Playoff Update: Who all is where?

Well I don't know about anyone else, but today's games messed up a lot of my plans (and a lot of people's parlay cards).

While some areas in the playoff races got clearer, a murky den of what-if scenarios and potential "WTF" playoff berths now hangs below.

To help clear up some of these let's look at the conference standings.

AFC
Division leaders: New England (11-3), Pittsburgh (10-3*), Houston (10-4), Denver (8-6)
Wild Card: Baltimore (10-4), NY Jets (8-6) *Still to play


For those that don't know, New England and Houston have locked up their divisions, and Pittsburgh/Baltimore have clinched being a division champion and wild card (though which is which must be decided). That leaves the AFC West division and one wild card spot up for grabs.

AFC West: This is the lone division where every team is still in the hunt. I told people before the season started that all the teams would be 7-7 in this division with two weeks to go. Well, I'm pretty close:

Denver 8-6, Oakland 7-7, San Diego 7-7, Kansas City 6-8

Here's how each situation goes down. Denver clinches by either winning this week alongside Oakland losing to KC and San Diego losing in Detroit. (All three results are possible.) Or they can simply beat KC and win on the Division Record tiebreaker.

Oakland needs Denver to lose to KC, then need to win out.

San Diego needs Denver to lose to KC, then either need to win out OR beat just Oakland but have Oakland beat KC the week before.

KC needs to beat both Oakland and Denver, which would give them the best division record, AND need Denver to also lose to Buffalo and San Diego to lose to Detroit.

Wild Card: The Jets have some challengers for their spot. Cincinnati (8-6) are very much in the hunt while Tennessee, Oakland and San Diego (all 7-7) are waiting in the wings.

NYJ needs to beat the Giants and Miami in home games to clinch. If they drop one, Cincy has to beat Arizona and Baltimore to get in.

Cincy also gets in if the Jets lose once and the Bengals' win is against Baltimore (on conference record), but no one else can be at 9-7.

Tennessee needs to win out to get in, along with Cincy losing out and the Jets falling to Miami.

Oakland needs (in their most likely scenario) to win out, have Tennessee lose once, have the Jets lose once, and have Cincy lose to Baltimore.

San Diego needs (in the most likely scenario) to win out, which would put them over Tennessee on tiebreakers, have the Jets lose out, and have Cincy lose to either Baltimore (conference record) or possibly Arizona (depends on Strength of Schedule).

Now let's look at the NFC, which is easier to sort out, but has far more absurd scenarios.

NFC
Div: Green Bay (13-1), New Orleans (11-3), San Francisco (10-3*), Dallas (8-6)
WC: Atlanta (9-5), Detroit (9-5)


Green Bay and San Fran are already division champs, and the Saints are in at least as a Wild Card. Assuming SF loses to Pittsburgh tonight (which I think they will), Green Bay clinches the top seed.

New Orleans' division is easy. A win clinches it, and if they don't, Atlanta can win out and get in.

Wild Card: These are fairly simple: Atlanta and Detroit need one win each to clinch. If one fails to, however, any of four teams can take the spot.

Dallas (8-6) take the spot if they lose to the Giants (in a scenario where they lose the division in the process) but beat Philadelphia. However, this only works for Dallas if the none of the other three I'm about to mention don't win out.

Seattle (7-7) gets in if they win out (and the two above them lose out). If they don't Chicago gets next shot if they win out, and if they don't, Arizona gets it if they win out.

NFC East: The three teams still in it here make for the wildest of the scenarios and the ones where they're in the most control.

Dallas gets in either by beating the Giants or Philly, but if they only beat Philly, the Giants have to lose to the Jets next week. They're also in, obviously, if they win out.

The Giants get in by winning out only.

The Eagles get in, however, by winning out AND having the Giants beat Dallas while losing to the Jets.

That's the playoff scenarios so far. Keep looking here and I'll tell you where everything is at.