The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a
sports league
A sports league is a group of sports teams or individual athletes that compete against each other and gain points in a specific sport. At its simplest, it may be a local group of amateur sports, amateur athletes who form teams among themselves and ...
are a competition played after the
regular season
In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...
by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be either a single game, a series of games, or a
tournament
A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
# One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...
, and may use a
single-elimination
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
system or one of several other
different playoff formats. Playoff, in regard to international fixtures, is to qualify or progress to the next round of a competition or tournament.
In team sports in the U.S. and Canada, the vast distances and consequent burdens on cross-country travel have led to regional divisions of teams. Generally, during the regular season, teams play more games in their division than outside it, but the league's best teams might not play against each other in the regular season. Therefore, in the postseason a playoff series is organized. Any group-winning team is eligible to participate, and as playoffs became more popular they were expanded to include second- or even lower-placed teams – the term "
wild card" refers to these teams.
In England and Scotland, playoffs are used in
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
to decide
promotion
Promotion may refer to:
Marketing
* Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...
for lower-finishing teams, rather than to decide a champion in the way they are used in North America. In the
EFL Championship
The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...
(the second tier of English football), teams finishing 3rd to 6th after the regular season compete to decide the final promotion spot to the
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...
.
American football
National Football League
Evidence of playoffs in
professional football
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 larg ...
dates to at least 1919, when the "
New York Pro Championship" was held in
Western New York
Western New York (WNY) is the westernmost region of the U.S. state of New York. The eastern boundary of the region is not consistently defined by state agencies or those who call themselves "Western New Yorkers". Almost all sources agree WNY in ...
(it is possible one was held in 1917, but that is not known for sure). The
Buffalo and
Rochester
Rochester may refer to:
Places Australia
* Rochester, Victoria
Canada
* Rochester, Alberta
United Kingdom
*Rochester, Kent
** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area
** History of Rochester, Kent
** HM Prison ...
metropolitan areas each played a final, the winners of which would advance to the "New York Pro Championship" on Thanksgiving weekend. The top New York teams were eventually absorbed into the NFL upon its founding in 1920, but the league (mostly driven by an
Ohio League
The Ohio League was an informal and loose association of American football clubs active between 1902 and 1919 that competed for the Ohio Independent Championship (OIC). As the name implied, its teams were mostly based in Ohio. It is the direct pr ...
that did not have true finals, though they frequently scheduled ''de facto'' championship matchups) did not adopt the New York league's playoff format, opting for a championship based on regular season record for its first twelve seasons; as a result, four of the first six "championships" were disputed. Technically, a vote of league owners was all that was required to win a title, but the owners had a
gentlemen's agreement
A gentlemen's agreement, or gentleman's agreement, is an informal and legally non-binding agreement between two or more parties. It is typically oral, but it may be written or simply understood as part of an unspoken agreement by convention or th ...
to pledge votes based on a score (wins divided by the sum of wins and losses, with a few tiebreakers). When two teams tied at the top of the standings in 1932, an
impromptu playoff game was scheduled to settle the tie.
The
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
divided its teams into divisions in 1933 and began holding a single playoff final between division winners. In 1950 the NFL absorbed three teams from the rival
All-America Football Conference
The All-America Football Conference (AAFC) was a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League (NFL) from 1946 to 1949. One of the NFL's most formidable challengers, the AAFC attracted many of the ...
, and the former "Divisions" were now called "Conferences", echoing the college use of that term. In 1967, the NFL expanded and created four divisions under the two conferences, which led to the institution of a larger playoff tournament. After the
AFL-NFL merger brought the
American Football League
The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...
into the NFL, the NFL began to use three divisions and a single wild card team in each conference for its playoffs, in order to produce eight contenders out of six divisions; this was later expanded in 1978 and 1990 so that more wild card teams could participate.
In 2002 the NFL added its 32nd team, the
Houston Texans
The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division, and play their home ga ...
, and significantly reshuffled its divisional alignment. The league went from 6 division winners and 6 wild card spots to 8 division winners and only 4 wild card qualifiers; by , the number of wild card qualifiers returned to six. The winners of each division automatically earn a playoff spot and a home game in their first rounds, the three top non-division winners from each conference will also make the playoffs as wild-card teams. The division winner with the best record in the regular season gets a first round bye, and each of the other division winners plays one of the three wild-card teams. In the divisional round, the lowest-seeded winner of a wild-card game then plays the lone bye team; the two wild-card winners also advance to play each other. The winners of these two games go to the conference championships, and the winners of those conference finals then face each other in the
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...
.
College football
Division I NCAA Football FBS
The College Football Playoff National Championship is a post-season
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most ...
bowl game
In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...
, used to determine a
national champion of the
NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision
The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...
(FBS), which began play in the
2014 college football season.
The game serves as the final of the
College Football Playoff
The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...
, a
bracket tournament
A bracket or tournament bracket is a tree diagram that represents the series of games played during a knockout tournament. Different knockout tournament formats have different brackets; the simplest and most common is that of the single-elimin ...
between the top four teams in the country as determined by a selection committee, which was established as a successor to the
Bowl Championship Series
The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) was a selection system that created four or five bowl game match-ups involving eight or ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of American college football, including ...
and its similar
BCS National Championship Game
The BCS National Championship Game, or BCS National Championship, was a postseason college football bowl game, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), first played in the 1998 college fo ...
. Unlike the BCS championship, the participating teams in the College Football Playoff National Championship are determined by two semi-final bowls—hosted by two of the consortium's six member bowls yearly—and the top two teams as determined by the selection committee do not automatically advance to the game in lieu of other bowls.
The game is played at a neutral site, determined through bids by prospective host cities (similarly to the
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...
and
NCAA Final Four). When announcing it was soliciting bids for the 2016 and 2017 title games, playoff organizers said that the bids must propose host stadiums with a capacity of at least 65,000 spectators,
and cities cannot host both a semi-final game and the title game in the same year.
The winner of the game is awarded a new championship trophy instead of the
"crystal football", which has been given by the
American Football Coaches Association
The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) is an association of over 11,000 American football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "mainta ...
(AFCA) since 1986; officials wanted a new trophy that was unconnected with the previous BCS championship system. The new
College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy
The College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy is the trophy awarded to the winner of the College Football Playoff (CFP), the postseason tournament in American college football that determines a national champion for the NCAA Division ...
is sponsored by
Dr Pepper
Dr Pepper is a carbonated soft drink. It was created in the 1880s by pharmacist Charles Alderton in Waco, Texas, and first served around 1885. Dr Pepper was first nationally marketed in the United States in 1904. It is now also sold in Euro ...
, which paid an estimated $35 million for the sponsorship rights through 2020.
The 26.5-inch high, 35-pound trophy was unveiled on July 14, 2014.
Division I NCAA Football FCS
The NCAA Division I Football Championship is an American
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most ...
tournament played each year to determine the champion of the
NCAA Division I
NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...
Football Championship Subdivision
The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athleti ...
(FCS). Prior to 2006, the game was known as the NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship. The FCS is the highest division in college football to hold a playoff tournament sanctioned by the NCAA to determine its champion. The
four-team playoff system used by the
Bowl Subdivision
The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). A ...
is not sanctioned by the NCAA.
Division II NCAA Football
The NCAA Division II Football Championship is an American
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most ...
tournament played annually to determine a champion at the
NCAA Division II
NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...
level. It was first held in 1973. Prior to 1973, four regional
bowl game
In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...
s were played in order to provide postseason action for what was then called the "NCAA College Division" and a poll determined the final champion.
The National Championship final was held at
Sacramento, California
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...
from 1973 to 1975. It was in
Wichita Falls, Texas
Wichita Falls ( ) is a city in and the seat of government of Wichita County, Texas, United States. It is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay, and Wichita counties. Accordin ...
in 1976 and 1977. The game was played in
Longview, Texas
Longview is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, and county seat of Gregg County, Texas, Gregg County; a small part of Longview extends into the western portion of neighboring Harrison County, Texas, Harrison County. Longview is located in East Tex ...
in 1978. For 1979 and 1980,
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...
hosted the game.
McAllen, Texas
McAllen is the largest city in Hidalgo County, Texas, United States, and the 22nd-most populous city in Texas. It is located at the southern tip of the state in the Rio Grande Valley, on the Mexico–United States border. The city limits extend ...
hosted the finals from 1981 to 1985. From 1986 to 2013, the Division II final was played at
Braly Municipal Stadium
Tom Braly Municipal Stadium is a 14,215-seat stadium in Florence, Alabama. It is primarily used for American football, and is the home field of the University of North Alabama Lions and the Florence High School Falcons. It also hosted the NCAA Di ...
near the campus of the
University of North Alabama
The University of North Alabama (UNA) is a public university in Florence, Alabama. It is the state's oldest public university. Occupying a campus in a residential section of Florence, UNA is located within a four-city area that also includes ...
in
Florence, Alabama
Florence is a city in, and the county seat of, Lauderdale County, Alabama, United States, in the state's northwestern corner. It is situated along the Tennessee River and is home to the University of North Alabama, the oldest college in the st ...
. Between 2014 and 2017, it was played at
Children's Mercy Park
Children's Mercy Park is a soccer-specific stadium in Kansas City, Kansas, United States, and is the home of Sporting Kansas City. The stadium is located near Kansas Speedway, on the far west side of Wyandotte County, Kansas. It opened during t ...
in
Kansas City, Kansas
Kansas City, abbreviated as "KCK", is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As of ...
. Since 1994, the games have been broadcast on
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
.
Division III NCAA Football
The
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 stu ...
Football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
Championship began in
1973
Events January
* January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
* January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...
. Before 1973, most of the schools now in Division III competed either in the NCAA College Division or the
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...
(NAIA). NCAA Divisions II and III were created by splitting the College Division in two, with schools that wished to continue awarding
athletic scholarship
An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university or a private high school awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport. Athletic scholarships are common in the United Stat ...
s placed in Division II and those that did not want to award them placed in Division III.
The Division III playoffs begin with 32 teams selected to participate in them. The Division III final, known as the
Stagg Bowl, has been played annually in
Salem,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
at
Salem Football Stadium
Salem Stadium is a stadium in Salem, Virginia, United States. It is primarily used for football and hosts the home football games of the Salem High School Spartans. It was built in 1985 and seats 7,157 people. The stadium is part of the James E. ...
since 1993. It was previously played in
Phenix City
Phenix City is a city in Lee and Russell counties in the U.S. state of Alabama, and the county seat of Russell County. As of the 2020 Census, the population of the city was 38,817.
Phenix City lies immediately west across the Chattahoochee ...
,
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
at
Garrett-Harrison Stadium (1973–1982, 1985–1989), at the
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...
, when the Hall was located in
Kings Island
Kings Island is a amusement park located northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, United States. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, the park first opened in 1972 by the Taft Broadcasting Company. It was part of a larger effort to move and expan ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
at
Galbreath Field
Galbreath Field was associated with the former College Football Hall of Fame in Kings Mills, Ohio. The 7,000–10,000 seat stadium (sources differ) was also the home of the Moeller High School
Moeller High School ( ), known as Moeller, is a priv ...
(1983–1984), and
Bradenton
Bradenton ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city's population is 55,698.
History
Late 18th and early 19th centuries
A settlement established by Maroons or escaped sl ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
at
Hawkins Stadium
Manatee High School is the oldest public high school in Bradenton, Florida, operated by the Manatee County School District.
History
Bradentown High School would open in 1897 located on what is now 15th Street West and Ballard Park Drive operating ...
(1990–1992).
Association football
As a rule, international
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
has only had championship playoffs when a league is divided into several equal divisions, conferences or groups (
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...
) or when the season is
split into two periods (as in many leagues in Latin America, such as Mexico's
Liga MX
The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year.
The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in a ...
). In leagues with a single table done only once a year, as in most of Europe, playoff systems are not used to determine champions, although in some countries such systems are used to determine teams to be promoted to higher leagues (e.g., England) or qualifiers for European club competitions (such as Greece and the Netherlands), usually between teams that didn't perform well enough to earn an automatic spot.
A ''test match'' is a match played at the end of a season between a team that has done badly in a higher league and one that has done well in a lower league of the same football
league system
A league system is a hierarchy of leagues in a sport. They are often called pyramids, due to their tendency to split into an increasing number of regional divisions further down the system. League systems of some sort are used in many sports in ...
. The format of a test match series varies; for instance it can be a head-to-head between one of the worse finishers of the higher league and one of the better finishers of the lower league, or it can be a mini league where all participants play each other or teams only play those from the other league. The winner of the test match series play in the higher league the following season, and the loser in the lower league.
International playoffs
In international
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
, playoffs were a feature of the
1954
Events
January
* January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany.
* January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting.
* January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...
and
1958 FIFA World Cup
The 1958 FIFA World Cup was the sixth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Sweden from 8 to 29 June 1958. It was the first FIFA World Cup to be played in a Nordic country.
Brazil be ...
final tournaments. They are still a feature of the qualification tournaments for the
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...
and the
UEFA European Football Championship
The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...
.
In the
qualification playoffs for the
2006 World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...
, for example:
* In
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, after the first-place finishers in each of eight groups received automatic finals places, along with the two second-place teams that had earned the most points against teams in the top six of their individual groups, the remaining six second-placed teams entered playoffs to select three teams for the finals.
* The winners of the
Oceania qualifying tournament,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
played the fifth-placed team from the
South American qualifying tournament,
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
.
* The fifth-placed team of the
Asia qualifying tournament,
Bahrain
Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...
played the fourth-placed team in the
CONCACAF qualifying tournament,
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...
.
Later World Cup
qualifying inter-confederation play-offs were held for
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
,
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
,
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
and
2022
File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...
.
CONCACAF Nations League
The CONCACAF Nations League ( es, Liga de Naciones CONCACAF, french: Ligue des Nations de la CONCACAF) is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of CONCACAF, the ...
and
UEFA Nations League
The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body.
The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...
hold their respective finals to determine the overall winner at the end of the league,
CONCACAF Nations League Finals and
UEFA Nations League Finals
The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body.
The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...
.
Argentina
In Argentine football, playoffs in the style of the English leagues occur in the
Primera B Metropolitana
Primera B Metropolitana is one of two professional leagues that form the third level of the Argentine football league system. The division is made up of 17 clubs mainly from the city of Buenos Aires and its metropolitan area, Greater Buenos Aires. ...
, part of the third tier, and leagues below it (
Primera C Metropolitana
The Primera C Metropolitana is one of the two professional leagues that form the fourth level of the Argentine football league system. Primera C Metropolitana is made up of 20 clubs mainly from the city of Buenos Aires and its metropolitan area (Gr ...
and
Primera D Metropolitana
The Primera D is one of two leagues that form the fifth division of the Argentine football league system. Made up of 11 clubs from Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is ...
). All ''Primera Metropolitana'' tourneys cover the area in and around
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
, the capital city. The ''Torneo Reducidos'' (reduced tournaments), however, involve 8 teams below the top two, as opposed to 4.
Before the top-flight
Argentine Primera División
The Primera División (; en, "First Division"), known officialy as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Binance for sponsorship reasons, is a professional football league in Argentina, organised by the Argentine Football Association (AFA).
Th ...
abandoned its traditional
Apertura and Clausura
The ' and ' tournaments is a split season format for Spanish-speaking sports leagues. It is a relatively recent innovation for many Latin American football leagues in which the traditional association football season from August to May is div ...
format in 2015 in favor of an expanded single season, there was no playoff between the Apertura and Clausura winners. As a result, the league crowned two champions each year. After each Clausura, the two teams with the lowest points-per-game total for the previous six tournaments (three years, counting only Primera División games) were relegated to
Primera B Nacional
Primera Nacional (usually called simply Nacional B, in English "National B Division", and known as Primera B Nacional until the 2019–20 season) is the second division of the Argentine football league system. The competition is made up of 37 tea ...
to be replaced by that league's champion and runner-up teams; the two teams immediately above contested promotion/relegation series with the third and fourth places in Primera B Nacional, counted by its aggregate table. In Primera B Nacional, the same procedure continues in use for relegation to either Primera B Metropolitana or
Torneo Argentino A
The Torneo Argentino A (in English "Argentine A Tournament") was one of the two leagues that formed the regionalised third level of the Argentine football league system. Clubs in the Torneo Argentino have indirect membership in AFA, while clubs ...
for non-Buenos Aires clubs. From 2015 onward, relegation from the Primera División will be based solely on league position at the end of the season (which, effective in 2016–17, changed from a February–December format to an August–June format).
Australia
The Australian
A-League
A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...
, which also features
a team in New Zealand, has determined its champions via a playoff system, officially known as the "Finals Series" (reflecting standard Australian English usage), since its inception in the
2005–06 season.
From the league's inception through the
2008–09 season, the top four teams advanced to the finals series, employed using a modified
Page playoff system
The Page playoff system is a playoff format used primarily in softball and curling at the championship level, the Indian Premier League and Pakistan Super League cricket tournaments. Teams are seeded using a round-robin tournament and the top fou ...
. The top two teams at the end of league play were matched in one semifinal, with the winner advancing directly to the Grand Final and the loser going into the Preliminary Final. The next two teams played a semifinal for a place in the Preliminary Final, whose winner took the other place in the Grand Final. Both semifinals were two-legged, while the Preliminary Final and Grand Final were one-off matches.
When the league expanded to 10 teams beginning in
2009–10, the finals expanded to six teams. The format of the six-team playoff established at that time was:
* The "semifinals" were held over a two-week period. The pairings for Week 1 of the semifinals were 1 vs 2, 3 vs 6, and 4 vs 5.
* In Week 1, the top two teams played the first leg of a two-legged match, and the remaining teams played one-off knockout matches.
* In Week 2, the top two teams played the second leg of their semifinal, and the two other surviving teams played a one-off match. The winner of the two-legged match advanced directly to the Grand Final, while the loser of that match joined the winner of the last semifinal in the Preliminary Final.
* The Preliminary Final and Grand Final remained unchanged.
Starting with the
2012–13 season, the finals format has been changed to a pure knockout tournament consisting entirely of one-off matches:
* In Week 1, two Elimination Finals will be held, with the pairings being 3 vs 6 and 4 vs 5.
* In Week 2, the winners of the Elimination Finals advance to Semi-Finals. The top team on the regular-season table, called the "premiers" by the A-League, plays the lowest-seeded survivor of the Elimination Finals, and the second-place team plays the other Elimination Final survivor.
* The Grand Final, pitting the two Semi-Final winners, takes place in Week 3.
The concept of a finals series/playoff is standard in Australian sport.
Belgium
The Belgian
First Division A (previously known as the "First Division" and "Pro League") has a fairly complex playoff system, currently consisting of two levels and at one time three.
Since the 2009–10 season, playoffs have been held to determine the champion and tickets for the Champions League and Europa League. The six highest ranked teams play home-and-away matches against each other; a total of 10 matches each. The 6 participating teams start with the points accumulated during the regular competition divided by two. The first 3 teams after the play-offs get a European ticket. The fourth ranked team (or fifth, when the cup holder is already qualified for European football) plays a knock-out match against the winner of play-off 2. From 2009–10 through 2015–16, teams ranked 7–14 played in two groups; from 2016–17 forward, this playoff will continue to be contested in two groups, but with a total of 12 teams (details below). All points gained from the regular competition are lost. The two group winners play a final match to determine the winner of play-off 2. The winning team plays a final match against the fourth-ranked team (or fifth) for the last European ticket.
The play-off system has been criticized because more points per match can be earned in the play-off stage than in the regular competition. This way the team who wins the most matches isn't automatically the national champion. The biggest upside in favor of the play-off system is the higher number of matches (40 instead of 34 compared to the previous season) and more top matches. The extra matches also generate higher revenues for the teams.
Nonetheless, the higher number of matches takes an extra toll on teams and players. Besides play-offs, the Royal Belgian Football Association (KBVB) also introduced Christmas football in order to complete the extra matches in time. This posed some problems because a few matches had to be cancelled due to snowy pitches. The delays will probably cause the tight schedule to fail and postpone the end of the season.
Some structural changes were instituted in
2015–16:
* The team that finished atop the regular-season table is now assured of a Europa League place if they fail to finish in a Champions League qualifying spot (currently top two places).
* The first tiebreaker between Championship Round teams is now regular-season position.
* Accumulated yellow cards from the regular season are erased, although suspensions will continue to carry over. During the playoffs, three accumulated yellow cards will result in a suspension, as opposed to five during the regular season.
From 1974 through 2015, the 15th team out of 16 in the final standings was involved in a playoff pool with three teams from the
Belgian Second Division
The Belgian Second Division (known as the Proximus League for sponsorship reasons) was the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was founded by the Royal Belgian Football Associa ...
after each season, to determine which of these teams played in the First Division/Pro League the oncoming season. The lowest ranked team of the First Division/Pro League was relegated and replaced by the Second Division champion.
Originally, these playoffs were introduced in 1974 and were part of the Second Division, to determine which team was promoted to the highest level together with the division champions. From the
2005–06 season on, only one team was relegated directly from the First Division, with the 17th team taking part in the playoff. As a result, this playoff was still called the
Belgian Second Division Final Round The Belgian Second Division play-offs were a series of playoff matches to decide promotion to the Belgian Pro League, organised between 1974 and 2015. Following a large reform of the Belgian football league system at the end of the 2015–16 season ...
, although one team from the Pro League took part each year.
Starting in 2015–16, this playoff was scrapped and replaced with direct relegation for the bottom Pro League/First Division A team only.
Further changes will be introduced to the Europa League playoffs from 2016–17 forward. The playoff will involve a total of 12 teams—nine from First Division A, and three from First Division B (the renamed Second Division). The First Division A qualifiers will be those finishing between 7th and 15th on the regular-season table. The First Division B qualifiers will be the top three teams from that league's regular-season table, excluding the division champion, which instead earns promotion to First Division A. As in the previous format, the teams will be divided into two groups, each playing home-and-away within the group, and the two group winners will play a one-off final, with the winner of that match advancing to a one-off match against the fourth- or fifth-place team from the championship playoff (depending on available European slots) for the final Europa League place.
Brazil
In Brazil, the
Copa do Brasil
The Copa do Brasil ( en, Brazil Cup) is a knockout football competition played by 92 teams, representing all 26 Brazilian states plus the Federal District. It is the Brazilian domestic cup and the Brazilian equivalent of the FA Cup, Taça de ...
, the second most prestigious country-wide competition, is contested in pure "knockout" format since its inception in 1989. While the top two tiers in the Brazilian League –
Série A and
Série B – are contested in double round robin format, the lower tiers
Série C and
Série D include knockout rounds in their final stages.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria instituted an elaborate playoff system in its top flight, the
First League, in the 2016–17 season.
After the league's 14 teams play a full home-and-away season, the league splits into two playoffs—a 6-team "championship playoff" and an 8-team "qualifying playoff", with the latter split into two 4-team groups. Each playoff begins with teams carrying over all goals and statistics from the home-and-away season.
Each team in the championship playoff plays the others home and away one additional time. At the end of this stage:
* The top team is declared league champion, and earns the country's sole place in the UEFA Champions League.
* The second-place team earns a place in the UEFA Europa League.
* The highest-placed team that has not already qualified for European competition advances to an eventual one-off match for the country's final Europa League place. This will often be the third-place team, but if the winner of the Bulgarian Cup (which earns an automatic Europa League place) is in the top three of the playoff, the fourth-place team will take its place.
Each group within the qualifying playoff also plays home and away within its group; after this stage, teams enter another level of playoffs depending on their positions in the group.
The top two teams in each group enter a knockout playoff consisting entirely of two-legged matches (unless one of these teams is the winner of that season's Bulgarian Cup, in which case it will not enter the playoff and the team that it would have played receives a bye into the playoff final). The winner of this playoff then contests a one-off match against the third-place (or fourth-place) team from the championship playoff, with the winner claiming the final Europa League place.
The bottom two teams from each group begin a series of relegation playoffs. The series starts with a knockout playoff that also consists entirely of two-legged matches. The winner of the playoff remains in the First League for the following season. The losing teams then enter the following series of two-legged promotion/relegation matches:
# The losers of the knockout semifinals play, with the loser relegated to the Second League.
# The loser of the knockout final plays the third-place team from the Second League, with the winner playing in the next season's First League.
# Finally, the winner of Match 1 above plays the second-place team from the Second League, with the winner also playing in the next season's First League.
Dominican Republic
With the creation of the
Liga Dominicana de Fútbol
The Liga Dominicana de Fútbol is the first professional football league in Dominican Republic, it was launched in March 2015. For sponsorship reasons it is known as ''LDF Banco Popular''.
History
Prior to the league's establishment, football i ...
in 2014 to replace the
Primera División de Republica Dominicana
Primera División de Republica Dominicana was the former top division of the Federación Dominicana de Fútbol. Established in 1970, since 2002 this competition serves as second level to the Liga Mayor (see below). The 2005 edition also was played ...
, it introduced a playoff system to determine the champion of the season.
England and Wales
When
the Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...
was first expanded to two divisions in 1892,
test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to:
* Test cricket
* Test match (indoor cricket)
* Test match (rugby union)
* Test match (rugby league)
* Test match (association football)
...
were employed to decide relegation and promotion between them, but the practice was scrapped in favour of automatic relegation and promotion in 1898.
The use of play-offs to decide promotion issues returned to the League in 1986 with the desire to reduce the number of mid-table clubs with nothing to play for at the end of the season. The Football Conference, now known as the
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...
, introduced play-offs in 2002 after the Football League agreed to a two-club exchange with the Conference.
The top two teams in the
EFL Championship
The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...
and in
EFL League One
The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...
are automatically promoted to the division above and thus do not compete in the play-offs. The top three teams in
EFL League Two
The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...
and the champion of the
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...
(formerly known as Conference Premier) are also automatically promoted. In each of these divisions the four clubs finishing below the automatic promotion places compete in two-legged semi-finals with the higher-placed club enjoying home advantage in the second leg. The
away goals rule
The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaker, tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the ...
does not apply for the semi-finals. The Football League play-off finals were originally played in two legs, at both teams' home grounds, but were later changed to one-off affairs, which are played at
Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...
in London.
Teams are also promoted using a play-off tournament from levels six to eight of the
football pyramid
In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...
. At level six, the play-off semi-finals are two leg ties with the final being a single match played at the home ground of the highest placed of the two teams. At levels seven and eight, all of the ties are single matches played at the home ground of the team with the highest league position.
In 2003,
Gillingham proposed replacing the current play-off system with one involving six clubs from each division and replacing the two-legged ties with one-off matches. If adopted, the two higher-placed clubs in the play-offs would have enjoyed first-round byes and home advantage in the semi-finals. It was a controversial proposal — some people did not believe a club finishing only in eighth position in the League could (or should) compete in the
Premiership while others found the system too American for their liking. Although League chairmen initially voted in favour of the proposal, it was blocked by
The FA
The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and ...
and soon abandoned.
The championship of every division in English football is determined solely by the standings in the league. However, a championship play-off would be held if the top two teams were tied for points, goal difference, goals scored in both their overall league record, and identical head-to-head record (including head-to-head away goals scored); to date, this has never happened. A play-off would also be scheduled if two teams are tied as above for a position affecting promotion, relegation, or European qualification.
Greece
Starting in
the 2007–08 season,
Superleague Greece
The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...
instituted a playoff system to determine all of its places in European competition for the following season, except for those of the league champion and the
cup winner
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...
. Currently, the league is entitled to two Champions League places and three in the Europa League, with one of the Europa League places reserved for the cup winner. The playoff currently takes the form of a home-and-away mini-league involving the second- through fifth-place teams, under the following conditions:
* The fifth-place team starts the playoffs at 0 points.
* The remaining teams start with a number of "bonus points" determined as follows:
** The number of points earned by the fifth-place team during the main league season is subtracted from the totals of each other club involved in the playoffs.
** The resulting number is then divided by 5 and rounded to the nearest whole number.
* At the end of the playoffs, the winner receives the country's second Champions League place. The next two teams enter the Europa League at different points depending on their playoff finishes; the last-placed team is entirely out of European competition. However, if the cup winner finished in a playoff spot (as happened in
2010–11
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
), ''or'' the league champion also won the cup, and the losing cup finalist finished in a playoff spot (as happened in
2012–13
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
), the bottom three teams in the playoff all receive Europa League berths.
Italy
![Stadio Benito Stirpe Frosinone Palermo 2-0 playoff final inizio gara tribuna est](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Stadio_Benito_Stirpe_Frosinone_Palermo_2-0_playoff_final_inizio_gara_tribuna_est.jpg)
In 2004–05, Italy's professional league introduced a promotion playoff to its second tier of football,
Serie B
The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...
. It operates almost identically to the system currently used in England. The top two clubs in Serie B earn automatic promotion to
Serie A
The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...
with the next four clubs entering a playoff to determine who wins the third promotion place, as long as fewer than 10 points separate the third and fourth-placed teams (which often occurs).
Like the English playoffs, the Italian playoffs employ two-legged semi-finals, with the higher finisher in the league table earning home advantage in the second leg. If the teams are level on aggregate after full-time of the second leg, away goals are not used, but extra time is used. Unlike England, the Italian playoff final is two-legged, again with the higher finisher earning home advantage in the second leg. In both rounds, if the tie is level on aggregate after extra time in the second leg, the team that finished higher in the league standings wins.
In 2003–04, Italy's football league used a two-legged test match to determine one spot in the top level of its system,
Serie A
The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...
. Some leagues in continental Europe combine automatic promotion/relegation with test matches. For example, in the Netherlands, only one club is automatically relegated from its top level, the
Eredivisie
The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...
, each season, with the winner of the second-flight being promoted. The next two lower-placed teams enter a promotion/relegation mini-league with high-placed teams from the
Dutch First Division
Japan
J.League in Japan used a test match series between the third-from-bottom team in
J1 and third-place team in
J2 (see
J. League Promotion/Relegation Series) from 2004 to 2008. The Promotion/Relegation Series concept dates as far back as 1965 and the first season of the
Japan Soccer League
, or JSL, was the top flight association football league in Japan between 1965 and 1992, and was the precursor to the current professional league, the J.League. JSL was the second national league of a team sport in Japan after the professional ...
.
The
J.League Championship
The J.League Championship is a two-legged championship series which determined the season champion for the first 12 J.League seasons (1993–2004) excluding the 1996 season. In the early years, the J.League seasons were divided into two halve ...
was held in
J.League Division 1 from the inaugural season in 1993 to the 2004 season, and in the
J1 League
The , known as the for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the system. Founded in 1992, it is one of the most successful leagues in Asian club football. Contested by 18 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the J ...
for the 2015 and 2016 seasons, as a post-season tournament to determine the annual champion.
Promotion/Relegation Series occurred with the 2012–2016 seasons of
J. League Division 2/J2 League, conditional on the top two
J3 League
or simply J3 is the third division of . It was established in 2013 as the third-tier professional association football league in Japan.
The third-tier nationwide league is a relatively recent development in Japanese football with a first attempt ...
(
JFL teams from 2012 to 2013) fulfilling
J. League club criteria. In turn, J2 implemented a promotion playoff to J1 on the style of England for the 3rd to 6th clubs.
The
Japan Football League
The also known as simply the JFL is the 4th tier of the Japanese association football league system, positioned beneath the three divisions of the J.League. The league features fully professional teams that hold J.League associate membership am ...
, the current Japanese 4th division, uses the Promotion/Relegation Series only when the number of clubs in the league needs to be filled with clubs from the
Japanese Regional Leagues
are a group of parallel association football leagues in Japan that are organized on the regional basis. They form the fifth tier of the Japanese association football league system below the nationwide Japan Football League.
Overview
Japan is ...
.
Mexico
Mexico's top flight league,
Liga MX
The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year.
The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in a ...
, is contested annually by 18 teams. In each of
two annual tournaments, every team plays every other team in the league once (17 games), after which the top eight teams advance to the ''Liguilla''.
In the Liguilla, all rounds are home-and-away. Teams are drawn so the best team plays the worst, the second-best plays the second-worst, and so on. After one round, the teams are redrawn so the best remaining team again plays the worst remaining one and the second-best faces the second-worst in the semi-finals. The two winners of this round play each other for the championship.
There is no playoff between the Apertura and Clausura winner. As a result, the league crowns two champions each year. After each Clausura, the team with the lowest points-per-game total for the previous six tournaments (three years, counting only Liga MX games) is relegated to
Ascenso MX
Ascenso MX was the second tier of professional football in Mexico of the Mexican football league system. The champion of the competition was promoted to Liga MX (top-flight tier). The bottom team was relegated to Liga Premier (the third tier). ...
to be replaced by that league's champion (if eligible).
Netherlands
In the Netherlands, a playoff was introduced in the 2005–06 season. It is used to determine which teams from the
Eredivisie
The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...
qualify for European football. The playoff system has been criticized by clubs, players and fans as the number of matches will increase. Under the original playoff format, it was possible, though thoroughly unlikely, that the runner-up would not qualify for Europe; the following year, the format was changed so that the second-place team was assured of no worse than a
UEFA Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...
berth. Starting in 2008–09, the format was changed yet again. The champion goes directly to the
Champions League; the runner-up enters the second qualification round of the CL; the number three enters the fourth (and last) qualification round of the UEFA Europa League (EL; the new name of the UEFA Cup from 2009–10 onward) and the number four goes to the third qualification round of the EL. The only play-off will be for the clubs placed 5th through 8th. The winner of that play-off receives a ticket for the second qualification round of the EL.
Playoffs are also part of the
promotion and relegation
In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...
structure between the
Eredivisie
The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...
and the
Eerste Divisie
The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the ...
, the two highest football leagues in the Netherlands.
Philippines
The
Philippines Football League
The Philippines Football League, commonly known as PFL, is a Filipino professional football league sanctioned by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF). It is the Philippines' highest level of men's club football, supplanting the United Footb ...
(PFL) adopted a playoffs for its
inaugural 2017 season. The top four clubs of the regular season qualified for the playoffs which was dubbed as the "Finals Series".
The Finals Series was dropped after the establishment of the
Copa Paulino Alcantara
The Copa Paulino Alcantara, also known as the PFL Cup, is an annual football tournament in Philippines, sanctioned by the Philippine Football Federation. The cup's first iteration began on September 1, 2018. It replaced the PFF National Men's Club ...
which became the PFL's cup tournament.
Scotland
The
Scottish Football League
The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...
(SFL) experimented briefly with test matches in 1995–96 and 1996–97, contested between the second-bottom team of the Premier Division and the second-placed team of the First Division.
After the
Scottish Premier League
The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...
(SPL) and SFL merged in 2013 to form the
Scottish Professional Football League
The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is the national men's association football league in Scotland. The league was formed in June 2013 following a merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League. As ...
(SPFL), reuniting the top four divisions of Scotland since the breakaway of the SPL in
1998–99, a modified test match format was introduced between the
Scottish Premiership
The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...
and
Scottish Championship
The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland
Scotland (, ...
. The bottom team from the first-tier Premiership is automatically relegated and is replaced by the winners of the second-tier Championship, provided that club meets Premiership entry criteria. The second-, third- and fourth-placed teams from the Championship qualify for a play-off consisting of two-legged ties, with the second-placed team receiving a bye to play the winner of the teams that finished third and fourth. The winner of this play-off then faces the second-bottom Premiership team, also over two legs, with the winner of that tie taking up the final Premiership place (again, assuming that the Championship club meets Premiership criteria).
The three lower divisions of the SPFL — the Championship,
League One
The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...
and
League Two
The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...
— continue with the promotion/relegation play-off system their predecessor SFL leagues used (the
First Division,
Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
and
Third Division, respectively). In the Championship/League One and League One/League Two, while the champions are automatically promoted and the bottom team relegated, there are play-offs of the second-bottom teams against the second-, third- and fourth-placed teams from the division below. Home and away ties decide semi-finals and a final, and the overall winner plays in the higher division the following season, with the loser playing in the lower division.
Beginning with the 2014–15 season, promotion and relegation between the SPFL and the Scottish regional leagues were introduced. Following the end of the league season, the winners of the fifth-level
Highland
Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...
and
Lowland
Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland.
Definitions
Upland and lowland are portions of ...
Leagues compete in a two-legged playoff. The winner then enters a two-legged playoff against the bottom team from Scottish League Two, with the winner of that tie either remaining in or promoted to League Two.
Long before the SPL era, two situations arose in which the top two teams in the table had to share the title as neither goal average nor goal difference had been instituted to break ties. The first was
the inaugural season, in which
Dumbarton
Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990.
Dumbarton was the ca ...
and
Rangers both earned 29 points and had to play off for the title. The match ended in a 0–0 draw and both teams shared the title. The second happened 19 years later, in the
Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
, when
Leith Athletic and
Raith Rovers
Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the Scottish Championship as a member of the Scottish Professional Football Leag ...
both earned 33 points. This time, the clubs chose not to play off. In 1915 goal average was finally instituted.
Spain
For the 2010–11 season, the Segunda División experimented with promotion playoffs between the 3rd to 6th-placed teams, similar to the rules in the English and Italian systems. However, due to reserve teams being allowed to compete in the same football league system, subsequent places may be allowed to play off depending on reserve teams finishing within the 3rd to 6th places.
At a lower level, playoffs in Segunda División B take place to decide the divisional title between the 4 group winners, and to decide which other teams would be promoted, as follows:
*The first set of matches are an elimination tournament between the 4 group winners. The winners of each match are promoted and then play a final for the tier title.
*After the tier final takes place, the teams who finished 2nd in each of the 4 groups play the teams who finished 4th, whereas the teams who finished third play each other. The 6 winners, along with the 2 Group winners who lost their games in the earlier semifinals, play in each other in a knockout format until there is 2 teams remaining who are promoted.
*If within the qualifying places exist reserve teams whose senior teams are already in Segunda División, subsequent places are allowed to play off. If the senior teams are relegated from Segunda División during the season, the reserve team is automatically disqualified from competing and relegated to Tercera División.
Previously a playoff system had been used in which the teams finishing 3rd and 4th from last in
La Liga
The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...
had played off against the teams finishing 3rd and 4th in the
Segunda División
The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...
. This system had been introduced in the 1980s but ended in 1998–99.
United States and Canada
In
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...
in the United States and Canada, from the
2012 season to the
2014 season, at the end of the
regular season
In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...
, the top five teams in each of its two conferences qualify for the playoffs. Under this system, the conferences have separate playoff brackets. From 2015 to 2018, six teams per conference qualify; 12 teams in total. In 2019, 2021 and 2022, seven teams per conference qualify, 14 teams in all, and all rounds are single-elimination. 2020 saw ten teams from the Eastern Conference and eight from the Western counterpart qualify, 18 in all, and again all rounds are single-elimination. Come 2023, eight teams per conference qualify, 16 in all.
In the Conference Quarterfinals, the runner-up hosts the seventh seed, the third hosts the sixth, and fourth hosts the fifth. Winners advance to play in the conference semifinals. The top seed gets a first-round bye.
In the conference semifinals, the top seed hosts the fourth-fifth seed winner, and the second-seventh seed plays the third-sixth. The winners from this round advance to play in the conference finals.
The winner of each conference will play for the
MLS Cup
The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conference ...
, the league championship. Since 2012, the MLS Cup is hosted by the conference champion with the most table points during the regular season.
In the case of ties after regulation in any round, 30 minutes of extra time (divided into two 15-minute periods) would be played followed by a penalty-kick shootout, if necessary, to determine the winners.
The defunct
Women's Professional Soccer
Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 sea ...
(WPS), which operated only in the U.S., conducted a four-team stepladder tournament consisting of one-off knockout matches. The third seed hosted the fourth seed in the first round. The winner of that game advanced to the "Super Semifinal", hosted by the second seed. The Super Semifinal winner traveled to the top seed for the final. The WPS's replacement, the
National Women's Soccer League
The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...
(which launched in 2013), has a more standard six-team knockout playoff in which the lowest-seeded winner from the first round plays the top seed and the next-lowest the runner-up in the semifinals. The winners of two one-off semifinals advance to the one-off final.
Australian rules football
Playoffs are used throughout Australia in
Australian rules football
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
to determine the premiership. The term finals is most commonly used to describe them.
In each league, between four and eight teams (depending on league size) qualify for the finals based on the league ladder at the end of the season. Australian rules football leagues employ finals systems which act as a combination between a
single elimination tournament
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
for lower-ranked teams and a
double elimination tournament
A double-elimination tournament is a type of elimination tournament competition in which a participant ceases to be eligible to win the tournament's championship upon having lost ''two'' games or matches. It stands in contrast to a single-elimina ...
for higher-ranked teams in order to provide teams with an easier pathway to the Grand Final as reward for strong performances throughout the season. Finals are decided by single matches, rather than series.
The
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...
, which is the top level of the sport, currently has eight teams qualify for the finals under a
system designed by the league in 2000. Between 1931–1999, variants of the
McIntyre System
The McIntyre System, or systems as there have been five of them, is a playoff system that gives an advantage to teams or competitors qualifying higher. The systems were developed by Ken McIntyre, an Australian lawyer, historian and English lect ...
were used to accommodate four, five, six and eight teams, and prior to 1930,
six different finals systems were used.
In most other leagues, from state-level leagues such as the
South Australian National Football League
The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport.
Originally formed as the ...
and
West Australian Football League
The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...
, down to local suburban leagues, it is most common for either four or five teams to qualify for the finals. In these cases the
Page–McIntyre final four system or the
McIntyre final five system
The McIntyre System, or systems as there have been five of them, is a playoff system that gives an advantage to teams or competitors qualifying higher. The systems were developed by Ken McIntyre, an Australian lawyer, historian and English lect ...
are used universally.
The
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...
(which was known until 1990 as the Victorian Football League) was the first league to introduce regular finals when it was established in 1897. The
South Australian National Football League
The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport.
Originally formed as the ...
introduced finals in 1898, and other leagues soon followed.
Prior to 1897, the premiership was generally awarded to the team with the best overall win–loss record at the end of the season. If two teams had finished with equal records, a playoff match for the premiership was required: this occurred in the Challenge Cup in 1871, the South Australian Inter-club competition in 1874, the SAFA in 1889 and 1894, and in the VFA in 1896.
Baseball
Korea
The teams finishing in fourth and fifth place in the regular season face each other in the wildcard game. The winner of the wildcard game faces the team that finished in third place in the first round of the play-offs. The winner of the first round faces the team that finished in second place during the regular season, and the winner of that round faces the team that finished in first place for the championship in the Korean Series. This type of format is known as the
stepladder playoff.
Japan
Before 1950, the original
Japanese Baseball League
was a professional baseball league in Japan which operated from 1936 to 1949, before reorganizing in 1950 as Nippon Professional Baseball.
The league's dominant team was Tokyo Kyojin (renamed the Yomiuri Giants in 1947), which won nine league c ...
had been a single-table league of franchises. After it was reorganized into the
Nippon Professional Baseball
or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''.
Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...
(NPB) system, a series of playoffs ensued between the champions of the
Central League
The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consist ...
and
Pacific League
The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series. It currently consis ...
.
Before the playoff system was developed in both professional leagues, the Pacific League had applied a playoff system on two occasions. The first was between 1973–1982, when a split-season was applied with a 5-game playoff between the winning teams from both halves of season (unless a team won both of the halves so that they did not need to play such a game). The second time was between 2004–2006, when the top three teams played a two-staged stepladder knockout (3 games in the first stage and 5 games in the second stage) to decide the League Champion (and the team playing in the
Japan Series
The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, :File:2014_JS_logo.png is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series ...
). After this system was applied, the
Seibu Lions
The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway, wh ...
(now Saitama Seibu Lions),
Chiba Lotte Marines
The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region, and owned by Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd.
History
The Marines franchise began in 1950 as the Mainichi Orions, an inaugural ...
and
Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters
The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaidō. They compete in the Pacific League of Nippon Professional Baseball, playing the majority of their home games at ES CON Field Hokkaido. The Fighters also host a s ...
, which claimed the Pacific League Championship under this system, were all able to clinch the following Japan Series in that season. The success of such a playoff system convinced the Central League to consider a similar approach. In 2007, a new playoff system, named the "
Climax Series
The is the current annual playoff system implemented by Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). It determines which team from the Central League (CL) and from the Pacific League (PL) will advance to compete for the championship in the Japan ...
", was introduced to both professional leagues in NPB to decide the teams that would compete for the Japan Series. The Climax Series basically applied the rule of the playoff system in the Pacific League, with one important change: each League championship is awarded to the team finishing the regular season at the top of their respective league, regardless of their fate in the playoffs. This means that the two League Champions are not guaranteed to make the Japan Series. The
Chunichi Dragons
The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011) ...
took advantage of this in the first Climax Series season, finishing second in the regular season but sweeping the
Hanshin Tigers
The Hanshin Tigers (Japanese: 阪神タイガース ''Hanshin Taigāsu'') are a Nippon Professional Baseball team playing in the Central League. The team is based in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and is owned by Hanshin Electric Railway ...
and the League Champion
Yomiuri Giants
The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...
in the Central League to win a place in the Japan Series; they subsequently defeated the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters to claim their first Japan Series in 52 years.
In 2008, the format of Climax Series will have a slight change, in which the second stage will be played over a maximum of six games, with the League Champion starting with an automatic one game advantage.
United States and Canada
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
(MLB) itself does not use the term "playoffs" for championship tournaments. Instead, it uses the term "postseason" as the title of the official elimination tournament held after the conclusion of the
regular season
In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...
. From to and , it had consisted of a first round single-elimination
Wild Card Game
The Wild Card Series (formerly known as Wild Card Game from 2012 to 2019 and in 2021) are games that serve as the opening round of the Major League Baseball (MLB) Major League Baseball postseason, postseason. A single wild card game was first ...
between the two
wild-card teams in each league. From , two best-of-three Wild Card Series first round is conducted, followed by a best-of-five second round series called the
Division Series
The Division Series is the quarterfinal round of the Major League Baseball playoffs. Four series are played in this round, two each for both the American League and the National League.
1981 season
The first use of the term "Division Series" date ...
, and two rounds of best-of-seven series for the
League Championship Series
The League Championship Series (LCS) is the semifinal round of postseason play in Major League Baseball which has been conducted since 1969. In 1981, and since 1995, the two annual series have matched up the winners of the Division Series, and ...
and
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...
. One exception is , when the first-round series, the Wild Card Series, a best-of-three round, was created, along with the other rounds. First three seeds went to division champions, next three seeds to division runner-ups, and last two to the next-best records. The pairings for the WCS is as follows: top seed vs. eighth, second vs. seventh, third vs. sixth, and fourth vs. fifth. The DS will have the 1-8 winner play the 4-5 winner, while the 2-7 winner plays the 3-6 winner.
MLB uses a "2-3-2" format for the final two rounds of its postseason tournament. The singular term "playoff" is reserved for the rare situation in which two (or more) teams find themselves tied at the end of the regular season and are forced to have a tiebreaking playoff game (or games) to determine which team will advance to the postseason. Thus, a "playoff" is actually ''part of the regular season'' and can be called a "
pennant playoff
A one-game playoff, sometimes known as a pennant playoff, tiebreaker game or knockout game, is a tiebreaker in certain sports—usually but not always professional—to determine which of two teams, tied in the final standings, will qualify for a ...
". However, the plural term "playoffs" is conventionally used by fans and media to refer to baseball's postseason tournament, not including the World Series.
MLB is the oldest of the major American professional sports, dating back to the 1870s. As such, it is steeped in tradition. The final series to determine its champion has been called the "World Series" (originally "World's Championship Series" and then "World's Series") as far back as the National League's contests with the
American Association American Association may refer to:
Baseball
* American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891
* American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997
* American Association of Profe ...
during the 1880s.
Minor League Baseball
Most of the domestic
Minor League Baseball (MiLB) leagues which are affiliated with Major League Baseball conduct playoffs after their regular season to determine champions.
Before the 2021 reorganization of MiLB, most leagues at the
Triple-A,
Double-A, and
Class A-Advanced
High-A (officially Class High-A, formerly known as Class A-Advanced, and sometimes abbreviated "A+" in writing) is the third-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States and Canada, below Triple-A and Double-A, and abov ...
classification levels included four qualifying teams which competed in two best-of-five rounds: semi-finals and finals. Most
Class A,
Class A Short Season
Class A Short Season (officially Short-Season A) was a level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States from 1965 through 2020. In the hierarchy of minor league classifications, it was below Triple-A, Double-A, Class A-Advanced (cre ...
, and
Rookie League playoffs consisted of two best-of-three rounds. The champions of the two Triple-A leagues, the
International League
The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball ...
and
Pacific Coast League
The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...
, met in the
Triple-A National Championship Game
The Triple-A National Championship Game is a single interleague postseason baseball game between the league champions of the two affiliated Triple-A leagues of Minor League Baseball (MiLB)—the International League (IL) and Pacific Coast Lea ...
, a single game to determine an overall champion of the classification.
In the 2021 season, the first after the reorganization, no MiLB league had more than two teams involved in playoffs, with some leagues not holding a postseason at all.
* The Rookie leagues, better known as the Complex Leagues (from those leagues being hosted at major-league spring training facilities), did not hold playoffs; the regular-season winners were crowned champions.
* In all Low-A, High-A, and Double-A leagues (three at each level), the top two teams at the end of the regular season advanced to a best-of-five championship series.
* In both Triple-A leagues, the top team at the end of the 120-game regular season was crowned champion. After the regular season, all 30 teams at this level played a 10-game "Final Stretch".
Taiwan
Taiwan's playoff is different to many such competitions, due to the league's split-season format. The winners of the first half-season and the winners of the second half-season are eligible to play in the playoffs, but if the best overall team have not won either half season then they qualify into a wild card series against the weaker half-season winner, with the winner of this advancing into the
Taiwan Series
Taiwan Series () is the championship series of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). It is usually played in late October or early November, after the regular season. It was formerly known as the ''CPBL Seasonal Championship Series'' () ...
to face the other half-season winner. If the first and second half winners are different, but one of them is also the best overall team, then both teams progress directly to the Taiwan Series. Finally, if one team wins both halves of the season then a playoff will take place between the second and third best teams for the right to play them in the Final Series; in this case the team winning both halves of the season will begin the Taiwan Series with an automatic one game advantage.
Basketball
National Basketball Association
The present organization known as the
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...
, then called the BAA (Basketball Association of America), had its inaugural season in 1946–47. Teams had always have different
strength of schedule In sports, strength of schedule (SOS) refers to the difficulty or ease of a team's/person's opponent as compared to other teams/persons. This is especially important if teams in a league do not play each other the same number of times.
Computation
...
from each other; currently, a team plays a team outside its conference twice, a team within its conference but outside its division three or four times, and a team from its own division four times.
In the current system, eight clubs from each of the league's two conferences qualify for the playoffs, with separate playoff brackets for each conference. In the 2002–03 season, the first-round series were expanded from best-of-5 to best-of-7; all other series have always been best-of-7. In all series, home games alternate between the two teams in a 2-2-1-1-1 format.
The 2-3-2 finals format was adopted from the
1985 Finals to
2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...
, copying the format that was then in effect in the National Hockey League. Prior to 1985, almost all finals were played in the 2-2-1-1-1 format (although the
1971 Finals between Milwaukee and Baltimore were on an alternate-home basis, some 1950s finals used the 2-3-2 format, and the
1975 Golden State-Washington and
1978
Events January
* January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213.
* January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...
and
1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...
Seattle-Washington Finals were on a 1-2-2-1-1 basis). Also, prior to the 1980s,
Eastern
Eastern may refer to:
Transportation
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
*Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991
*Eastern Air Li ...
and
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
playoffs were on an alternate-home basis except for series when distance made the 2-2-1-1-1 format more practical. Since
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
, the
NBA Finals
The NBA Finals is the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western Conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The team that wins the series is awa ...
restored the original format.
Teams are seeded according to their regular-season record. Through the 2014–15 season, the three division champions and best division runner-up received the top four seeds, with their ranking based on regular-season record. The remaining teams were seeded strictly by regular-season record. However, if the best division runner-up had a better record than other division champs, it could be seeded as high as second. Beginning in 2015–16, the NBA became the first major American league to eliminate automatic playoff berths for division champions; the top eight teams overall in each conference now qualify for the playoffs, regardless of divisional alignment.
Since the 2019–20 season, only the top six teams qualify directly to the playoffs. The remaining two teams in each conference are determined through what is officially considered a separate postseason tournament, consisting of the seventh through tenth-placed teams. Known as a play-in tournament, it consists of three, one game series:
* Seventh placed team vs. eighth placed team
* Ninth placed team vs. tenth placed team
* Loser of 7–8 game vs. winner of 9–10 game.
The winner of the 7–8 game advances to the playoffs as the 7th seed, while the loser faces the winner of the 9–10 game (the loser of it is eliminated from playoff contention). The winner of this third game advances to the playoffs as the 8th seed, while the loser is also eliminated from playoff contention. From there, the playoffs continue as normal.
Elsewhere
Top flight basketball leagues elsewhere also employ a playoff system mimicking the NBA's. However, most leagues are not divided into divisions and conferences, and employ a double round robin format akin to league association football, unlike the NBA where teams are divided into divisions and conferences, which leads to different strengths of schedule per team. Teams are seeded on regular season record. The playoff structure can be single-elimination or a best-of series, with the higher seed, if held the playoffs are not held at a predetermined venue, having the home court advantage.
Aside from the playoffs, some leagues also have a knockout tournament akin to the
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
running in parallel to the regular season. These are not considered playoffs.
In the
EuroLeague, after the regular season plays a best-of-5 playoffs in a 2–2–1 format. However, from the semifinals on, it is a single elimination tournament held at a predetermined venue. Still others also have a relegation playoff.
In
NCAA Division I
NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...
basketball conferences, a playoff or "postseason tournament" is held after the regular season. Most conferences, including all of the "major" basketball conferences (
ACC
ACC most often refers to:
* Atlantic Coast Conference, an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference located in the US
*American College of Cardiology, A US-based nonprofit medical association that bestows credentials upon cardiovascular spec ...
,
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
,
Big East
The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...
,
Big Ten
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
,
Big 12
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its fo ...
,
Pac-12
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...
,
SEC), hold their tournaments at a predetermined venue, with all conference teams participating (unless barred due to NCAA sanctions). A few conferences hold early rounds at campus sites and later rounds at a predetermined site. For example, the
Mid-American Conference
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...
holds its first-round games at campus sites, but the rest of the tournament in
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
. The
Big South Conference
The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Th ...
holds its first round at campus sites, gives hosting rights for its quarterfinals and semifinals to the regular-season champion, and plays its final at the home court of the top remaining seed. The
America East Conference
The America East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I founded in 1979, whose members are located in the Northeastern United States.
The conference has nine core members including eight public research u ...
,
ASUN Conference
The ASUN Conference, formerly the Atlantic Sun Conference, is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Divisio ...
, and
Patriot League
The Patriot League is a collegiate athletic conference comprising private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United States. Outside the Ivy League, it is among the most selective gr ...
hold all tournament games at campus sites. A small number of conferences do not invite all of their teams to the conference tournament, with one example being 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 schools ...
, in which only four of the eight members advance to the tournament (which is at a predetermined site). In many such tournaments, higher seeds are afforded byes. The winners, and some losers which are selected as "at-large bids", play in
the NCAA tournament, which is also single-elimination and held at predetermined venues.
In the
WNBA Playoffs, the league's best 8 teams, regardless of conference alignment, compete, and are seeded based on their regular-season records. The top two seeds are reserved for the conference leaders plus the next six teams with the next-best records. Come 2022, the league quarterfinals are best-of-three on an 2-1 basis, and the league semifinals and finals are best-of-5 on a 2-2-1 basis.
Canadian football
In the
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...
, the playoffs begin in November. After the regular season, the top team from each division has an automatic home game berth in the Division Final, and a bye week during the Division Semifinal. The second-place team from each division hosts the third-place team in the Division Semifinal, unless the fourth-place team from the opposite division finishes with a better record. This "crossover rule" does not come into play if the teams have identical records—there are no tiebreakers. While the format means that it is possible for two teams in the same division to play for the
Grey Cup
The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...
, so far only two crossover teams have won the divisional semifinal game. The winners of each Division's Semifinal game then travel to play the first place teams in the Division Finals. Since 2005, the Division Semifinals and Division Finals have been sponsored by
Scotiabank
The Bank of Nova Scotia (french: link=no, Banque de Nouvelle-Écosse), operating as Scotiabank (french: link=no, Banque Scotia), is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. One of Canada ...
and are branded as the "Scotiabank East Championship" and "Scotiabank West Championship".
The two division champions then face each other in the Grey Cup game, which is held on the third or fourth Sunday of November.
The
Edmonton Elks
The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...
are notable for qualifying for the CFL playoffs every year from
1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...
to
2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...
, a record in North American pro sports. They're also notable for being the first crossover team to ever win the divisional semifinal game.
There was no playoffs in 2020.
Cricket
There are a number of
T20 leagues
Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...
played in
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
for a few weeks each in many countries, which all generally follow some variation of the
Page playoff system
The Page playoff system is a playoff format used primarily in softball and curling at the championship level, the Indian Premier League and Pakistan Super League cricket tournaments. Teams are seeded using a round-robin tournament and the top fou ...
, and have 8 teams.
Indian Premier League
The
Indian Premier League
The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...
is the largest T20 league, and uses the Page playoff format: the top two teams in the group stage play a semi-final, and the third and fourth-place teams play an eliminator match, to determine which will remain in contention for the final. The two remaining teams that have not yet qualified for the final among the top four teams then play a second semi-final, and then the final occurs.
The Hundred
The Hundred is an English
100-ball cricket
100-ball cricket is a short form of cricket designed to attract new audiences to the game with simplified rules, which was originally created by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for its new city-based competition The Hundred.
The 10 ...
tournament. The top three teams from the 8-team group stage advance to the playoffs, with the winner of a semi-final between the second and third-placed teams facing the table-toppers in the final.
Minor League Cricket
Minor League Cricket
Minor League Cricket (branded as the Toyota Minor League Cricket Championship presented by Sling TV for sponsorship reasons, and sometimes shortened to MiLC) is an American Twenty20 cricket developmental league for Major League Cricket which com ...
(MiLC) features 27 American teams split into the Pacific and Atlantic conferences, each of which is split into two regional divisions. The top two teams from each division advance to the Quarterfinals, with the final contested by one team from each conference. The Quarterfinal is unique in that it is a
best-of-three series
There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly kn ...
, and that it sees the top team from one division playing the second-placed team from the other division of their conference; this offers teams an incentive to finish as high as possible in the league stage so as to draw an easier matchup in the Quarterfinals.
Hockey
National Hockey League
The
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
playoff system is an elimination tournament competition for the
Stanley Cup
The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...
, consisting of four rounds of
best-of-seven series
There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly kn ...
. The first three rounds determine which team from each conference will advance to the final round, dubbed the Stanley Cup Final. The winner of that series becomes the NHL and Stanley Cup champion.
Since 2014, the Conference Quarterfinals consists of four match-ups in each conference, based on the seedings division-wise (No. 1 vs. No. 4, and No. 2 vs. No. 3). The division winner with the best record in the conference plays the lowest wild-card seed, while the other division winner plays the top wild-card seed (wild-card teams, who are de facto 4th seeds, may cross over to another division within the conference). In the Conference Semifinals, the four remaining teams in the conference face each other. In the third round, the Conference Finals, the two surviving teams play each other, with the conference champions proceeding to the Stanley Cup Finals.
For the first two rounds, the higher-seeded team has home-ice advantage (regardless of point record). Thereafter, it goes to the team with the better regular season record. In all rounds the team with home-ice advantage hosts Games 1, 2, 5 and 7, while the opponent hosts Games 3, 4 and 6 (Games 5–7 are played "if necessary").
For the , in which the regular season was prematurely ended by the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
only the top four teams in each conference, as determined by points-per-game, qualified directly to the First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The remaining four First Round teams per conference were determined by best-of-five ''Stanley Cup Qualifiers.''
Kontinental Hockey League
The
Kontinental Hockey League
The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига (КХЛ), Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs ba ...
, based in Russia and including teams from several nearby countries, operates a playoff system similar to that of the NHL, also consisting of four rounds of single-elimination
best-of-seven series
There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly kn ...
. The first three rounds determine which team from each conference will advance to the final round, dubbed the Gagarin Cup Finals. The winner of that series becomes the KHL and
Gagarin Cup
The Gagarin Cup (russian: Кубок Гагарина, Kubok Gagarina) is the trophy presented to the winner of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) playoffs, and is named after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space. The Cup was ...
champion.
Like the NHL, the Conference Quarterfinals consists of four match-ups in each conference. The winner of each division receives one of the top two seeds in its conference; the others are based on regular-season record. Unlike the NHL, divisional alignment plays no added role in playoff seeding—all teams are seeded solely within their conference. Playoff pairings are based on seeding number within the conference (No. 1 vs. No. 8, No. 2 vs. No. 7, No. 3 vs. No. 6, and No. 4 vs. No. 5). The division winner with the best record in the conference plays the lowest wild-card seed, while the other division winner plays the next-lowest seed (wild-card teams, who are de facto 4th seeds, may cross over to another division within the conference). The playoff pairings are reseeded after the first round (a feature that was once used in the NHL, but now abandoned). Therefore, the Conference Semifinals feature the top remaining seed in the conference playing the lowest remaining seed, and the two other first-round survivors playing one another. In the third round, the Conference Finals, the two surviving teams play each other, with the conference champions proceeding to the Gagarin Cup Finals.
For the first two rounds, the higher-seeded team has home-ice advantage (regardless of point record). Thereafter, it goes to the team with the better regular season record. In all rounds the team with home-ice advantage hosts Games 1, 2, 5 and 7, while the opponent hosts Games 3, 4 and 6 (Games 5–7 are played "if necessary").
Elite Ice Hockey League
In the United Kingdom, the
Elite Ice Hockey League
The Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL), sometimes referred to as the British Elite League or, for sponsorship reasons, the Viaplay Elite League, is an ice hockey league in the United Kingdom. Formed in 2003 following the demise of the Ice Hockey ...
playoffs are an elimination tournament where the draw is based on the finishing position of teams in the league. Of the 10 teams which compete, the top 8 qualify for the playoffs. The first round (the quarter-finals) are played over two legs (home and away) where the team who finished in 1st place in the regular season plays the team which finished 8th, 2nd plays 7th and so on, with the aggregate score deciding which team progresses.
The semi-finals and final are held over the course of a single weekend at the National Ice Centre in Nottingham. Each consists of a single game with the losing team being eliminated, with the two semi-final games being played on the Saturday and the final on the Sunday. There is also a third-place game held earlier on the Sunday between the losing teams from the semi-finals. Unlike in the NHL, the winners of the Elite League playoffs are not considered to be the league champions for that season (that title goes to the team which finishes in first place in the league), rather the playoffs are considered to be a separate competition although being crowned playoff champions is a prestigious accolade nonetheless. The most recent playoff champions are the
Nottingham Panthers
The Nottingham Panthers are a British professional ice hockey club based in Nottingham, England. They are members of the Elite Ice Hockey League. Their main team sponsor is the Nottingham Building Society.
The Nottingham Panthers have won four ...
.
NASCAR
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...
implemented a "playoff" system beginning in 2004, which they coined the "
Chase for the NEXTEL Cup
The NASCAR playoffs is a championship Playoffs, playoff system used in NASCAR's three national series. The system was founded as 'The Chase for the Championship' on January 21, 2004, and was used exclusively in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2004 to ...
". When first introduced, only NASCAR's
top series used the system, although the other two national racing series (currently known as the
Xfinity Series
The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a support race on the day prior to a ...
and the
Gander Outdoors Truck Series
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck based stock cars. The series is one of t ...
) have since adopted similar systems. One unique feature of the NASCAR playoffs is that the non-qualifying drivers continue to compete alongside the playoff drivers: the qualifying drivers merely have their championship points reset one or more times during the playoffs to figures so high that no non-qualifying driver could ever catch them.
There are actually two different playoffs going on at the end of the season in each series: one for the drivers and another "
owner's points" playoff for the racing teams. Only one multi-driver team has ever won the Cup series owner's point championship: in 2015, Kyle Busch won the championship after missing the first 11 races of the season due to injury; 3 other drivers drove the No. 18 car during his absence. Because of the way the playoffs were structured that year, however, both he and his No. 18 team won their respective championships with 5043 points. There have been two cases where a playoff driver failed to enter every playoff race. In 2005,
Kurt Busch
Kurt Thomas Busch (born August 4, 1978) is an American professional auto racing driver. He last competed full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 45 Toyota Camry TRD for 23XI Racing. He is the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion and the ...
was fired by
Roush Racing Roush is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
Politics
*Glenn Roush (1934–2020), American politician in Montana
* J. Edward Roush (1920–2004), United States Representative for Indiana, namesake of:
** J. Edward Roush Lake, a re ...
with two races left in the season. Busch finished 10th out of 10 Chase drivers, but
Kenny Wallace
Kenneth Lee Wallace (born August 23, 1963) is an American race car driver and former reporter for Fox NASCAR. He retired from NASCAR in 2015 after driving in the national series since 1988. In a career spanning twenty-five years in NASCAR, Wallace ...
stepped in to drive the No. 97 car to an 8th-place finish in the owner's points race. In 2012,
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr. (born October 10, 1974) is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver, team owner, author, and an analyst for ''NASCAR on NBC''. He currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving t ...
missed two playoff races due to injury.
Regan Smith drove the No. 88 car for two races, including a top-10 finish at Kansas Speedway. In that case, Smith's 43 additional championship points on top of Earnhardt's 2,245 were not enough to pull the No. 88 team out of 12th place out of 12 playoff contenders.
In the original version of the Chase (2004–2006), following the 26th race of the season, all drivers in the top 10 and any others within 400 points of the leader got a spot in the 10-race playoff. Like the current system, drivers in the Chase had their point totals adjusted. However, it was based on the number of points at the conclusion of the 26th race. The first-place driver in the standings led with 5,050 points; the second-place driver started with 5,045. Incremental five-point drops continued through 10th place with 5,005 points.
The first major change to the Chase was announced by NASCAR chairman and CEO
Brian France
Brian Zachary France (born August 2, 1962) is an American businessman and the former CEO and chairman of NASCAR. He served in the post from 2003 to 2018, following his grandfather (and NASCAR co-founder) Bill France Sr. and father Bill Jr., in ...
on January 22, 2007. After 26 races, the top 12 drivers advanced to contend for the points championship and points were reset to 5000. Each driver within the top 12 received an additional 10 points for each win during the "regular season", or first 26 races, thus creating a seeding based on wins. As in previous years, the Chase consisted of 10 races and the driver with the most points at the conclusion of the 10 races was the
NEXTEL Cup Series
The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971 ...
Champion. Under the points system then in use, drivers could earn 5 bonus points for leading the most laps, and 5 bonus points for leading a single lap.
Brian France explained why NASCAR made the changes to the chase:
"The adjustments taken ondayput a greater emphasis on winning races. Winning is what this sport is all about. Nobody likes to see drivers content to finish in the top 10. We want our sport -- especially during the Chase -- to be more about winning."
Beginning with the
2008 season, the playoff became known as the "Chase for the Sprint Cup" due to the NEXTEL/
Sprint merger.
The next format of the Chase was announced by France on January 26, 2011, along with several other changes, most significantly to the points system. After 26 races, 12 drivers still advanced to the Chase, but the qualifying criteria changed, as well as the number of base points that drivers received at the points reset.
Under this system. only the top 10 drivers in points automatically qualified for the Chase. They were joined by two "wild card" qualifiers, specifically the two drivers ranked from 11th through 20th in points who had the most race wins (with tiebreakers used if needed to select exactly two qualifiers). These drivers then had their base points reset to 2,000 instead of the previous 5,000, reflecting the greatly reduced points available from each race (a maximum of 48 for the race winner, as opposed to a maximum of 195 in the pre-2011 system). After the reset, the 10 automatic qualifiers received 3 bonus points for each race win, while the wild card qualifiers received no bonus.
On January 30, 2014, even more radical changes to the Chase were announced; these took effect for the 2014 season:
* The number of drivers qualifying for the Chase was expanded to 16, with this group officially called the NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase Grid.
* The Chase Grid is now selected primarily on the basis of race wins during the first 26 races (also known as the "regular season"). If fewer than 16 drivers win races. remaining spots on the Chase Grid are filled in order of regular-season drivers' points. Note that the basic point system has not changed from 2013.
* The Chase is now divided into four rounds. After each of the first three rounds, the four Chase Grid drivers with the fewest season points are eliminated from the Grid and championship contention. Any driver on the Chase Grid who wins a race in the first three rounds automatically advances to the next round. Also, all drivers eliminated from the Chase have their points readjusted to the regular-season points scheme, although they retain their points total from the last Chase round in which they participated.
** Challenger Round (races 27–29)
*** Begins with 16 drivers, each with 2,000 points plus a 3-point bonus for each win in the first 26 races.
** Contender Round (races 30–32)
*** Begins with 12 drivers, each with 3,000 points.
** Eliminator Round (races 33–35)
*** Begins with eight drivers, each with 4,000 points.
** NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship (final race)
*** The last four drivers in contention for the season title start the race at 5,000 points, with the highest finisher in the race winning the Cup Series title.
The Chase for the Sprint Cup has been generally panned since its inception, as many drivers and owners have criticized the declining importance of the first 26 races, as well as very little change in schedule from year to year. Mike Fisher, the director of the NASCAR Research and Development Center, has been one of the more vocal critics of the system, saying that "Due to NASCAR having the same competitors on the track week in, week out, a champion emerges. In stick-and-ball sports, every team has a different schedule, so head-to-head series are necessary to determine a champion. That does not apply to auto racing."
NASCAR extended the Chase format to its other two national touring series, the
Xfinity Series
The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a support race on the day prior to a ...
and
Gander Outdoors Truck Series
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck based stock cars. The series is one of t ...
(then the Camping World Truck Series), beginning in 2016. The formats used in the two lower series are broadly similar to the format used in the Cup Series, but have some significant differences:
* The Xfinity and Truck Series Chases are held over three rounds, instead of four in the Cup Series.
* Each of the first two rounds of the Xfinity and Truck Series Chases consists of two races (compared to three in the first three rounds of the Cup Series Chase).
* The Xfinity Series Dash 4 Cash, consisting of four short events with the winners receiving cash prizes, has been incorporated into that series' Chase. A driver who wins two Dash 4 Cash events is considered as having one regular race win, which essentially qualifies the driver for the Chase even if he or she wins no other race during the season. However, there is no points bonus for Dash 4 Cash wins.
* Instead of the 16 drivers who qualify in the Cup Series, 12 drivers qualify in the Xfinity Series and 8 in the Truck Series.
* Four drivers are eliminated at the end of each of the first two rounds of the Xfinity Series Chase, as in the Cup Series. The Truck Series Chase eliminates only two drivers at the end of its first two rounds. All formats end with four drivers eligible to win the season title entering the season's last race.
* The rounds of the Chase now have a standard name across all series. The rounds leading up to the final race are now officially called "Round of X", where "X" is the number of drivers eligible for the season title. The drivers in the final race that are still eligible for the season title are called the "Championship 4".
Starting with the 2017 season, NASCAR abandoned the term "Chase", instead calling its final series the "playoffs".
Rugby league
National Rugby League
Play-offs are used to decide the premiers of the
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...
(NRL) in Australasia, where they are known as ''finals'' (also as ''semi-finals'' or ''semis'') – as in Australian rules football, the participating teams only come from within a single division, and the tournament is staged as single matches rather than a series. Currently, in the NRL, eight teams qualify for the finals; starting with the 2012 season, the system was changed from the
McIntyre Final Eight to the
same system used by the AFL.
Previously, the term play-off was used in the
NSWRL
The New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) is the governing body of rugby league in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory and is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission. It was formed in Sydney on 8 August 1907 and was ...
competition to describe matches which were played as tie breakers to determine qualification for the finals series. Since 1995, points differential decides finals' qualification and play-offs are no longer held.
Super League
The
Super League
The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...
competition has used a play-off system to decide its champion since 1998. The original play-off format featured the
top five highest-ranked teams after the regular season rounds. Starting in 2002, the play-offs added an extra spot to allow
the top six to qualify. With the addition of two new teams for the
2009 season, the play-offs expanded to
eight teams. The next format, scrapped after
the 2014 season, worked as follows:
Week One
*Qualifying Play-Off 1: 1st vs 4th ''(winner receives a bye to week three)''
*Qualifying Play-Off 2: 2nd vs 3rd ''(winner receives a bye to week three)''
*Elimination Play-Off 1: 5th vs 8th ''(loser goes out)''
*Elimination Play-Off 2: 6th vs 7th ''(loser goes out)''
Week Two
*Preliminary Semi-Final 1: QPO 1 Loser vs EPO 1 Winner
*Preliminary Semi-Final 2: QPO 2 Loser vs EPO 2 Winner
Week Three
*Qualifying Semi-Final 1: QPO 1 Winner vs PSF 1 ''or'' PSF 2 Winner *
*Qualifying Semi-Final 2: QPO 2 Winner vs PSF 1 ''or'' PSF 2 Winner *
Week Four
* Grand Final: Winners of Qualifying Semi-Finals meet at
Old Trafford
Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...
''* Opponents decided by the QPO winner (in Week 1) that finished higher in the regular season
Beginning in
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
, the Super League season was radically reorganised, and more closely integrated with that of the second-level
Championship
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this system ...
. Following a home-and-away season of 22 matches, the top eight clubs in Super League now enter a single round-robin mini-league known as the
Super 8s, with the top four teams after that stage entering a
knockout play-off to determine the champion. The four bottom teams in Super League at the end of the home-and-away season are joined by the top four from the Championship after its home-and-away season. These eight teams play their own single-round-robin mini-league known as
The Qualifiers
In British rugby league system, the qualifiers was a competition that was played at the end of the regular rugby league season in the Middle 8 of the Super 8s.
Structure
At the end of 23 rounds of the regular season, the bottom 4 teams in the S ...
; at its end, the top three teams are assured of places in the next season's Super League, with the fourth- and fifth-place teams playing a single match billed as the "
Million Pound Game
Million Pound Game (stylized as £1M Game) was an annual playoff final rugby league game that decides which Championship team will be promoted to Super League the following season. Between 2015 and 2018, the game was played as part of The Qualif ...
", with the winner also playing in Super League in the following season.
Other leagues
The two tiers directly below Super League, the
Championship
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this system ...
and
League 1 (the latter of which was known as Championship 1 from 2009–2014)—formerly the National Leagues until the 2009 addition of
a French club to the previously all-British competition—used the old top six system to determine which teams were promoted between its levels through the 2014 season. After that season, both leagues abandoned the top six system. Before the 2008 season, when Super League established a
franchising system and ended automatic promotion and relegation in Super League, the National Leagues also used this system to determine the team that earned promotion to Super League. The top six system involved the following:
Week One
* Elimination Semi-final A: 3rd vs 6th (4th vs 7th in Championship 1)
* Elimination Semi-final B: 4th vs 5th (5th vs 6th in Championship 1)
Week Two
* Elimination Final: Winners of Elimination Semi-final A vs Winners of Elimination Semi-final B
* Qualification Match: 1st vs 2nd (2nd vs 3rd in Championship 1)
Week Three
* Final Qualifier: Winners of Elimination Final vs Losers of Qualification Match
Week Four
* Grand Final: Winners of Qualification Match vs Winners of Final Qualifier (in Super League, at Old Trafford)
Since 2015, all clubs in Super League and the Championship play a 22-match home-and-away season. Upon the end of the home-and-away season, the clubs will split into three leagues, with two of them including Championship clubs. The Super 8s will feature the top eight Super League sides. The second league, The Qualifiers, will include the bottom four clubs from Super League and the top four from the Championship, whilst the third will feature the remaining eight Championship sides. The bottom two leagues will begin as single round-robin tournaments. In The Qualifiers, the top three sides will either remain in or be promoted to Super League, with the fourth- and fifth-place teams playing the aforementioned "Million Pound Game" for the final Super League place. In the third league, the sides compete for the Championship Shield, with the top four teams after the round-robin phase entering a knockout playoff for the Shield. The bottom two teams are relegated to League 1.
League 1 currently conducts a 15-match, single round-robin regular season. At that time, the league splits in two. The top eight clubs play in their own Super 8s, also contested as a single round robin. At the end of the Super 8s, the top club earns the season title and immediate promotion to the Championship. The second- through fifth-place clubs contest a knockout playoff for the second place in the Championship. The bottom eight clubs play their own single round-robin phase; at its end, the top two teams play a one-off match for the League 1 Shield.
Rugby union
England
Premiership
In the
Gallagher Premiership, the top four qualify for the play-offs, where they are not referred to by that name. The tournament is a
Shaughnessy playoff: the team that finished first after the league stage plays the team that finished fourth, while the team that finished second plays the team that finished third in the Semi-Finals, with the higher-ranked team having home advantage. The winners of these semi-finals qualify for the Premiership Final at
Twickenham
Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...
, where the winner will be champions of the league.
Championship
Through the 2016–17 season, the second-level
RFU Championship
The RFU Championship is an English rugby union competition comprising twelve clubs. It is the second level of men’s English rugby and is played by both professional and semi-professional players. The competition has existed since 1987, when ...
used play-offs—but unlike the Premiership, the Championship officially used the term "play-offs". At the end of the league stage, top teams advanced to a series of promotion play-offs. From the first season of the Championship in
2009–10 to
2011–12, the top eight teams advanced; from
2012–13
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
through to
2016–17, the top four advanced. A relegation play-off involving the bottom four teams existed through the 2011–12 season, but was scrapped from 2012–13 on.
The original promotion play-offs divided the eight teams into two groups of four each, with the teams within each group playing a home-and-away mini-league. The top two teams in each group advanced to a knockout phase. In 2010, the semi-finals were one-off matches; in 2011, they became two-legged. The top team in each pool played the second-place team from the other group in the semi-finals; the winners advanced to the two-legged final, where the ultimate winner earned promotion to the Premiership (assuming that the team met the minimum criteria for promotion).
In the first year of the play-offs in 2010, all eight teams started equal. After that season, it was decided to reward teams for their performance in league play. in 2011 and 2012, the top two teams at the end of the league stage carried over 3 competition points to the promotion play-offs; the next two teams carried over 2; the next two carried over 1; and the final two teams carried over none. (Points were earned using the standard
bonus points system.)
The relegation play-offs, like the first stage of the promotion play-offs, were conducted as a home-and-away league, with the bottom team at the end of league play relegated to
National League 1
National One (last season known as National League 1 and previously known before September 2009 as National Division Two), is the third of three national leagues in the domestic rugby union competition of England. It was known as Courage Leagu ...
. As with the 2010 promotion play-offs, that season's relegation play-offs started all teams equal. in 2011 and 2012, each team in the relegation play-offs carried over 1 competition point for every win in the league season.
Beginning with the 2012–13 season, the pool stage of the promotion playoffs was abolished, with the top four sides directly entering the semi-finals. The format of the knockout stage remained unchanged from 2012, with two-legged semi-finals followed by a two-legged final. At the other end of the table, the bottom club is now automatically relegated.
Effective with the 2017–18 season, the promotion play-offs were scrapped for a minimum of three seasons, to be replaced with automatic promotion for the club finishing atop the league at the end of the home-and-away season (provided said club meets minimum Premiership standards).
France
The highest level of French rugby union, the
Top 14
The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism o ...
, expanded its playoffs starting with the
2009–10 season from a four-team format to six teams. In the new system, the top two teams after the double round-robin season receive first-round byes. The first-round matches involve the third- through sixth-place teams, bracketed so that 3 hosts 6 and 4 hosts 5. The winners then advance to face the top two teams in the semifinals, which are held at nominally neutral sites (a traditional feature in the French playoffs)—although in the
2011–12 season, the semifinals were held at
Stadium de Toulouse
Stadium de Toulouse is the largest multi-purpose stadium in Toulouse, France. It is currently used mostly for football matches, mainly those of the Toulouse Football Club, as well as rugby matches for Stade Toulousain in the European Rugby Champ ...
, occasionally used as a "big-game" venue by traditional Top 14 power
Stade Toulousain
Stade Toulousain () ( oc, Estadi Tolosenc), also referred to as Toulouse, is a professional rugby union club based in Toulouse, France. They compete in the Top 14, France's top division of rugby, and the European Rugby Champions Cup.
Toulou ...
. The winners of these semifinals qualify for the final at
Stade de France
The Stade de France (, ) is the national stadium of France, located just north of Paris in the commune of Saint-Denis. Its seating capacity of 80,698 makes it the sixth-largest stadium in Europe. The stadium is used by the France national foot ...
(though in 2016, the final was at
Camp Nou
Camp Nou (, meaning ''new field'', often referred to in English as the Nou Camp), officially branded as Spotify Camp Nou for sponsorship and financial reasons, is a football stadium in Barcelona, Spain. It has been the home stadium of FC Barcelo ...
in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
due to conflict with
UEFA Euro 2016
The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...
), where the winner will be champions of the league and receive the
Bouclier de Brennus
The Bouclier de Brennus, or Brennus Shield in English, is a trophy awarded to the winners of the French rugby union domestic league.
The shield was not named, as it is often believed, after the famous Gallic warrior Brennus but rather artist C ...
. Before 2009–10, the playoffs format was identical to that of the English Premiership with the exception of neutral sites for the semifinals.
Beginning in
2017–18, only the bottom club is automatically relegated to
Rugby Pro D2
Rugby Pro D2, also known as Pro D2 is the second tier of rugby union club competition division in France. It is operated by Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) which also runs the division directly above, the first division Top 14. Rugby Pro D2 was in ...
. The second-from-bottom Top 14 side plays a one-off match against the runner-up of the Pro D2 playoffs for the final place in the next Top 14 season.
Pro D2 adopted the Top 14 playoff system effective in
2017–18, though with all matches held at the higher seed's home field. The playoff champion earns automatic promotion; the runner-up enters a one-off match for potential promotion to Top 14. Previously, Pro D2 used a four-team playoff, involving the second- through fifth-place teams, to determine the second of two teams promoted to the next season's Top 14, with the regular-season champions earning automatic promotion. Under this system, the promotion semifinals were held at the home fields of the second- and third-place teams, and the promotion final was held at a neutral site.
United Rugby Championship
The
United Rugby Championship
The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...
(URC), originally known as the Celtic League and later as Pro12 and Pro14, adopted a four-team playoff starting with the
2009–10 season. The format was essentially identical to that of the English Premiership. Through the 2013–14 season, the final was held at a ground chosen by the top surviving seed, with the caveat that the venue must have a capacity of at least 18,000. In
2012–13
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
, top seed
Ulster
Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...
could not use its regular home ground of
Ravenhill for that reason (the ground was later expanded to meet the requirement). The league changed to using a predetermined site for its championship final in
2014–15.
With the addition of two South African sides in
2017–18, the league split into two conferences and expanded its playoffs to six teams. The top team of each conference earns a bye into the semifinals, where they will host the winners of matches between the second- and third-place teams from the other conferences (with the second-place team hosting the third-place team from the opposite conference).
After the
2020–21 season, both South African sides left the league and were replaced by the country's four former Super Rugby franchises, with the competition being rebranded as the URC. The league split into four regionally based pools—one each for Ireland, South Africa, and Wales, plus a joint Italian–Scottish pool. While the top team of each pool at the end of the regular season will receive a trophy branded as a regional "Shield" and automatic qualification for the following season's European Rugby Champions Cup, all teams are combined into a single table for purposes of playoff qualification. The top eight teams advance to knockout playoffs, with the higher seed hosting all matches leading up to the championship final, which continues to be held at a predetermined site.
New Zealand
Both domestic competitions in New Zealand rugby — the semi-professional
National Provincial Championship The National Provincial Championship may refer to:
* National Provincial Championship (1976–2005), original competition before reform into 14 sides
* National Provincial Championship (2006–present)
The National Provincial Championship, o ...
(known by several sponsored names) and the nominally amateur
Heartland Championship
The Heartland Championship competition, known for sponsorship reasons as the Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship, is a domestic rugby union competition in New Zealand. It was founded in 2006 as one of two successor competitions to the countr ...
— use a playoff system to determine their champions, although the term "playoff" is also not used in New Zealand, with "finals" used instead.
National Provincial Championship
In the
2006 Air New Zealand Cup
The 2006 Air New Zealand Cup was the inaugural season of the Air New Zealand Cup, contested by teams from New Zealand. The season ran from July to October 2006. At the end of the regular season, the top team from ''Repechage A'' and ''B'' joine ...
, the first season of the revamped domestic structure in that country, the top six teams after Round One of the competition automatically qualified for the finals, officially known as Round Three. Their relative seeding was determined by their standings at the end of the Top Six phase of Round Two. The teams that finished below the top six entered repechage pools in Round Two, with the winner of each pool taking up one of the final two finals slots. The seventh seed was the repechage winner with the better record, and the eighth seed was the other repechage winner.
From
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
onward, the former Rounds One and Two were collapsed into a single pool phase of play in which all teams participated. In 2007 and
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
, the top eight teams advanced to the playoffs; in what was intended to be the final season of the Air New Zealand Cup format in
2009
File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
, the Shaughnessy format was used, with the top four advancing to the finals. The
New Zealand Rugby Union
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is the governing body of rugby union in New Zealand. It was founded in 1892 as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU), 12 years after the first provincial unions in New Zealand. In 1949 it became an affiliate to t ...
(NZRU) ultimately decided to stay with the previous format for the rebranded
2010 ITM Cup, with the same four-team playoff as in 2009. Starting in
2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
, the NZRU split the ITM Cup into two seven-team leagues, the top-level Premiership and second-level Championship, and instituted promotion and relegation in the ITM Cup (a feature of the country's former
National Provincial Championship The National Provincial Championship may refer to:
* National Provincial Championship (1976–2005), original competition before reform into 14 sides
* National Provincial Championship (2006–present)
The National Provincial Championship, o ...
). The competition was renamed the Mitre 10 Cup in 2016.
The playoffs in each season format have consisted of a single-elimination tournament. The teams are bracketed in the normal fashion, with the higher seed receiving home-field advantage. In 2007 and 2008, the playoff was rebracketed after the quarterfinals, with the highest surviving seed hosting the lowest surviving seed and the second-highest surviving seed hosting the third surviving seed. The winners of these semifinals qualify for the Cup Final (2006–10) or Premiership/Championship Final (2011–), held at the home ground of the higher surviving seed. From 2011 onward, the winner of the Championship Final is promoted to the Premiership, replacing that league's bottom team.
Because the 2011 season ran up against that year's
Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...
in New Zealand, the competition window was truncated, with only the top two teams in each division advancing to the final match. The Shaughnessy finals series returned to both divisions in 2012, and is currently used in non-World Cup years.
Heartland Championship
In the
Heartland Championship
The Heartland Championship competition, known for sponsorship reasons as the Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship, is a domestic rugby union competition in New Zealand. It was founded in 2006 as one of two successor competitions to the countr ...
, teams play for two distinct trophies — the more prestigious
Meads Cup
The Meads Cup is a rugby union trophy named after King Country and All Blacks player Colin Meads. It is contested during the Heartland Championship. It was first awarded in 2006, when the Heartland Championship format was introduced.
Competition ...
and the Lochore Cup. The 12 Heartland Championship teams are divided into two pools for round-robin play in Round One, with the top three in each pool advancing to the Meads Cup and the bottom three dropping to the Lochore Cup.
Round Two in both the Meads and Lochore Cups is an abbreviated round-robin tournament, with each team playing only the teams it did not play in Round One. The top four teams in the Meads Cup pool at the end of Round Two advance to the Meads Cup semifinals; the same applies for the Lochore Cup contestants.
The semifinals of both cups are seeded 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3, with the higher seeds earning home field advantage. The semifinal winners advance to their respective cup final, hosted by the higher surviving seed.
Super Rugby
Throughout the pre-2011 history of
Super Rugby
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...
—both in the Super 12 and Super 14 formats—the competition's organiser,
SANZAR
SANZAAR (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina Rugby; previously known as SANZAR) is the body which oversees Super Rugby and The Rugby Championship competitions in rugby union. SANZAAR meets annually and is composed of the CEOs from ...
(renamed SANZAAR in 2016), held a Shaughnessy playoff involving the top four teams. The top two teams on the league ladder each hosted a semifinal, with the top surviving team hosting the final.
In May 2009, SANZAR announced that it would adopt an expanded playoff when the competition added
a new Australian team for the 2011 season. Through 2015, the Super Rugby playoff involved six teams—the winners of each of three conferences (Australia, New Zealand and South Africa conferences), plus the three non-winners with the most competition points without regard to conference affiliation.
The top two conference winners received a first-round bye; each played at home against the winner of an elimination match involving two of the four other playoff teams. As in the previous system, the final was hosted by the top surviving seed.
Further expansion of the competition in 2016 to 18 teams, with
one extra entry from South Africa and new teams based in
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
and
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, saw the playoff bracket expand to eight teams. The teams were split into African and Australasian groups, with the Argentine and Japanese teams joining the African group. Each group in turn was divided into two conferences (Australia, New Zealand, Africa 1, Africa 2). Conference winners received the top four playoff seeds, and were joined by the top three remaining Australasian teams and the top remaining team from the African group on table points, again without regard to conference affiliation. The higher seed still hosted all playoff matches, including the final.
With the contraction of the league to 15 teams for 2018, with one Australian and two South African teams being axed, the playoff format changed yet again. The number of conferences was reduced from four to three—Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, with the Argentine team joining the South Africa conference and the Japanese team joining the Australia conference. The playoff will remain at eight teams, with the three conference winners joined by five "wildcards", specifically the top remaining teams without regard to conference affiliation. The conference winners and the top wildcard will host quarterfinals, with all remaining matches hosted by the higher seed.
Summary
See also
*
Playoff format
There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly kn ...
*
Shaughnessy playoff system The Shaughnessy playoff system is a method of determining the champion of a sports league that is not in a divisional alignment. This format is also known as the Argus finals system. It involves the participation of the top four teams in the league ...
*
Playoff beard
A playoff beard is the superstitious practice of male athletes not shaving their beards during the playoffs. Playoff beards were introduced by ice hockey players participating in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and are now a tradition in many sports l ...
*
Season (sports)
In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...
*
Grand Final
Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...
*
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...
References
{{reflist
Tournament systems
Terminology used in multiple sports