NFL owners on Friday approved a plan for a possible neutral-site AFC Championship Game as a result of Monday's Buffalo Bills-Cincinnati Bengals game being canceled. The neutral-site championship game will only take place based on these scenarios:
The participating teams played a different number of regular-season games. The lower-seeded team in the championship game could have been the No. 1 seed in the AFC if a full 17-game regular season had been played by all AFC clubs.This scenario involves the Kansas City chiefs, Buffalo Bills, and Cincinnati Bengals -- all of which were eligible for the No. 1 seed heading into Week 17. Kansas City won its Week 17 matchup while the Buffalo-Cincinnati game was canceled after Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed on the field. Buffalo and Cincinnati will play 16 games while the rest of the NFL will play the full 17-game slate.
How can the league have a neutral-site AFC Championship Game? These are the scenarios in Week 18 for this to happen:
Bills win or tie vs. Patriots AND Chiefs win or tie at Raiders Kansas City (14-3 or 13-3-1) would clinch the No. 1 seed and Buffalo (13-3 or 12-3-1) would clinch the No. 2 seed. Bills lose vs. Patriots, Chiefs lose at Raiders, Bengals lose or tie vs. Ravens Kansas City (13-4) would clinch the No. 1 seed, Buffalo (12-4) would be the No. 2 seed, and Cincinnati (11-5 or 11-4-1) would be the No. 3 seed. Bills lose vs. Patriots, Chiefs lose at Raiders, Bengals win vs. Ravens Kansas City (13-4) would clinch the No. 1 seed, Cincinnati (12-4) would be the No. 2 seed, and Buffalo (12-4) would be the No. 3 seed.Any scenario that involves the Chiefs as the No. 1 seed and facing the Bills or Bengals in the conference title game will result at a neutral site. If the Bills and Bengals play in the divisional round, that game will be played at the site of the higher seed.
Finally, if Baltimore defeats Cincinnati in Week 18 and the Ravens are scheduled to meet the Bengals in a wild card matchup the following weekend -- the site of the game will be determined by a coin toss supervised by the commissioner. This would not apply if the Ravens and Bengals would play in any other
