The NFC South is a division of the National Football League's National Football Conference. It was created prior to the 2002 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-in-name NFC West.

The NFC South division has at times, notably on Fox NFL Sunday been nicknamed the "NASCAR Division," due to its geographic location in traditional NASCAR Country. Incidentally, Fox (owners of NFC broadcast rights) also has a contract with NASCAR.

Until the 2007-08 playoffs, a team from the NFC South had appeared in every NFC Championship Game since the 2002 realignment: Tampa Bay (2002), Carolina (2003 & 2005), Atlanta (2004), and New Orleans (2006). The NFC South is also the first division since the realignment that has had each of its teams make at least one Conference Championship Game appearance. Currently, Tampa Bay is the only team in the NFC South that has won a Super Bowl (XXXVII).

[edit] Division champions

[edit] Wild Card qualifiers

[edit] Total playoff berths since 2002

[edit] Worst-to-first pattern

From 2003 to 2007, the team that finished in last place in the division the previous year went on to win the division the following season:^[1]

• Carolina finished last in 2002, and first in 2003
• Atlanta finished last in 2003, and first in 2004
• Tampa Bay finished last in 2004, and first in 2005
• New Orleans finished last in 2005, and first in 2006
• Tampa Bay finished last in 2006, first in 2007

In the final week of the 2008 regular season, a last-second field goal led Carolina (12-4) to victory over the Saints and an NFL South title. The win prevented Atlanta at 11-5 (who had finished last in 2007), from continuing the "last-to-first" streak. Although they did not win the division, the Falcons still made the playoffs keeping a streak "last-to-playoffs".^[2]

[edit] References