The
American Football Conference North Division, or
AFC North, is a division of the
National Football League (NFL)'s
American Football Conference (AFC). It was created prior to the
1967 season as the
NFL Century Division when the NFL split into four divisions. It became the
AFC Central in
1970 following the completion of the
AFL-NFL merger when two of the NFL Century teams—the
Cleveland Browns and the
Pittsburgh Steelers—moved from the "old" NFL to join the former
American Football League teams in the AFC, in order to give the two conferences an equal number of teams. The division adopted its current name in
2002, when the league realigned divisions after expanding to 32 teams. It is the only AFC division to be the successor to a former NFL division from 1967.