The Honkbal Hoofdklasse ( Dutch for Major League Baseball ) is the highest level of professional baseball in the Netherlands . It is an eight-team league that plays a 42-game schedule and is overseen by the Royal Netherlands Baseball and Softball Federation (KNBSB).
138-591: Games are played principally on weekends. The season runs from April to September and is followed by the playoffs among the four best teams, which culminates in the Holland Series . Both of the playoff rounds are best-of-five. The league followed a promotion and relegation system with the Honkbal Overgangsklasse until 2022. Many of the official team nicknames have contained the name of the club's sponsor . The two best teams participate in
276-665: A bracket tournament 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 and its similar BCS National Championship Game . 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
414-557: A play-in game – the MLB Wild Card Game – the winner of which would then advance to the Division Series and play the team with the best record. The two teams with the best records outside of the division champions advanced to the wild card game. The two wild card teams could come out of the same division so there was no guarantee a team that came in second place in their division would make the playoffs. The system
552-423: A sports league are a competition played after the regular season 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 , and may use a single-elimination system or one of several other different playoff formats . Playoff, in regard to international fixtures, is to qualify or progress to
690-564: 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 (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
828-535: A champion at the NCAA Division II level. It was first held in 1973. Prior to 1973, four regional bowl games 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 from 1973 to 1975. It was in Wichita Falls, Texas in 1976 and 1977. The game
966-402: 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 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
1104-569: A feature of the qualification tournaments for the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Football Championship . In the qualification playoffs for the 2006 World Cup , for example: Later World Cup qualifying inter-confederation play-offs were held for 2010 , 2014 , 2018 and 2022 . CONCACAF Nations League and UEFA Nations League hold their respective finals to determine the overall winner at
1242-693: A final size of ten teams in two divisions, continued to restrict its postseason to division winners until the 1969 season, the AFL's last as a separate league. The change came largely in response to criticism from NFL loyalists following the New York Jets ' upset win in Super Bowl III , who argued that the Jets had an "unfair" advantage since, having won the Eastern Division outright, they were
1380-557: 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 National Football League upon its founding in 1920, but the league (mostly driven by an Ohio League 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
1518-580: A finals series/playoff is standard in Australian sport. 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;
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#17327726521191656-614: A fourth placed Eastern team was in mathematical contention for a Western cross-over berth late in the season. Cross-over teams have advanced as far as the Eastern Final, but as of 2023 have never advanced to the Grey Cup game. There is no provision for a fifth placed team in one division to cross over in place of the other division's runner-up, even if it has a better record; in 2018 the Edmonton Eskimos finished fifth in
1794-554: 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. In Brazil, the Copa do Brasil , 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,
1932-523: A play-in game. As of the 2020–21 NBA season , the number of teams that qualified for the playoffs expanded to ten teams per conference and the NBA play-in tournament was adopted in its current format, which is similar to the first two rounds of the Page–McIntyre system for a four-team playoff. The #9 seed hosts the #10 seed in an elimination game. The #7 seed hosts the #8 seed in the double-chance game, with
2070-401: A player at the discretion of the organizers. All ATP and WTA tournaments have a few spots set aside for wildcards in both the main draw, and the qualifying draw, for players who otherwise would not have made either of these draws with their professional ranking. They are usually awarded to players from the home and/or sponsoring country (sometimes after a tournament where the winner is awarded
2208-434: A playoff berth. In 1981, even the fifth place Western team's record of 6–10 was good enough for outright possession of sixth place overall. In 1986, the playoff format was changed. The new format the fourth place team in one division to qualify if it finished with an outright better record than the third place team in the other division. The Eastern owners agreed in exchange for expanding the schedule to 18 games, and also with
2346-492: 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 to decide promotion for lower-finishing teams, rather than to decide a champion in the way they are used in North America. In
2484-521: A playoff system to determine the champion of the season. When the Football League was first expanded to two divisions in 1892, test matches 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
2622-471: A position affecting promotion, relegation, or European qualification. Wild card (sports) A wild card (also wildcard or wild-card and also known as an at-large berth or at-large bid ) is a tournament or playoff berth awarded to a team or individual that does not qualify through an automatic bid. In some events, wildcards are chosen freely by the organizers. Other events have fixed rules. Some North American professional sports leagues compare
2760-557: A prelim-round byes. The playoffs had expanded to nine teams per conference. Curling Canada introduced wild card teams starting with the 2018 Scotties Tournament of Hearts and 2018 Tim Hortons Brier . The change was made as part of a wider set of changes which expanded the tournaments to 17 teams and eliminated the unpopular pre-qualifying tournaments. From 2018, the round robin stage of the Tournament of Hearts and Brier will consist of two seeded "pools" of eight teams as opposed to
2898-636: A rule, international association football has only had championship playoffs when a league is divided into several equal divisions, conferences or groups ( Premier League ) or when the season is split into two periods (as in many leagues in Latin America). 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
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#17327726521193036-521: A runner-up eventually won the league title. The NFL kept this principle in place by stipulating that a wild card team could never face its own division champion in the divisional round. Following the implementation of the AFL–NFL merger prior to the 1970 season, from 1970 to 1974 the NFL used a rotation to determine which teams hosted playoff games, and which teams played which other teams. From 1975 to 1977,
3174-625: 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: With the creation of the Liga Dominicana de Fútbol in 2014 to replace the Primera División de Republica Dominicana , it introduced
3312-530: A stipulation that the qualifying fourth-place team would stay in its own division for the playoffs. As a result, the change introduced the possibility of a four team bracket in one division and a two-game total point series in the other (the two game total point format was nothing new in Canadian football – it was commonly used until the early 1970s). It also introduced the possibility of the first place teams losing their traditional byes based on results elsewhere in
3450-565: A team tied for first overall in the league to miss the playoffs (this happened once, in 1967, when the Baltimore Colts missed the postseason despite a .917 winning percentage after losing a tiebreaker to the Los Angeles Rams ). The AFL's 1969 playoffs were criticized by NFL purists for breaking with longstanding tradition, also, due to the fact that they allowed runners-up to qualify no matter how much disparity existed between
3588-520: 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 to 2010 through 2015–16, teams ranked 7–14 played in two groups; from 2016 to 2017 forward, this playoff will continue to be contested in two groups, but with
3726-432: 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
3864-420: A wild card playoff format is used, the number of teams in a division that qualify is not fixed; a set number of teams from each division automatically qualify(ies), but (an) additional team(s) also qualify(ies), based either on league record or conference record. In Major League Baseball (MLB), the wild card teams are the three teams in each of the two leagues ( American and National ) that have qualified for
4002-606: A wild card team, the 1969 Kansas City Chiefs were the first non-division winner to win the Super Bowl . They finished second in the Western Division of the American Football League , and in that season, the last before the merger, the AFL went from having its two division winners meeting for the league title to adding a second round in which the second place team in each division qualified for
4140-613: A wildcard and get one if they want to enter a tournament on short notice. For Summer Olympic Games , some National Olympic Committees , whose nations are underrepresented after qualifications, may be granted wild card quotas, which are termed Universality Places , in some eligible sports. In Olympic and World Championship competitions in track and field and swimming , however, nations are automatically allowed to enter two competitors, so these instances are technically not wildcards. In some other Olympic sports, such as judo, archery, and badminton, wildcards are in use, and they are granted by
4278-456: Is no tie-breaker advantage at all to finishing in any divisional rank lower than first – meaning (for example) that while a division winner will automatically win a tie-breaker over another division's runner-up, a division runner-up will not automatically win a tie-breaker over teams finishing third, fourth or fifth in other divisions. The new format means it is possible for an especially weak division to send no teams (not even its champion) to
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4416-462: Is sponsored by Dr Pepper , 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. The NCAA Division I Football Championship is an American college football tournament played each year to determine the champion of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Prior to 2006, the game
4554-404: 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
4692-756: The Stagg Bowl , has been played annually in Salem , Virginia at Salem Football Stadium since 1993. It was previously played in Phenix City , Alabama at Garrett-Harrison Stadium (1973–1982, 1985–1989), at the College Football Hall of Fame , when the Hall was located in Kings Island , Ohio at Galbreath Field (1983–1984), and Bradenton , Florida at Hawkins Stadium (1990–1992). As
4830-478: The 2008–09 season , the top four teams advanced to the finals series, employed using a modified Page playoff system . 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
4968-430: The 2013 BWF World Championships . In North American professional sports leagues, "wild card" refers to a team that qualifies for the championship playoffs without winning their specific conference or division outright. The number of wild card teams varies. In most cases, the rules of the league call for the wild card team to survive an extra round or to play the majority of their postseason games away from home. Although
5106-574: The American Football League 's 1969 playoffs (qualifying the top two finishers from each division), the National Basketball Association 's 1967-through-1970 playoffs (top four finishers from each division) and 1971–1972 playoffs (top two finishers in each division), and the National Hockey League 's 1968–1974 and 1982–1993 playoffs (top four finishers from each division) are not true wild card formats. When
5244-549: The Conference finals and Stanley Cup Finals . The NHL's current format is similar in some respects to the "cross-over rule" used by the Canadian Football League since 1997 in that it the format emphasizes intra-divisional ranking and brackets in the playoff structure and yet allows two teams from one division to qualify for the playoffs at the expense of the two teams finishing with worse records and in
5382-653: The EFL Championship (the second tier of English football), teams finishing 3rd to 6th after the regular season compete to decide the third promotion spot to the Premier League . Evidence of playoffs in professional football dates to at least 1919, when the " New York Pro Championship " was held in Western New York (it is possible one was held in 1917, but that is not known for sure). The Buffalo and Rochester metropolitan areas each played
5520-664: The European Cup . The Honkbal Hoofdklasse has been the highest level of competitive baseball in the Netherlands since 1958, when it was elevated over the former Eerste Klasse by the Koninklijke Nederlandse Honkbal Bond , the forerunner of the KNBSB. The Eerste Klasse served as the top baseball competition in the Netherlands from its establishment in 1922 until 1957, excluding 1945 when play
5658-508: The National Football Conference (NFC). The decision to make the conferences equal in size meant they could not feasibly align into anything except three divisions of four or five teams in each conference. This led to a debate as to how the postseason of the merged league should be structured. Both the NFL and AFL playoff formats of 1969 had attracted fierce critics. The NFL format was criticized for its ability to cause
Honkbal Hoofdklasse - Misplaced Pages Continue
5796-706: The Super Bowl ; the closest that came to happening was in the 2010–11 playoffs , when the Green Bay Packers and New York Jets went on Cinderella runs after finishing as the second wild card team in each of their conferences (the NFC and AFC, respectively); the Packers won the NFC Championship Game and went on to win the Super Bowl, while the Jets' Cinderella story ended with a one-score loss to
5934-602: The Winnipeg Blue Bombers (the West's easternmost team) to the Eastern Division. This balanced the divisions both in numbers as well as, to a considerable extent, in playing caliber, and the reduction in teams also caused the schedule to be changed to emphasize more divisional games. As a result, the three top finishers of the two divisions finishers always had the six best league records from 1987 up until
6072-597: The postseason despite failing to win their division . Those teams in each league possess the three best winning percentages in their league after the three division winners . The wild card was first instituted in MLB in 1994, with one wild card team per league advancing to the Division Series in the postseason to face a division winner. In 2012, the system was modified to add a second wild card team per league and pit each league's wild card teams against each other in
6210-421: The "Championship Pool." Unlike most tournaments which use a similar format, teams carry over their entire round robin records from the preliminary stage as opposed to only those results against teams that also qualify. This ensures that each Championship Pool team still plays eleven games that count for the purposes of determining playoff qualification. The format is designed to ensure that a competitive team fills
6348-402: The "wild card" was not initially referred to as such and was instead referred as the "Best Second-Place Team" (or sometimes simply as the "Fourth Qualifier"). The media, however, began referring to the qualifying teams as "wild cards". Eventually, the NFL officially adopted the term. For the 1969 AFL playoffs , a "crossover" format was used such that the division winners played the runners up in
6486-449: The #1 seeded team by giving it the most winnable matchups in the first two rounds, although this is not always the case in event of an upset because the NBA never re-seed teams following the first round. For instance, if the #6 seed upsets the #3 seed and the higher seed wins the remaining first round matchups within the conference, the #1 seed would face the #4 seed, while the #2 seed would face
6624-499: The #2 seed played the #3 seed. However, the rule that teams from the same division could not play each other in the divisional round continued, so if the #1 seed and the winner of the #4 vs #5 wild card game were in the same division, then the #1 seed played the #3 seed, while the #2 seed played the #4 vs #5 winner. To address the oddity of one wild card team per conference hosting a playoff game (albeit in an earlier round) while one division winner per conference did not automatically have
6762-409: The #4 & #5, and #3 & #6 seeds) in each conference played the #1 seed, and the next-lowest played the #2 seed in the conference semifinals. In 2019, the playoffs were expanded to the top seven teams in each conference, with only the conference regular season champion receiving a first-round bye. 2023 and hereafter sees only the eighth seed hosting the ninth-seed while the top seven seeds earned
6900-480: The #5 through #8 seeds. This change was made to ensure that the two best teams in each conference cannot meet until the conference final, and also (allegedly) to try and eliminate incentives for a playoff-bound team to deliberately lose games at the end of the regular season in order to "choose" a higher-seeded team that has won fewer games (and, due to the unique home-court rules of the NBA, possibly gain home-court advantage for that series). The notion of "wild cards"
7038-481: The #6 seed in the conference semifinals. For the 2020 NBA playoffs , playoff qualification was complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic , as not all teams had played the same number of games at the time of the mid-season suspension of play . When play resumed as part of the NBA's bubble , teams already eliminated from contention did not resume, while teams not eliminated played eight games to determine final seeding. If
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#17327726521197176-486: The #8 and #9 seeds in either conference finished within four games of each other, the two seeds would play each other in a play-in game. If the #8 seed won the game, it would advance to the playoffs. If the #9 seed won, a second game would be played. Only if the #9 seed won the second game would it advance to the playoffs. This play-in occurred on the Western Conference, where #8 seed Portland beat #9 Memphis in
7314-549: The 2024 season, with Kinheim replacing DSS/Kinheim in the top league and Quick Amersfoort voluntarily moving down to the Eerste Klasse. This article about sports in the Netherlands is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article relating to baseball in Europe is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Playoffs The playoffs , play-offs , postseason or finals of
7452-528: The CFL the NHL does not require the second wild card qualifier to have an outright better record than a superior-ranked team in the other division – in the event of such a tie at the end of the NHL season standard tie-breaking procedures are used to determine playoff qualification. From 1999 until 2013 , three division champions within each conference were given the #1–3 seeds based on their regular-season records. Among
7590-478: The Championship Game. Since 2020 , it has been possible for a wild card team to host a Divisional Round playoff game. This requires that all three wild card teams (seeded 5–7) win their wild card games on the road since teams are re-seeded. The matchups in the divisional round would be: The 1980 Raiders, 2005 Steelers, and 1992 Bills tied for first in their division but lost a tiebreaker. While not
7728-473: The Chiefs are not included in the above list, but are recognized as the first team to win the Super Bowl without winning a division title. Although the National Basketball Association (NBA) includes wild card teams in their playoff structures, the term "wild card" is seldom used; instead, each playoff team is most commonly denoted by its seeding position within the conference. Before the 2006–07 NBA season ,
7866-425: The NBA playoffs, although as of the start of the 2022–23 season this has not yet occurred. In the NBA, the winner of the #1 vs. #8 series goes on to face the winner of the #5 vs. #4 series, while the winner of the #2 vs. #7 series faces the winner of the #6 vs. #3 series. The winner of the #1 vs. #8 series will usually play against a wild card team in the conference semifinals; this is arranged deliberately to reward
8004-437: The NBA seeded its teams with the division winners automatically receiving seeds 1–3. Until 2015, the NBA seeded the three division winners and the wild card team with the best record by regular-season record. This meant that the wild card with the best record got a seed as high as #2 (if that team is in the same division as the team with the best record in the conference); however, the next four wild card teams were still limited to
8142-457: The NBA. In the NHL, the highest-remaining seed of the first round played the lowest-remaining seed of the first round in the next round of the playoffs. For example, if the #1, #4, #6, and #7 seeds win their respective first round series, then the second round of the playoffs matched the #1 seed (highest) versus the #7 seed (lowest), and the #4 seed (2nd highest) versus the #6 seed (second lowest). Home ice advantage in each NHL playoff series prior to
8280-516: The NFL added its 32nd team, the Houston Texans , 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 2020 , 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 also make
8418-471: 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 . The format of a test match series varies; for instance it can be a head-to-head between one of the worse finishers of
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#17327726521198556-513: 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 : From 1974 through 2015, the 15th team out of 16 in
8694-699: 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 , although one team from the Pro League took part each year. Starting in 2015–16, this playoff
8832-524: The Stanley Cup Finals was granted by the higher seed, even if the "wild card" team had a better regular season record. For the Finals, the team with the better record will receive home ice advantage. Major League Soccer (MLS) used a wild card format starting in its 2011 playoffs . The top three teams from each of its two conferences automatically qualified for the conference semifinals, while
8970-677: The Steelers in the AFC Championship Game. From 2002 to 2019, the only way a wild card team could host a playoff game within their respective conference ( Super Bowls are considered neutral site games regardless of home venue) would be for both wild card teams to reach the Conference Championship Game by each winning two road playoff games: The No. 5 seeded wild card would host the No. 6 seeded wild card in
9108-469: The West with a 9–9 record and missed the playoffs while the Hamilton Tiger-Cats finished 8–10 and qualified as Eastern runners-up. Thus, it is theoretically possible (but it has not yet occurred) that all four Eastern Division teams could reach the playoffs, but not for all five Western Division teams. In professional tennis tournaments, a wildcard refers to a tournament entry awarded to
9246-416: The best records among the remaining teams in the conference. These teams are referred to as the wild cards. In the first round, the division champions play the wild cards, while the second and third placed teams in each division play each other; therefore the bracket is fixed, like the NBA. Home-ice advantage is given to the higher seed in the first two rounds, with the better regular season record being used in
9384-403: The best regular-season record is awarded a first-round bye and granted automatic berth in the "Divisional Round". The four division champions are seeded from #1 through #4, while the three wild card teams are seeded #5 to #7; within these separations, seeding is by regular-season record. In the "wild card Round", the #7 team plays the #2 team, #6 plays #3, and #5 plays #4. In the "Divisional Round",
9522-592: The champion of the National League (formerly known as Conference Premier) are also automatically promoted. In EFL playoffs, 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. In the National League however, the six clubs finishing below the champions compete in playoffs - the lower four competing in an elimination match to decide who plays in
9660-415: The divisional playoffs featured the #1 seed hosting the "wild card" team, and the #2 seed hosting the #3 seed unless the #1 seed and wild card team were divisional rivals; in that case, the #1 seed hosted the #3 seed and the #2 seed hosted the wild card team. The "wild card" team in each conference was the team with the best record in its conference excluding the #1–3 seeds. The number of wild card qualifiers
9798-651: The divisions, the AFL playoff structure could allow a mediocre team to qualify – this did occur when the Houston Oilers , a .500 team, finished second in the Eastern Division – the Oilers were throttled in the playoffs 56–7 by the Western champion Oakland Raiders . Despite Kansas City's upset wins over the Raiders and Minnesota Vikings , some purists argued for the tradition of having only division champions contest
9936-589: The end of the league, CONCACAF Nations League Finals and UEFA Nations League Finals . In Argentine football, playoffs in the style of the English leagues occur in the Primera B Metropolitana , part of the third tier, and leagues below it ( Primera C Metropolitana and Primera D Metropolitana ). All Primera Metropolitana tourneys cover the area in and around Buenos Aires , the capital city. The Torneo Reducidos (reduced tournaments), however, involve 8 teams below
10074-474: The end of the season (which, effective in 2016–17, changed from a February–December format to an August–June format). The Australian A-League , 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
10212-417: The exact rules among the leagues differ, they all generally agree that the wild card team (or teams, as in MLB, NFL, and NHL) are the ones with the best records among the teams that did not win their divisions; these teams usually finish as the runner-up to their division winners. The term "wild card" does not apply to postseason formats where a set number of teams per division qualify. Former examples include:
10350-433: The expanded round robin schedule, the playoffs will revert to the old three team, two game format thus eliminating the page playoff and quarter-final round. Beginning in 2024 wild card teams are no longer designated "Wild Cards" in the draw or standings and have the right to represent their member associations on the same basis as the team advancing from playdowns. While the Canadian Football League does not officially use
10488-481: The final standings was involved in a playoff pool with three teams from the Belgian Second Division 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
10626-473: The four remaining teams with the highest point totals in league play, without regard to conference, earned "wild cards" into the playoffs. The wild card matches were single games, with the #7 seed hosting the #10 seed and the #8 seed hosting the #9 seed. The lowest surviving seed then played the Supporters' Shield winner (i.e., the team with the highest point total), while the other surviving wild card played
10764-959: The games have been broadcast on ESPN . The NCAA Division III Football Championship began in 1973 . Before 1973, most of the schools now in Division III competed either in the NCAA College Division or the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). NCAA Divisions II and III were created by splitting the College Division in two, with schools that wished to continue awarding athletic scholarships 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
10902-437: 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: Starting with the 2012–13 season , the finals format has been changed to a pure knockout tournament consisting entirely of one-off matches: The concept of
11040-434: 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. In international football , playoffs were a feature of the 1954 and 1958 FIFA World Cup final tournaments. They are still
11178-456: 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: 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
11316-553: The league's quality of play and national visibility. The league expanded to nine teams for the 2022 season. The Silicon Storks , who were slated to be relegated, remained in the Hoofdklasse alongside RCH-Pinguins [ nl ] , who had defeated the Storks in a playoff to earn promotion to the top league. The Storks were replaced in 2023 by UVV , which had been in the Hoofdklasse until 2017. The league saw more changes after
11454-401: The league. This occurred in 1986, when the 11–7 Calgary Stampeders qualified in place of the 4–14 Montreal Alouettes . The Alouettes folded before the start of the following season. Although it is highly questionable whether a 1986 playoff appearance would have saved the floundering Montreal franchise, the CFL quickly re-instated the traditional playoff format for the 1987 season. It also moved
11592-547: The lower tiers Série C and Série D include knockout rounds in their final stages. 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
11730-480: The lowest-remaining seed plays the #1 seeded team, while the other two wild card winners face-off against each other, with the higher seed hosting. The higher-seeded teams have home-field advantage in both rounds and the "Conference Championships". The NFL was the first sports league to use the wild card format. The decision to implement a wild card coincided with the completion of the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. Prior to
11868-412: The main draw, which expanded to pools of nine teams each. Additional wild card berths are granted if the defending champion does not play and/or a member association does not enter a team (this occurred, for example, in the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts when Nunavut withdrew) As a result, teams that advance to the championship pool will play twelve round robin games instead of eleven. To accommodate
12006-518: The merger, the right to compete in the postseason for the NFL title was restricted to division/conference champions. Until 1967, a tiebreaker game was played to resolve a deadlock for first place in either of the two conferences. When the league expanded to 16 teams, it realigned into four divisions and expanded the playoffs to two rounds. Tiebreaker games were eliminated in favor of the use of performance-based criteria to determine division champions. The rival American Football League (AFL), which reached
12144-405: The national champion. The championship series is currently held in a best-of-seven format. The top six teams qualify for the playoffs, with the top two teams earning a bye through the wild card round. In 2021, the Eerste Klasse was reinstated as the second level of Dutch professional baseball and the league to which teams from the Hoofdklasse are relegated at the end of the season. It previously
12282-403: 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
12420-511: The nine teams played each opponent once at home and once on the road), this disparity (made even worse by the fact the West had one more team than the East) was fully exposed in the standings – in each of the first three seasons of the new format, the fourth place team missed the playoffs with records as good as 9–7 in the West, while in the East records as bad as 3–13 were good enough for third place and
12558-637: 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 , 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 and in EFL League One are automatically promoted to the division above and thus do not compete in the play-offs. The top three teams in EFL League Two and
12696-423: The number of wild card qualifiers was reduced to two per conference. In 2020 , the playoffs returned to three wild cards per conference, or 14 teams total. The term "Wild Card Round" continues to be used for the opening round of the playoffs, even though this round has involved both division winners and wild card teams since 1990. As of the 2021–22 playoffs , there has never been a meeting of two wild card teams in
12834-406: The old format consisting a single group of twelve teams. This allows the main tournament to include "Team Canada" (either the defending champions or, when the champions decline to or are unable to defend their title, the runners-up) and teams representing all fourteen constituent associations representing the ten provinces and three territories plus Northern Ontario . The remaining two participants in
12972-431: The old-line NFL owners, who still expected their teams to dominate the merged league for at least the first half of the 1970s, thought a repeat of the 1967 Colts-Rams fiasco would be very likely under the new alignment combined with a six team format. Furthermore, the modern principle that home field advantage and byes should be awarded to the teams with the best records had still not yet been firmly established – tradition at
13110-606: The only pro team with a bye in the divisional round (the Western Division title having been determined by a traditional tiebreaker, played the same weekend as the NFL's divisional round, between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Oakland Raiders ). The AFL later agreed to expanded their playoffs to include division runners-up and implemented tiebreakers, thus in 1969 the runners-up played the winners of
13248-427: The opposite division. This was done in part because division rivals had already played each other twice in the regular season and also in part because the AFL did not want the playoff games to be confused as "division championship games" – by keeping division rivals separate in the opening playoff round, the league left fans in no doubt that the regular season division winners were the only true division champions, even if
13386-555: The opposite divisions for the right to contest the AFL Championship Game. The Chiefs, despite being AFL West runners-up, nevertheless won the last Super Bowl prior to the merger. In 1970, the merged league realigned into two conferences of thirteen teams each, with three "old-line" NFL teams joining the AFL teams in the American Football Conference (AFC), and the remaining NFL teams forming
13524-411: 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
13662-428: 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
13800-405: The playoffs to continue. Had they prevailed, the post-merger NFL playoffs would have consisted of six teams and might have eventually evolved to closely resemble the playoffs of the modern Canadian Football League , with the regular season champion of each conference earning the right to host the championship game against the winner of a game between the champions of the other two divisions. However,
13938-600: The post-season. These teams played cross-division in the semifinal round. Thus the Chiefs, who finished second in the West, defeated the East Division champion New York Jets in the AFL semifinals and then defeated the West Division champion Oakland Raiders to advance to Super Bowl IV , where they beat the Minnesota Vikings . Because the term "wild card" was not instituted until the following year,
14076-425: The previous year's tournament or their respective provincial or territorial championship. The top ranked of these two teams receives the hammer (last rock) to start the game. The CTRS standings are also used to determine the seeding of all teams in the main tournament, with one important caveat – for the purposes of seeding the round robin pools and so as to allow the main round robin schedule to be drawn up prior to
14214-510: The proposal, it was blocked by The FA 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
14352-502: The records of teams which did not qualify directly by winning a division or conference . In international sports, the term is perhaps best known in reference to two sporting traditions: team wildcards distributed among countries at the Olympic Games and individual wildcards given to some tennis players at every professional tournament (both smaller events and the major ones such as Wimbledon ). Tennis players may even ask for
14490-421: 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
14628-431: The remaining teams within each conference, five additional teams with the best records are awarded seeds #4 through #8. The division champions (first-third seeds) and the non-division winning team with the best record (fourth seed) were given home ice advantage in the opening playoff series, in which they face the eighth-seeded through fifth-seeded teams, respectively. However, the playoff format differed slightly from that of
14766-452: The respective sport federations. On rare occasions, a competitor who had gained entry by wildcard succeeds in winning a medal or the championship. For example, Kye Sun-Hui won gold in judo at the 1996 Summer Olympics , Ding Junhui won the 2005 China Open snooker championship, Goran Ivanišević won the 2001 Wimbledon Championships , Kim Clijsters won the 2009 US Open , and Lin Dan won
14904-416: The right to host a playoff game, the playoffs were expanded again to three wild cards per conference in 1990 (for 12 teams total) with the lowest-ranked divisional winner losing its bye but gaining the right to host a playoff game. Following the addition of the Houston Texans in 2002, the league added a fourth division to each conference. The league decided not to change the number of playoff teams, and thus
15042-438: The same divisional ranks in another division. The main difference is that the CFL only allows the lowest ranked playoff qualifying team from a division to cross over into the other division's playoffs, whereas in the NHL it is possible for either wild card team to "cross over" to the other division, or even (in cases where four teams qualify from each division) for the wild card teams to swap divisional playoff brackets. Also, unlike
15180-488: The semifinals (the top two receive a bye into the semifinals). The away goals rule 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 in London. Teams are also promoted using a play-off tournament from levels six to eight of the football pyramid . At level six,
15318-443: The standings in 1932, an impromptu playoff game was scheduled to settle the tie. The NFL 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 , 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
15456-489: The start of the league's U.S. expansion experiment , which started in the 1993. The current rule was adopted after the league re-activated the Alouettes and reverted to an all-Canadian alignment in 1996. It allows the fourth place team of one division to "cross over" and take the place of the third place team in the other divisional bracket, provided the fourth place team has more points (i.e. an outright better record) than
15594-401: 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,
15732-590: The term "wild card" to denote any playoff qualifier, its crossover rule acts similar to a wild card in many respects. Calls to change the CFL's playoff format came about soon after the CFL finished its evolution from two regional conferences, which were originally the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union in the East and the Western Interprovincial Football Union in the West. Although the CFL
15870-464: The third place team. Since the cross over team enters as the third place team, it never receives home field advantage in the playoffs, even if its record is better than that of one or both of the qualifying teams in the other division. As of 2023, all teams to qualify under this rule have crossed over from the Western Division to the Eastern bracket, although there have been a handful of occasions where
16008-404: The time dictated that home field advantage rotate between divisions and/or conferences regardless of record. In any event, most owners in both conferences wanted to keep the even four-team playoff field in each conference. This was established by having the three division champions in each conference joined by the best second-place finisher in the conference. As with much of the NFL's nomenclature,
16146-473: The top seed in the other conference. The playoff format was revamped for the 2012 season, with all seeding done entirely in-conference, therefore eliminating any true wild card qualifiers. From 2012 to 2018, the top six teams from each conference qualified for the playoffs, with the #1 & #2 seeds in each conference automatically qualifying for the conference semifinals, and seeds #3–6 in each conference being wild cards. The lowest-seeded winner (played between
16284-413: 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 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
16422-622: The top two, as opposed to 4. Before the top-flight Argentine Primera División abandoned its traditional Apertura and Clausura 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 to be replaced by that league's champion and runner-up teams;
16560-495: The tournament are the wild cards, which compete in an MLB-style play-in game prior to the main tournament to determine the sixteenth team in the main tournament. Just as is the case with MLB division titles, the format is designed to give teams an incentive to win their provincial championships. The wild cards are the top two teams in the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) standings that did not win either
16698-425: The tournament. As is the case with Team Canada, the wild card retains that designation even if the team that is representing the same province or territory as the wild card team is eliminated prior to the wild card team. With the introduction of pools, the round robin portion of the Tournament of Hearts and Brier now consists of two stages. The top four teams in each pool qualify for the second stage, formally known as
16836-426: The two conferences, which led to the institution of a larger playoff tournament. After the 1970 AFL–NFL merger brought the American Football League 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
16974-537: 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 for non-Buenos Aires clubs. From 2015 onward, relegation from the Primera División will be based solely on league position at
17112-513: 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
17250-402: The wild card game, the ranking of the top wild card team is the ranking that is used for seeding purposes regardless of who wins the game. Whereas teams in the Tournament of Hearts and Brier are traditionally referred to by their respective province or territory (other than Northern Ontario and Team Canada), the team that wins the wild card game is referred to as the "wild card" for the duration of
17388-541: The wild card slot – due to the significant disparity in playing caliber between the top teams of Canada's fourteen member associations, it is widely expected that the wild card will consistently come from one of the provinces with the toughest fields in the playdowns, and that it will consistently be a championship contending team. The format was changed for the 2021 curling season due to the COVID-19 pandemic . For at least that year, tournaments will expand to eighteen teams each. Three wild card teams will gain direct entry into
17526-437: The wildcard), promising young players, players that are likely to draw a large crowd, or have won the tournament earlier or players who were once ranked higher and are attempting a comeback (for instance, following a long-term injury). High-ranked players can also ask for a wildcard if they want to enter a non-mandatory tournament after the normal entry deadline; for example, because they lost early in another tournament. This means
17664-450: The winner advancing as the #7 seed. The loser of this game then hosts the winner of the elimination game between the 9th and 10th place teams to determine the #8 seed. The NBA's regular playoff format then proceeds as normal. In the National Hockey League (NHL), the first, second, and third place teams in each division qualify for the playoffs automatically, and two additional teams, regardless of divisional alignment, also qualify by having
17802-479: The winners of those conference finals then face each other in the Super Bowl . The College Football Playoff National Championship is a post-season college football bowl game , used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), which began play in the 2014 college football season . The game serves as the final of the College Football Playoff ,
17940-438: Was changed in 2022 to add a third wild card team from each league, along with replacing the play-in game with two three-game series in each league. In the National Football League (NFL), since 2020 , each of the two conferences sends three wild card teams along with four division champions to its postseason. The first round of the playoffs is called the "wild card round". In this round, each conference's division champion with
18078-404: Was essentially abolished in the 2015–16 NBA season , as changes made prior to the season meant the top eight teams in each conference qualified regardless of divisional rank, with the seeded teams ranked by percentage. The only particular advantage to winning a division now was that a divisional title served as the first tiebreaker for qualification seeding purposes. Unlike some other leagues, there
18216-414: Was expanded to two per conference in 1978 – the divisional winners were granted a bye week while the wild card teams, seeded #4 and #5, played each other in a "wild card game" with the #4 seed having home field advantage. Since there were two wild card games, one per conference, the phrase "wild card round" came into use. During this time, the #1 seed hosted the winner of the #4 vs #5 wild card game, while
18354-620: 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 is not sanctioned by the NCAA. The NCAA Division II Football Championship is an American college football tournament played annually to determine
18492-402: Was officially founded in 1958, its constituent sections did not fully merge until 1981. At the time, it was agreed that three teams from each division would qualify, regardless of overall league standings. This quickly proved controversial, as a wide disparity in playing caliber had emerged between the East and West divisions. Since the league had also implemented a fully balanced schedule (each of
18630-645: Was played in Longview, Texas in 1978. For 1979 and 1980, Albuquerque, New Mexico hosted the game. McAllen, Texas hosted the finals from 1981 to 1985. From 1986 to 2013, the Division II final was played at Braly Municipal Stadium near the campus of the University of North Alabama in Florence, Alabama . Between 2014 and 2017, it was played at Children's Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas . Since 1994,
18768-476: 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 to 2017 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
18906-406: Was suspended due to World War II . The Hoofdklasse has been organized by the KNBSB since 1971. Until 1986, the winner of the season was also crowned the national champion, except for 1972 and 1973, when a best-of-five Holland Series was held between the top two teams to determine the champion. The Holland Series returned in 1987 and has been held annually at the end of the season to determine
19044-527: Was the second league in the Dutch baseball pyramid from 1958 to 1986 and 2001 to 2009. In the intervening years, from 1987 to 2000 and 2010 to 2020, the Overgangsklasse operated as the secondary baseball league in the Netherlands. Following the 2021 season , the KNBSB decided to end relegation and promotion and operate the Hoofdklasse with fixed teams. The reform was part of broader efforts to improve
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