pittsburgh: I just realized that the 1972 Dolphins, who went 14-0 during the regular season, had to play the AFC Championship game *in* Pittsburgh--who were 11-3 that season. Why weren't the Dolphins the top-seeded team? Did they have different rules for determining home-field back then?|||In that era, there was no such thing as "homefield advantage", the home team was determined by who's turn it was to host the game. During that time under the rotation system, whomever hosted the wild-card team in the divisional playoff (as determined by rotation, not W-L record) was guaranteed to play on the road in the conference championship game. The winner of the game between the other two division champs was guaranteed to host the conference championship.|||I think the Dolphins were 13-0 during the regular season; why would they only play 2 playoff games? In any case i have no answer for this other than weather.|||Back then the site of the conference championship games rotated from division to division, and that year was the Central division's turn. They didn't decide it by the won loss records.|||bencas99 is 100% correct..the rules were stupid back then|||Wow. I guess I just totally forgot about this one.|||Yes, back then they had some ridiculous rule, but I forget what it was.|||Because they rotated the home field back then so there would be less of an advantage