In its final year of existence, the AFL had ten teams were grouped into two divisions. Each team would play a home-and-away game agains the other four teams in its division, one game against each of the five teams in the opposite division, and a second game against one of the other division teams.
For the 1969 season, a provision was made for a four team playoff to determine the AFL representative in the Super Bowl, with the #1 team in the division to play against the #2 team in the opposite division. The NFL also had a four team playoff, matching the winners of the Capitol and Century divisions, and the Coastal and Central divisions. When the 1970 merger resulted in the the American Conference taking on three NFL teams and having three divisions rather than two, the playoff format was changed.
For its tenth and final season before merging with the NFL, the AFL instituted a four team playoff tournament with the second place teams in each division also participating.
