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The NFC North is a division of the National Football League's National Football Conference. It was created prior to the 2002 season when the league realigned its divisions after expanding to 32 teams. It replaced the NFC Central, which was formed in 1970 after the AFL-NFL Merger, and its predecessor, the NFL Central Division.
The NFC North currently has four members: Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, and Minnesota Vikings. The division contains the same alignment as the NFL Central Division, which was created in 1967 and existed for three seasons before the AFL-NFL Merger. During its earlier incarnation, the division earned the moniker "Black and Blue Division" due to its intense rivalries and physical style of play. Based on the ages of its teams, the NFC North is the oldest division in the NFL: a combined 299 years old (The Packers are 90 years old (founded 1919),the Bears are 89 years old (founded 1920), the Lions are 80 years old (founded 1930), and the Vikings are 48 years old (founded 1961)). Another nickname for the earlier incarnation of the division was the "Frostbite Division" as all teams played home games in late season winter cold (especially the Packers and Vikings) until the mid 1970s.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers became the fifth member of the NFC Central in 1977 after they spent their first year in the league as a member of the AFC West, but they were moved to the NFC South in the 2002 realignment. With the departure of Tampa Bay, the division is sometimes humorously called the "Frozen North" (teams in the NFC North are located further north than those in the AFC North), although two of its teams, Detroit and Minnesota, have played their home games indoors since 1975 and 1982 respectively. On the other hand, two of the AFC North teams (Cleveland and Pittsburgh) both are known to play late-season games with intense winter weather while another (Cincinnati) hosted the Freezer Bowl with unusually cold weather in the region. (Cincinnati is on the border between humid subtropical climate and humid continental climate, although most of Ohio as a whole is in the latter.) The NFC North's geography has been compared to that of a college conference since all four of its home cities lie within the territorial boundaries of the NCAA's Big Ten Conference (indeed, three of the metro areas in the NFC North have Big Ten members as well).
* A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games. Thus, the league used a special 16-team playoff tournament just for this year. Division standings were ignored, Green Bay had the best record of the division teams.
A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games. Thus, the league used a special 16-team playoff tournament just for this year. Division standings were ignored, Green Bay had the best record of the division teams.
