The American Football League, founded in 1960, used the NFL's format for its first nine seasons, with two divisions and a league championship game between the division champions. In 1969, the last year of its existence, the AFL instituted a four-team playoff. In the first playoff round, the first-place team from each conference played the second-place team from the other conference, with the winners meeting for the championship. In 1970, the AFL merged into a new, bigger NFL, made up of the American and National Football Conferences. Each conference was split into three divisions. Partly because a three-team playoff is unwieldy and partly to create more fan interest in the regular season, the NFL added something new to the playoff mix: a wild card, the team with the best record among those that finished second in their divisions. When the NFL grew to 28 teams in 1978, a second wild-card team was added. Since 1990, there have been three wild-card teams from each conference. In 2002, when the NFL expands to 32 teams, there will be four four-team divisions in each conference, with the division champions and two wild-card teams from each conference advancing to the playoffs. The AFC Champions for 2003 are the Oakland Raiders | 
