An automatic bid is a bid or berth to a tournament, granted based on performance in prior competition, and not based on subjective picking (see:

at-large bid A wild card (also wildcard or wild-card and also known as an at-large berth or at-large bid) is a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that fails to qualify in the normal way; for example, by having a high ranking or winnin ...

). It is used in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in all

professional sports In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought l ...

, in which all playoff bids are automatic and determined by objective formulae; in

college sports College athletics encompasses non-professional, collegiate and university-level competitive sports and games. World University Games The first World University Games were held in 1923. There were originally called the ''Union Nationale des ...

, all divisions (except the highest division of college football) use a mix of automatic bids and subjective selections to seed the postseason tournaments. In Men's and Women's Division I

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

, the teams that win their conference tournament are granted automatic berths to the main tournament. The

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...

was the last Division I conference to institute a conference tournament, not doing so until the 2016–17 season; before then, the team with the best record in conference games advanced via automatic berth. Schools not in conferences, called "independents," have no conference tournament and can only advance to the NCAA Tournament via an at-large bid, which rarely happens unless the team performs well. As of the 2022-23 season, two Division I teams are competing as independents: the

Chicago State Cougars The Chicago State Cougars are the varsity athletic teams representing Chicago State University of Chicago, Illinois in intercollegiate athletics. The university currently sponsors 15 varsity teams. The Cougars compete in NCAA Division I as an ind ...

and the Hartford Hawks, the latter of whom will be dropping to

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their st ...

after the season ends. Similar automatic bid processes are used in other NCAA sports with a post-season tournament. This allows a team with a losing record to qualify for the NCAA tournament based on winning the automatic bid via tournament. Another post-season college basketball tournament, the NIT, includes the best teams that were left out of the NCAA Tournament. Since the 2005 purchase of the NIT by the NCAA, automatic bids are now awarded to all regular season conference champions who did not win their conference tournament and did not get an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

See also