Ranking The Greatest Franchises In The History Of The Super Bowl Era

Debating who is the greatest franchise in the history of the NFL could be as a popular of a pastime for fans and pundits as the game itself. Some will just count Super Bowl rings and end the discussion right there. While others may look at head-to-head playoff battles, dominance in the division, regular season records and their own personal allegiances and biases. Who is the most successful franchise of all-time? Is history more favorable to Team X than it is to Team Y? Many of these arguments are subjective depending on the criteria being used, but why should they be? If the numbers can be crunched that factors in each franchise’s glory days, dog days and will consider every game a team has played from a meaningless regular season game in a 0-16 campaign, to a NFL record sixth Super Bowl win then what is there to argue? As cliché as the statement numbers don’t lie is, it holds plenty of merit. So with that said let’s look at the numbers based off a formula I created that takes everything into consideration.

This formula figures in all factors of a team’s success; Super Bowl wins, conference championships, playoff wins, division titles, playoff appearances, regular season winning percentage and how long a team has existed. Since a little over one third of the league did not exist prior to the Super Bowl Era, these rankings are from the 1966 season in which the first Super Bowl was played, through Super Bowl XLVIII which was played at the end of the 2013 season.

The formula that was used to create the rankings is as follows.

Playoff Appearance= 1 point

Division Title= 2 points

Playoff Win= 3 points

Conference Championship= 5 points

Super Bowl Championship= 10 points.

SUM

For each franchise these totals were added up and the multiplied by the teams regular season winning percentage from 1966 through 2013.

SUM x WINNING %= ADJ SUM

After the point total was multiplied by the regular season winning percentage, that amount was then divided by the number of years the team has existed in the Super Bowl Era (1966-2013). The time a team has existed is an important factor because those who have played for a fraction of the era should not have their success watered down because they weren’t in existence when other franchises had opportunities to win and build their legacy. Using the seasons played, fairly creates a ratio that weighs success to the years of existence. A team who has been played in all 48 seasons in the Super Bowl Era is more likely to have multiple championships compared to let’s say the Houston Texans who have existed for just 12 of those 48 years.

ADJ SUMM / SEASONS PLAYED= FINAL RANKING

Also note the Houston Oilers are added to this. Since the current Tennessee Titans franchise was moved and renamed, the teams are going to show as separate franchises from 1997 when the Oilers moved to Tennessee despite having a shared history. However, teams such as the Raiders, Colts, Cardinals and Rams who have played in multiple cities will not be divided since their team name and brand has remained the same.

The Finals Rankings in Order with Complete Formula by Team