1968 American Football League season
The 1968 American Football League season was the ninth regular season of the AFL, and its penultimate season prior to the AFL–NFL merger. The season ended when the New York Jets (11–3) defeated the Oakland Raiders (12–2) in the AFL championship game on December 29 at Shea Stadium in New York City. Two weeks later, the Jets defeated the National Football League's Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III in one of the biggest sports upsets in history. The season was also notable as the inaugural season of the Cincinnati Bengals, which expanded the AFL to ten teams. In anticipation of the merger, all AFL on-field officials wore uniforms similar to those used in the NFL. Division races With the addition of the Cincinnati Bengals, the AFL's ten teams were split equally into two divisions. Each played a home-and-away game against 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's teams. As with the previous eight seasons, the best record in the Eastern Division played the best in the Western Division in the AFL championship game, with the site alternating between