 Due to the impending merger of the AFL and the NFL, which was scheduled to take full effect in the season, Brown agreed to join the AFL as its tenth and final franchise.The Bengals, like the other former AFL teams, were assigned to the AFC following the merger.Cincinnati was also selected because, like their neighbors the Reds, they could draw from several large neighboring cities (Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky; Columbus, Dayton, and Springfield, Ohio) that are all no more than away from downtown Cincinnati, along with Indianapolis, until the Baltimore Colts relocated there prior to the 1984 NFL season.