiers (those non-division champions with the conference's best won-lost-tied percentages), which are seeded 5 and 6.

The 3 and the 6 seeded teams, and the 4 and the 5 seeds, face each other during the first round of the playoffs, dubbed the Wild Card Playoffs. The 1 and the 2 seeds from each conference receive a bye in the first round, which entitles these teams to automatically advance to the second round, the Divisional Playoff games, to face the Wild Card survivors. In any given playoff round, the highest surviving seed always plays the lowest surviving seed . And in any given playoff game, whoever has the higher seed gets the home field advantage (i.e. the game is held at the higher seed's home field).

The two surviving teams from the Divisional Playoff games meet in Conference Championship games, with the winners of those contests going on to face one another in the Super Bowl.

If teams are tied (having the same regular season won-lost-tied record), the playoff seeding is determined by a set of tiebreaking rules. [1]

A major disadvantage that critics cite in the current system is that a divisional winner could host a playoff game against a wild card team that earned a better regular season record. For example, the Jacksonville Jaguars finished the 2005 regular season with a 12-4 record, but only qualified as a wild card team and thus will have to face the New England Patriots, the AFC East division champions with a 10-6 record, at the Patriots' home field Gillette Stadium.

In the past you couldn't start figuring out the NFL playoff picture until Week 10. Two rules always factored into the process:

Rule No. 1: Teams can't clinch a playoff spot in the first two months, but they can definitely screw one up. Make sure you find those one or two teams who have already damaged their playoff chances.

Rule No. 2: Since it's always better to peak in January instead of November, it's always better to project ahead instead of judging what already happened.

SUPER BOWL XLVI

NFL Playoffs Betting Information:

NFL Playoffs Specials: Specials NFL Playoffs Sportsbook Bonuses.

NFL Playoffs Odds: Live NFL Playoffs odds for football betting.

Be sure to get your NFL Playoffs bets down early at Bookmaker sportsbook , because the season is here!

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