 Most of the stations involved in the New World deal were located in markets with teams in the NFC, which was then considered the more prestigious of the two NFL conferences.In particular, the conference had teams located in nine of the ten largest television markets at the time – with the exception of Boston, whose NFL team, the New England Patriots, played in the AFC.In addition, most of the NFC teams existed before the formation of the predecessor American Football League and therefore contain longer histories, rivalries and traditions.