League System
A league system is a hierarchy of sports league, 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 many countries. Overview In association football, rugby union, rugby league and Gaelic games, league systems are usually connected by the process of promotion and relegation, in which teams from a lower division who finish at the top of the standings in their league are promoted (advanced to the next level of the system) while teams who finish lowest in their division are relegated (move down to a lower division). This process can be automatic each year, or can require playoffs. In North America, league systems in the most popular sports do not use promotion or relegation. Most professional sports are divided into major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada, major and minor leagues. Baseball and associat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hierarchy
A hierarchy (from Ancient Greek, Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an important concept in a wide variety of fields, such as architecture, philosophy, design, mathematics, computer science, organizational theory, systems theory, systematic biology, and the social sciences (especially political science). A hierarchy can link entities either directly or indirectly, and either vertically or diagonally. The only direct links in a hierarchy, insofar as they are hierarchical, are to one's immediate superior or to one of one's subordinates, although a system that is largely hierarchical can also incorporate alternative hierarchies. Hierarchical links can extend "vertically" upwards or downwards via multiple links in the same direction, following a path (graph theory), path. All parts of the hierarchy that are ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered the premier professional ice hockey league in the world. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the Stanley Cup playoffs, league playoff champion at the end of each season. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) views the Stanley Cup as one of the "most important championships available to the sport". The NHL is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. The National Hockey League was organized at the Windsor Hotel (Montreal), Windsor Hotel in Montreal on November 26, 1917, after the suspension of operations of its predecessor organization, the National Hockey Association (NHA), which had been founded in 1909 at Renfrew, Ontario. The NHL immediately took the NHA ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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List Of Professional Sports Leagues
This is a list of professional sports leagues. A sports league is a professional body that governs the competition of its teams. They make the rules for competition and behavior and disciplines its members as necessary. This is done through a structure that varies by league. Some are made up of a board of governors that have a commissioner or president, while others are single entity organizations where the league owns the franchises and therefore does not have a board of governors. This list attempts to show those sports leagues for which all players and teams are paid to play. In other words, these players can be considered to play their chosen sport as their profession. Some leagues do not pay well enough to allow players to use them as their primary or only source of income, but because the players are paid, it is still considered professional, or semi-professional. As such, some leagues listed here may not be fully professional. Basketball Bat and ball games: Baseball ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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 concentrated into a relatively short time interval. # A competition involving a number of matches, each involving a subset of the competitors, with the overall tournament winner determined based on the combined results of these individual matches. These are common in those sports and games where each match must involve a small number of competitors: often precisely two, as in most team sports, racket sports and combat sports, many card games and board games, and many forms of competitive debating. Such tournaments allow large numbers to compete against each other in spite of the restriction on numbers in a single match. These two senses are distinct. All golf tournaments meet the first definition, but while match play tournaments meet the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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United States Football League (2022–2023)
The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football minor league that played two seasons from 2022 to 2023. It is now one of the two-component conferences of the United Football League (UFL), along with the XFL. The USFL was founded as a standalone league in 2022. In its two seasons of operation it operated eight teams; all with the brands of teams from a previous incarnation of the United States Football League that operated from 1983 to 1985. A majority of its teams did not play in the metropolitan areas of the cities after which they were named, with the entire league playing in Birmingham, Alabama during the inaugural 2022 season and each of the league's four host cities, mostly mid-sized markets and all east of the Mississippi River, sharing two teams in 2023. The league was owned by National Spring Football League Enterprises Co, LLC, initially a joint venture between Fox Corporation's sports unit, Fox Sports in the United States and Brian Woo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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XFL (2020–2023)
The XFL was a Professional football (gridiron), professional American football Minor league football (gridiron), minor league consisting of eight teams located across the United States in mid-sized to major markets. It is now one of the two athletic conference, conferences of the United Football League (2024), United Football League (UFL), along with the United States Football League (2022–2023), United States Football League (USFL). The XFL league headquarters were in Arlington, Texas. The league was founded by WWE executive Vince McMahon in 2018, as a continuation successor to the XFL (2001), league of the same name he founded in 2001. McMahon founded the new XFL to create a league with fewer off-field controversies and faster, simpler play compared to the bigger National Football League (NFL), and one without the features inspired by professional wrestling or Sports entertainment, entertainment elements of its predecessor. The league and its eight teams were originally own ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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United Football League (2024)
The United Football League (UFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football high level Minor league football (gridiron), minor league in the United States. The league was created following the merger of the latest incarnations of the XFL (2020–2023), XFL and United States Football League (2022–2023), United States Football League (USFL); it started play in March 2024. It comprises eight teams, all of which were members of the XFL or USFL prior to the UFL's creation, concentrated in the Midwestern United States, Midwest and Southern United States. Background 2020–2021 In 2017, Vince McMahon, who had previously launched the XFL (2001), XFL in 2001 as a partnership with NBC Sports, registered a trademark for the United Football League name. An unrelated United Football League (2009–2012), United Football League, founded by Bill Hambrecht, had played four abbreviated seasons from UFL Premiere Season, 2009 to 2012 UFL season, 2012. McMahon ultimat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Indoor American Football
Arena football is a variety of gridiron football designed to be played indoors. The game is played on a smaller field than American football, American or Canadian football, Canadian football, designed to fit in the same surface area as a standard North American ice hockey rink, and features between six-man football, six and eight-man football, eight players for each team playing at any given time depending on the league, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game that can be played on the floors of indoor arenas. The sport was invented in 1981 in sports, 1981, and patented in 1987 in sports, 1987, by Jim Foster (football), Jim Foster, a former executive of the National Football League and the United States Football League. The name is trademarked by Gridiron Enterprises and had a proprietary format until its patent expired in 2007. Three leagues have played under official arena football rules: the Arena Football League, which played 32 seasons in two separate runs from 1987 t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Arena Football
Arena football is a variety of gridiron football designed to be played indoors. The game is played on a smaller field than American or Canadian football, designed to fit in the same surface area as a standard North American ice hockey rink, and features between six and eight players for each team playing at any given time depending on the league, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game that can be played on the floors of indoor arenas. The sport was invented in 1981, and patented in 1987, by Jim Foster, a former executive of the National Football League and the United States Football League. The name is trademarked by Gridiron Enterprises and had a proprietary format until its patent expired in 2007. Three leagues have played under official arena football rules: the Arena Football League, which played 32 seasons in two separate runs from 1987 to 2008 and 2010 to 2019; arenafootball2, the AFL's erstwhile developmental league, which played 10 seasons from 2000 through ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and five in the West Division (CFL), West Division. The CFL is the highest professional level of Canadian football in the world. The league is headquartered in Toronto. The CFL was officially established on January 19, 1958, upon the merger between the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union or "Big Four" (founded in 1907) and the Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU) (founded in March 1936). The Big Four was renamed the Eastern Football Conference in 1960, while the WIFU was renamed the Western Football Conference in 1961. , the league features a 21-week season (sport), regular season in which each team plays 18 games with 3 bye (sports), bye weeks. The season traditionally runs from mid-June to early November. Following the regular seas ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and the highest professional level of American football in the world. Each NFL season begins annually with a NFL preseason, three-week preseason in August, followed by the NFL regular season, 18-week regular season, which runs from early September to early January, with each team playing 17 games and having one Bye (sports), bye week. Following the conclusion of the regular season, seven teams from each conference, including the four division winners and three Wild card (sports), wild card teams, advance to the NFL playoffs, playoffs, a single-elimination tournament, which culminates in the Super Bowl, played in early February ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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List Of Gridiron Football Rules
The following is a description of the various and alternating rules of gridiron football. Numerous leagues or organizations tend to send a laundry list of rules in order to better distinguish themselves from their counterparts. American football (general) Field and players American football is played on a football field that is . The longer boundary lines are ''sidelines'', while the shorter boundary lines are ''end lines''. Sidelines and end lines are out of bounds. Near each end of the field is a ''goal line''; they are apart. A scoring area called an ''end zone'' extends beyond each goal line to each end line. The end zone includes the goal line but not the end line. While the playing field is effectively flat, it is common for a field to be built with a slight crown—with the middle of the field higher than the sides—to allow water to drain from the field. ''Yard lines'' cross the field every , and are numbered every 10 yards from each goal line to the 50-yard line, or ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |