As I remarked in the post about winning 3 times in a row, it's moderately unusual for teams from the same division to meet in the playoffs.
It's actually happend a fair number of times in the championship game. In the 40 seasons since 1969, there have been 17 Conference Championship† Games played by teams in the same division:
| † | I'm going to ignore the fact that the 1969 Chiefs @ Raiders was before the AFL-NFL merger, and so it was the final League Championship game for the AFL. The playoffs after the 1970 season featured the first AFC Championship game (not listed). |
| Year | Division | Game | CC Winner in SB |
| 1969 | AFL West | Chiefs @ Raiders | (Chiefs won SB) |
| 1971 | AFC East | Colts @ Dolphins | (Dolphins lost SB) |
| 1972 | NFC East | Cowboys @ Redskins | (Redskins lost SB) |
| 1977 | AFC West | Raiders @ Broncos | (Broncos lost SB) |
| 1978 | AFC Central | Oilers @ Steelers | (Steelers won SB) |
| 1979 | AFC Central | Oilers @ Steelers | (Steelers won SB) |
| 1980 | AFC West | Raiders @ Chargers | (Raiders won SB) |
| 1980 | NFC East | Cowboys @ Eagles | (Eagles lost SB) |
| 1982 | NFC East | Cowboys @ Redskins | (Redskins won SB) |
| 1982 | AFC East | Jets @ Dolphins | (Dolphins lost SB) |
| 1983 | AFC West | Seahawks @ Raiders | (Raiders won SB) |
| 1985 | AFC East | Patriots @ Dolphins | (Patriots lost SB) |
| 1986 | NFC East | Redskins @ Giants | (Giants won SB) |
| 1989 | NFC West | Rams @ 49ers | (49ers won SB) |
| 1992 | AFC East | Bills @ Dolphins | (Bills lost SB) |
| 1999 | AFC Central | Titans @ Jaguars | (Titans lost SB) |
| 2008 | AFC North | Ravens @ Steelers | (Steelers won SB) |
Comments:
The probability of a same-division matchup seems to be much more likely in the AFC (12 examples, counting 1969 AFL) than it is in the NFC (5 examples).
The home team is 11-5 in these games, which is not good news for the Ravens.
However, the winning team is 9-8 in the Super Bowl, which suggests this situation is no special advantage to the winning team once advancing to the Super Bowl.
