The Jordanian Pro League ( Arabic : الدوري الأردني للمحترفين ) is a Jordanian professional league for men's football clubs and represents the top flight of Jordanian football. The championship consists of twelve competing teams in a home and away league system. The league was not held in the years: 1948, 1953, 1957, 1958, 1967, 1968, 1969, and not finished in 1998. In 2002, the league changed calendar to a fall spring season, and in 2020 the league returned to a spring fall season. From the 2023-24 season, the JFA decided to return to the fall spring calendar to match the date of the league with the Asian championships.
94-774: A system of promotion and relegation exists between the Jordan Premier League and the Jordan League Division 1 . The two lowest placed teams in Premier League are relegated to the League Division 1, and the top two teams from the League Division 1 are promoted to the Premier League. At present, the winners of Jordan Premier League qualify for the AFC Champions League group stage, and the league runners-up qualify for
188-503: A "knock-on" effect through the lower divisions. For example, in 1995 the Premier League voted to reduce its numbers by two and achieved the desired change by relegating four teams instead of the usual three, whilst allowing only two promotions from Football League Division One . Even in the absence of such extraordinary circumstances, the pyramid-like nature of most European sports league systems can still create knock-on effects at
282-476: A "ladder" that uses a promotion and relegation system, where individual players and pre-made teams can be promoted and relegated during the first few weeks of a league season, which generally lasts around 11 weeks, with promotion and relegation taking place based on a skill rating, which is in turn based on wins and losses. However, this form of matchmaking is not typically used for StarCraft II e-sports tournaments, which have various kinds of structures depending on
376-454: A "toxic environment". Tanking can also lead to strife with players' unions, as tanking teams choose rookies on inexpensive contracts over free agents wanting multimillion-dollar deals. Leagues also see tanking as a threat to their existing revenue streams. For example, the NBA sees this as a potentially major issue, since one of the largest drivers of revenue generation for professional leagues
470-419: A European-style promotion and relegation system, where the worst teams are demoted to a minor league , to make tanking less attractive. The NBA has fined executives and owners for referencing the merits of losing. In response to concerns about tanking, the NBA changed the way teams are allocated draft picks. In 2018, the league leveled the draft lottery odds, giving the worst team a lower chance of getting
564-730: A decade (concluded 1891). In 1903 it accepted parity with the American League and the formation of the organization that would become Major League Baseball . The peace agreement between the NL and the AL did not change the "closed shop" of top-level baseball but entrenched it by including the AL in the shop. This was further confirmed by the Supreme Court's 1922 ruling in Federal Baseball Club v. National League , giving MLB
658-399: A late season match, as the low-ranked Coyotes were seen as a major "threat" to Buffalo landing a top-two pick. The Sabres finished the season with the worst overall record, securing the second-overall pick which they used to draft Eichel. The NHL revised their draft the following season in response, removing the second pick guarantee for the league's worst team and making all 14 teams who miss
752-627: A legal monopoly over professional baseball in the US. The other major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada have followed the MLB model of a franchise based system. In contrast to baseball's NABBP , the first governing body in English football survived the onset of professionalism, which it formally accepted in 1885. Perhaps the great geographical concentration of population and
846-499: A live television program. The addition of a semi-final in 2004 allowed for more than 26 songs, but in 2008 automatic qualification of the previous year's top 10 to the final was removed. In Brazilian carnival's samba school contest, a similar system is adopted, with the schools from lower divisions, or "groups", able to be promoted into the highest tier, being currently called the "Special Group" ( Grupo Especial ). Schools parade in order of groups and ranking from last year contest, with
940-694: A lower level, like independent professional leagues in American baseball today). For decades, teams finishing near the bottom of The Football League's lowest division(s) faced re-election rather than automatic relegation. But the principle of promotion and relegation had been firmly established, and it eventually expanded to the football pyramid in place today. Meanwhile, The FA has remained English football's overall governing body, retaining amateur and professional clubs rather than breaking up. Promotion and relegation has been used in several eSports leagues. Blizzard Entertainment 's video game StarCraft II has
1034-501: A number of seasons. Originally the previous two seasons, and later three or four seasons, clubs avoid relegation by having a high coefficient, which is obtained by dividing the points achieved in the last three seasons by the number of matches played in the same period. Teams with the lowest points coefficient at the end of the season are relegated to the Primera B Nacional . This system has both positive and negative aspects, since all of
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#17327802439071128-574: A place in the league year after year would permit the owners to monopolize fan bases in their exclusive territories and give them the confidence to invest in infrastructure, such as improved ballparks. In turn, those would guarantee the revenues to support traveling halfway across a continent for games. Indeed, after its first season, the new league banked on its still doubtful stability by expelling its members in New York and Philadelphia (the two largest cities), because they had breached agreements to visit
1222-419: A pre-determined result in a specific contest, usually for the purposes of sports betting , thus violating the rules of the game, along with laws, which is more specifically deemed as match fixing . One of the first teams to tank was the 1983–84 Houston Rockets , who considered the season lost after starting 20–26 and decided to give more playing time to their lesser talented players in an effort to finish with
1316-570: A recipe for disaster. Anonymous, 2013 In 2014, the Australian Football League 's Melbourne Football Club were fined $ 500,000 for their involvement in a 2009 tanking scandal . One of the most notable examples of tanking in the modern era of professional sports is "The Process" , a plan by Sam Hinkie , the GM of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers , to rebuild the team by intentionally tanking in order to gain draft position. In
1410-501: A similar "Tank for Tua" campaign emerged in the 2019 NFL season , with fans of poor performing teams encouraging losing in hopes of drafting Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa . However, when Tagovailoa suffered a season ending hip injury that put his chances of declaring for the 2020 NFL draft in question, the campaign turned to LSU quarterback Joe Burrow and Ohio State defensive end Chase Young , respectively becoming "Bungle for Burrow" and "Choke for Chase". Since acquiring
1504-529: A similar system where in the top eight finishers of one of the bi-annual Majors are designated with the "Legends" seed and automatically qualified for the next Major tournament. The best six eliminated teams in the second stage (known as New Legends Stage ) of the Major would play a "qualifying" stage (known as New Challengers Stage ) with another ten teams from the Minors qualifying tournaments in order to compete at
1598-545: Is a fact that the relegated schools have more to lose nowadays, such as access to the Cidade do Samba ("Samba City") facilities. There have been reported several interferences on the contest's final result, especially when traditional schools are involved. From 1957 to 1966 and from 1983 to the present, the Argentine First Division has used a system called Promedios based on the average performance over
1692-495: Is a much more common practice in American sports that utilize closed leagues than in open sports leagues in other nations, which typically penalize poor performers using a promotion and relegation system, in which the worst teams after each season are sent to a lower-tiered league and replaced with that league's best teams. Relegation costs teams revenue and makes it more difficult for them to attract top talent, making tanking unfeasible. Tanking teams are usually seeking top picks in
1786-417: Is gate receipts. Tanking has been shown to drastically reduce attendance and thus hurt the NBA's bottom line. The NBA, NHL, and MLB have responded to the phenomenon in recent years by changing their draft from reverse-order to a lottery formula which is only loosely tied to the previous season's standings, though this has not stopped the practice entirely. Some observers have called for leagues to adopt
1880-522: Is not necessary for building a perennial championship contender. For example, after the Kansas City Chiefs hired Andy Reid to be their new head coach after the 2012 season, the team would make the playoffs in three of the next four seasons, including a 12-4 record and a division title in the 2016 season . During the following year's NFL draft , the Chiefs, who were picking at the back end of
1974-499: The 1999 Conmebol Cup . The Uruguayan First Division adopted the same system in 2016. Paraguayan Primera División and Colombian Categoría Primera A also use this same system. Also, a similar system was used only in the 1999 edition of Campeonato Brasileiro Série A . Notes Bibliography Tanking (sports) Tanking in sports refers to the practice of intentionally fielding non-competitive teams to take advantage of league rules that benefit losing teams. This
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#17327802439072068-431: The 2011 Copa Sudamericana . This system forces the newly promoted teams to fight relegation from the very beginning of the season. It also allows teams with a low budget with previous good campaigns to compete in international competitions without having to prioritize the championship to avoid relegation; examples of this are Club Atlético Lanús , winner of the 2013 Copa Sudamericana , or Club Atlético Talleres , winner of
2162-525: The 2014–15 NHL season . This was most prominently seen among Buffalo Sabres fans, who actively cheered for the opposing team at home games while The Buffalo News regularly published the "McEichel Derby", which tracked the Sabres' ranking among the league's worst teams. First Niagara Center infamously erupted in cheers when Sam Gagner of the Phoenix Coyotes scored an overtime-winning goal in
2256-608: The AFC Cup group stage alongside the winners of Jordan FA Cup . Jordan is one of the most successful countries in the AFC Cup with three titles second after Kuwait, 2 for Al-Faisaly ( 2005 and 2006 ) and 1 for Shabab Al-Ordon ( 2007 ), more than any other country who has their clubs eligible to play in the AFC Cup. Source: Source: Three teams have won the double of the Jordanian Premier League and
2350-513: The Buffalo Bills obtaining the first overall pick and drafting Simpson. During the final game of the season, Eagles fans vented their frustrations with the team by booing and throwing snowballs at a fan dressed as Santa Claus . A similar situation occurred during the 2020 NFL season when New York Jets fans were angered by the team winning their first game in Week 15. Jets fans believed
2444-598: The Dallas Mavericks , who used many questionable lineups toward the end of the year. For example, with less than five minutes to go and down by one point against the Lakers, the Mavericks used a lineup that had played together for a total of 12 minutes during the first three and a half months of the season. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was fined $ 600,000 for openly commenting on the benefits of tanking. Mark Cuban
2538-548: The Detroit Lions , who had gone winless during the previous season . This has led to public campaigns where fans of poor performing teams actively encourage losing in order to improve the team's draft position when such a player is expected to be in the next draft. The first widely known example of such a campaign was "Suck for Luck" during the 2011 NFL season , in which fans of mediocre teams encouraged losing in hopes of drafting Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck , who
2632-577: The English Football League ) was founded in 1888, it was not intended to be a rival of The Football Association but rather the top competition within it. The new league was not universally accepted as England's top-calibre competition right away. To help win fans of clubs outside The Football League, its circuit was not closed; rather, a system was established in which the worst teams at the end of each season would need to win re-election against any clubs wishing to join. A rival league,
2726-842: The Football Alliance , was formed in 1889. When the two merged in 1892, it was not on equal terms; rather, most of the Alliance clubs were put in the new Football League Second Division , whose best teams would move up to the First Division in place of its worst teams. Another merger, with the top division of the Southern League in 1920, helped form the Third Division in similar fashion. Since then no new league has been formed of non-league clubs to try to achieve parity with The Football League (only to play at
2820-532: The Italian Football Federation has relegated clubs found to have been involved in match fixing . This occurred most recently in 2006, when the season's initial champions Juventus were relegated to Serie B, and two other teams were initially relegated but then restored to Serie A after appeal (see 2006 Serie A scandal ). As of the 2020s, empirical evidence increasingly pointed to the conclusion that promotion and relegation, standing alone,
2914-475: The Jordan FA Cup in the same season. Source: Source: Promotion and relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a League system , based on their performance over a season . Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes called open leagues. In a system of promotion and relegation,
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3008-494: The Miami Marlins , Baltimore Orioles , Kansas City Royals , and Detroit Tigers have sought to emulate the strategy by trading away their best players, with the twin goals of drafting and developing younger stars and cutting costs in order to become competitive again several years later. However, tanking is much less effective in baseball because top MLB draft picks are far less likely to succeed than their counterparts in
3102-612: The New Legends Stage . Starting in 2020, however, this was changed to a Regional Major Ranking system, at first a points-based system which was used for ESL One Rio 2020 and PGL Stockholm 2021 (The top rankings from the ESL One Rio 2020 RMRs were turned into PGL Stockholm 2021 points once IEM Rio was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic ) and then a series of offline qualifiers starting with PGL Antwerp 2022 , in which
3196-701: The Oakland Raiders prior to the 2018 NFL season he liquidated most of the Raiders' talent, most notably trading five-time Pro Bowler Khalil Mack to the Chicago Bears for two first round draft picks (one of which was used to select Josh Jacobs ), leading to accusations that he was intentionally tanking the team in hopes of fielding a competitive team when the Raiders moved to Las Vegas in 2020. The Raiders, who had finished 12–4 and qualified for
3290-471: The Pro Bowl . After starting the season 0–7, however, the 2019 Dolphins won 5 of their last 9 games. The victories denied Miami the first overall pick of the 2020 NFL draft , although the team was able to select Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa , whom they were rumored to have been deliberately losing games for. The next season, the 2020 Dolphins went 10–6 and missed the playoffs by one game, while
3384-695: The University of Houston . Olajuwon would go on to become one of the greatest basketball centers of all time, eventually winning two NBA championships as a member of the Rockets, and the Rockets' tactics played a significant role in the NBA’s decision to adopt a lottery system to determine the first overall pick starting in 1985. In the 1983–84 NHL season , the Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils admitted they wanted to lose in order to get
3478-515: The drop zone or facing the drop ). An alternate system of league organization, used primarily in Australia, Canada, Singapore, and the United States, is a closed model based on licensing or franchises . This maintains the same teams from year to year, with occasional admission of expansion teams and relocation of existing teams , and with no team movement between the major league and minor leagues . The number of teams exchanged between
3572-460: The lockout that introduced the draft lottery to discourage tanking for top draft picks. However, this was financially motivated by team owner John J. Fisher as the Athletics fielded a team with the second-lowest opening day payroll in the majors at $ 48 million, down from their payroll from last season at $ 83 million. Despite finishing the season last in attendance and the second-worst record in
3666-477: The Billie Jean King Cup) at the top and series of regional groups at a lower level. The World Groups in both use a knockout tournament format, with the first-round losers entering play-offs with winners from regional groups to avoid relegation. In international tournaments, this format allows teams from countries in which a sport is less well established to have competitive matches, while opening up
3760-472: The Browns would improve in the following six seasons, they made two playoff appearances, won zero division titles, and won only one playoff game during that time period. In fact, Mayfield was not a part of the 2023 Browns team that went a solid 11-6 and made the playoffs, as he was traded for a conditional fifth-round pick after the 2021 season. On the other hand, fielding bad teams to acquire high draft picks
3854-420: The Chiefs' dynasty, such as defensive tackle Chris Jones and tight end Travis Kelce , were drafted in the second and third rounds, respectively, while wide receiver Tyreek Hill , who was a key part of the Chiefs' Super Bowl LIV victory and success from 2016 to 2021, was drafted in the fifth round. While tanking can sometimes be a successful strategy in eventually building a winning team, it alienates fans in
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3948-705: The LCK moved away from the system in 2020. As of 2023, the Pacific Championship Series and Liga Latinoamérica are the only top-tier professional League of Legends leagues to have promotion and relegation; North America's second-tier league, the North American Challengers League, also has promotion and relegation, as do the various regional leagues in Europe, but not with the top divisions. The Counter-Strike Majors used
4042-450: The NBA or NFL. Sometimes my job is to understand the value of losing. I know that sounds crazy, but if you're an NBA general manager like me, the last place you want to be is in the middle. There are only two outcomes there: Either make the playoffs and be first-round fodder for one of the premier teams or miss the playoffs and pick somewhere around 11th to 14th in the draft. Either way, the odds are that you stay in that middle range. It's
4136-460: The NFL, NBA, and NHL since those leagues have a salary floor that require teams to spend a minimum amount on player contracts to prevent owners from profiting by cutting payroll, but the MLB does not have a salary floor and critics argue that the league needs it to truly end tanking. The Dallas Mavericks were accused of tanking during the final few games of the 2023 NBA season . The Mavericks entered
4230-526: The NHL Entry Draft continue to play in minor leagues (often their team's affiliate in the developmental American Hockey League ) before they reach the NHL, if they reach the NHL at all. Thus, when a draft contains an NHL-ready player who could make an immediate impact for their team, they are coveted. Examples of this include the 1984 NHL Entry Draft , with multiple teams seeking entry into the lottery for
4324-498: The New York Knicks, but it was top-10 protected — the loss made them more likely to keep it in the 2023 NBA draft . Head coach Jason Kidd admitted after the game that the decision to rest players was made by team owner Mark Cuban and general manager Nico Harrison . After the season, they were fined $ 750,000 for their actions. As the NFL does not have a draft lottery, coverage of some NFL drafts has been dominated by
4418-730: The Rams win Super Bowl LVI in his first year away from Detroit, while in 2023 , Goff would help the Lions win their first division title and playoff games in at least three decades. Similarly, the Cleveland Browns acquired the first overall picks in the 2017 and 2018 NFL drafts after finishing with records of 1-15 and 0-16 in the 2016 and 2017 NFL seasons, respectively. The Browns selected defensive end Myles Garrett and quarterback Baker Mayfield with those picks. Although
4512-532: The Torneo Apertura in 2009 and last place in the next championship, the Torneo Clausura 2010, without being relegated until the end of the Torneo Apertura 2010 with a second-to-last place finish. Similarly, River Plate finished last in the Torneo Apertura 2008 and after two bad campaigns and a mediocre one was relegated in the Torneo Clausura 2011 despite being in fifth place and qualifying for
4606-414: The allegations, stating he intended to give Sudfeld the opportunity to play, although he was fired a week after the game. The Oakland Athletics were accused of tanking when they traded away most of their talented players like Matt Olson , Matt Chapman , Chris Bassitt , and Sean Manaea prior to the 2022 MLB season . This came after a new collective bargaining agreement was agreed to in order to end
4700-435: The best-ranked team(s) in a lower division are promoted to a higher division for the next season, and the worst-ranked team(s) in the higher division are relegated to the lower division for the next season. During the season, teams that are high enough in the league table that they would qualify for promotion are sometimes said to be in the promotion zone , and those at the bottom are in the relegation zone ( colloquially
4794-441: The better ranked inside a group and the higher-tier groups having the privilege of going latter (this means the team has the opportunity of fixing issues with costumes and allegorical floats as well as more rehearsal time). The number of promoted and relegated schools, four until 1997, has been diminishing as time passes, becoming two from 1998 to 2007 and being only one nowadays. There has never been an official reason for that, but it
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#17327802439074888-429: The boundary between the feeder leagues may have to transfer from one feeder league to another to maintain numerical balance. The system is said to be the defining characteristic of the "European" form of professional sports league organization . Promotion and relegation have the effect of allowing the maintenance of a hierarchy of leagues and divisions, according to the relative strength of their teams. They also maintain
4982-446: The chance to draft Mario Lemieux , or the 2005 NHL Entry Draft , which was nicknamed the "Sidney Crosby Sweepstakes" as it was believed the winner of that year's lottery would immediately draft Sidney Crosby . The 2015 NHL Entry Draft contained two highly touted prospects, Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel , effectively guaranteeing the last-place team would land an elite player, thus fans of mediocre teams encouraged losing throughout
5076-444: The club can not move underperforming players on, or second, the club is gambling on being promoted back straight away and is prepared to take a financial loss for one or two seasons to do so. Some leagues (most notably English football's Premier League ) offer " parachute payments " to its relegated teams for the following year(s). The payouts are higher than the prize money received by some non-relegated teams and are designed to soften
5170-472: The corresponding short distances between urban centres was crucial. Certainly it provided the opportunity for more clubs' developing large fan bases without incurring great travel costs. Professional football did not gain acceptance until after the turn of the 20th century in most of Southern England . The earliest league members travelled only through the Midlands and North . When The Football League (now
5264-434: The divisions is almost always identical. Exceptions occur when the higher division wishes to change the size of its membership, or has lost one or more of clubs (to financial insolvency or expulsion, for example) and wishes to restore its previous membership size, in which case fewer teams are relegated from that division, or (less often) more teams are accepted for promotion from the division below. Such variations usually cause
5358-477: The earliest American sport to develop professional leagues, the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) was established in 1857 as a national governing body for the game. In many respects, it would resemble England's Football Association when founded in 1863. Both espoused strict amateurism in their early years and welcomed hundreds of clubs as members. Baseball's National Association
5452-419: The financial hit that clubs take whilst dropping out of the Premier League. However, in many cases, these parachute payments just serve to inflate the costs of competing for promotion among the lower division clubs as newly relegated teams retain a financial advantage. In some countries and at certain levels, teams in line for promotion may have to satisfy certain non-playing conditions in order to be accepted by
5546-478: The financial value of such games in terms of ticket sales and media rights . This explained why in the 2020s, association football leagues were collectively bringing in annually only about two times the revenue of the National Football League ( the wealthiest sports league in the world ), even though association football had eight times the number of fans worldwide as American football . It
5640-528: The first overall selection requires having the worst overall record, fans have responded negatively to teams lowering their draft position by winning games. After the Philadelphia Eagles lost their first 11 games in 1968 , fans anticipated them obtaining USC running back O. J. Simpson first overall in the upcoming draft . However, the Eagles won two of their last three games, which resulted in
5734-547: The first round due to their 2016 success, traded up with the Buffalo Bills to select quarterback Patrick Mahomes tenth overall. Mahomes, who was not regarded as a surefire quarterback prospect at the time he was drafted, became a main contributor to the Chiefs' dynasty in the 2020s, as he has led the team to six consecutive division titles, six consecutive AFC Championship appearances, four Super Bowl appearances, and three Super Bowl championships since he became Kansas City's starting quarterback in 2018. Other key contributors to
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#17327802439075828-536: The first team to go 0-16 since the NFL expanded the season to 16 games. The Lions selected quarterback Matthew Stafford with that pick. In Stafford's 12 seasons as Detroit's starting quarterback, the team made the playoffs three times, but did not win a single division title or playoff game during that time period. After the 2020 season, the Lions traded Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams for quarterback Jared Goff and multiple draft picks. Stafford would help
5922-504: The form of draft picks. In the five drafts from 2014 to 2018, the 76ers drafted six times in the top 10 and selected cornerstones Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons in two of those drafts. From 2017 to 2023, Philadelphia won more than 40 games in every season and reached the playoffs each year. However, the team has struggled in the playoffs and not advanced past the Conference Semifinals. When Jon Gruden retook control of
6016-549: The four western clubs at the end of the season. The NL's dominance of baseball was challenged several times after its first few years, but only by entire leagues. Eight clubs, the established norm for a national league, was a prohibitively high threshold for a new venture. Two challengers succeeded beyond the short-term, with the National League fighting off a challenge from the American Association after
6110-623: The fourth quarter, the Eagles were facing only a three-point deficit against the Washington Football Team , but Sudfeld committed two consecutive turnovers that helped Washington win 20–14. As a result, the 4–11–1 Eagles moved up from ninth overall to sixth overall in the 2021 NFL draft , while Washington clinched the NFC East , which would have been clinched by the New York Giants if Philadelphia won. Pederson denied
6204-406: The higher league, such as financial solvency, stadium capacity, and facilities. If these are not satisfied, a lower-ranked team may be promoted in their place, or a team in the league above may be saved from relegation. While the primary purpose of the promotion and relegation system is to maintain competitive balance, it may also be used as a disciplinary tool in special cases. On several occasions,
6298-678: The importance of games played by many low-ranked teams near the end of the season, which may be at risk of relegation. In contrast, the final games of a low-ranked US or Canadian team serve little purpose, and in fact losing may be beneficial to such teams because they offer a better position in the next year's draft . Although not intrinsic to the system, problems can occur due to the differing monetary payouts and revenue-generating potential that different divisions provide to their clubs. For example, financial hardship has sometimes occurred in leagues where clubs do not reduce their wage bill once relegated. This usually occurs for one of two reasons: first,
6392-458: The majors at 60-102, the team turned in a profit of $ 62.2 million in 2022 due to the increased revenue sharing combined with the low payroll, which is fifth among all teams. In addition, this tanking campaign was believed to be designed in order to discourage fan attendance in Oakland for Fisher to use as justification to MLB for moving the team to Las Vegas . This method of tanking is illegal in
6486-421: The matches played for the championship in the last seasons are included in the coefficient for the clubs. Teams have an incentive to score points in every match of the season, meaning teams that are not challenging for the title or fighting relegation in the current season want to win even in the final matches to reduce the risk of relegation in the next season; examples are Club Atlético Banfield being champion of
6580-509: The midst of the rebuilding process as fans are frustrated by losing teams. During the Astros ' rebuilding years of 2011–2013, when they lost an average of 108 games per season, the team's attendance was cut in half, and one game had a television rating of 0.0. The Sabres have also seen dips in attendance since their rebuilding years in the 2010s, have not made the playoffs at all since the alleged tank of 2014-15, and have also been described as
6674-432: The next draft , since league rules generally give the highest draft picks to the previous season's worst teams. Teams that decide to start tanking often do so by trading away star players in order to reduce payroll and bring in younger prospects. While the terms tanking and rebuilding are sometimes used interchangeably, there are differences between the two concepts. Tanking is differentiated from actions taken to achieve
6768-484: The number one overall pick. In theory, this change serves to dissuade teams from intentionally losing. The 2022 revival of the United States Football League instituted a rule that if the two teams at the bottom of the league standings are scheduled to face each other in the last week of the regular season, then the winner of that game will be awarded first place in that league's draft order
6862-448: The number one pick in the draft and select Mario Lemieux . The Penguins finished with the worst record and drafted Lemieux; however, the NHL did not immediately institute a draft lottery as the NBA had and continued to have the team with the worst record pick first until 1995. Tanking did not become prevalent until the 2010s, when teams in all four major American leagues ( MLB , NFL , NBA , and NHL ) were engaged in various forms of
6956-668: The ones to draft Connor Bedard , who was considered the greatest prospect in hockey since Sidney Crosby . The phrase "Tank Hard for Bedard" came into common usage among fans of teams with miserable records such as the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Chicago Blackhawks , the latter of whom ended up selecting Bedard first overall. Fans of the Philadelphia 76ers adopted the mantra "Trust the Process" when
7050-644: The organizer, the most important being the ESL Pro Tour as of 2021 . Most professional League of Legends leagues like the League of Legends Championship Series and League of Legends Champions Korea used a promotion and relegation system, although the LCS moved away from this in 2018 for North America LCS and 2019 for the European LCS (which was renamed to the League of Legends European Championship ), while
7144-527: The playoffs two seasons prior , finished the 2018 season with only four wins, but saw significant improvement in 2019 thanks to strong play from the team's rookies. The Miami Dolphins were accused of tanking during the 2019 NFL season when new head coach Brian Flores oversaw a similar liquidation of the team's established talent. In September, tackle Laremy Tunsil and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick were sent to contending football teams in exchange for future draft picks; both would subsequently be named to
7238-542: The playoffs eligible to win a top-three pick through the draft lottery. Eichel's six years in Buffalo were marred by team underperformance and lack of chemistry (the team failed to make the playoffs in any season with Eichel), and he was traded in late 2021 to the Vegas Golden Knights . Similarly, multiple fanbases encouraged their teams to tank during the 2022-23 NHL season in the hopes that they would be
7332-786: The possibility of competing against higher ranked nations as a sport grows. Other international tournaments which employ promotion and relegation include the Ice Hockey World Championships , Bandy World Championships , Floorball World Championships , the UEFA Nations League , the CONCACAF Nations League , the World Cricket League and the European Team Championships in athletics. In baseball,
7426-506: The practice. The Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros pioneered the practice in MLB in the 2010s, with the Astros finishing with the worst record in baseball by 6 games or more for 3 consecutive years. Both teams used their subsequent draft picks to select star players who led them to championships, as the Cubs won the 2016 World Series and the Astros won in 2017 and 2022 . Other teams like
7520-430: The presence of a highly touted player who is widely expected to be among the first picked, portraying them as a " sweepstakes " prize for the league's worst team. The 2009 NFL draft was nicknamed "The Matthew Stafford Sweepstakes" as Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford was widely expected to be the first player drafted regardless of which team held the first overall pick. Stafford was indeed drafted first overall, by
7614-404: The regional level. For example, in a higher league with a large geographical footprint and multiple feeder leagues each representing smaller geographical regions, should most or all of the relegated teams in the higher division come from one particular region then the number of teams to be promoted or relegated from each of the feeder leagues may have to be adjusted, or one or more teams playing near
7708-598: The season with high aspirations, but following a slide by the team to 11th place in the Western Conference and out of the NBA play-in tournament , in their penultimate game of the season against the Chicago Bulls , the Mavericks rested star players Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving along with many starters. The Mavericks lost the game, knocking them out of playoff contention. The Mavericks owed their draft pick to
7802-559: The team was tanking from 2013 to 2016. The term 'inverse analytics' was first introduced in 2018. The 2018 NBA draft featured several highly sought-after prospects, including eventual top picks Deandre Ayton , Marvin Bagley III , Luka Dončić , and Trae Young . In order to contend for the rights to these players, NBA teams allegedly began intentionally losing to the point that an NBA executive reportedly told ESPN that "inverse analytics" were being used. The evidence of this comes from
7896-580: The team would be able to select Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence first overall in the 2021 NFL draft , but the victory gave the first overall selection to the Jacksonville Jaguars . The Jaguars would ultimately clinch the first overall selection the following week, leading to them drafting Lawrence. Similar draft coverage and reaction by fans has been seen in the National Hockey League . Normally, players selected in
7990-627: The teams from the Legends Stage (Now known as the Elimination Stage ) from the previous Major automatically qualify for their RMRs and are joined by online qualifiers. From 1993 until 2003, the Eurovision Song Contest used various systems of relegation to reconcile the number of countries wishing to participate (approximately 30 at the time) with the number of performances allowed considering time constraints of
8084-530: The three seasons from 2013 to 2016, Philadelphia recorded a total of 47 wins, never surpassing 20 in any year. This included an NBA record 28 game losing streak between the end of the 2014–15 and 15–16 seasons. This poor on-court performance led to a three-year struggle within the organization, which culminated in Hinkie leaving the organization in April 2016. However, as the team lost, they collected valuable assets in
8178-555: The trade of Tunsil allowed them to obtain the third overall pick of the 2021 NFL draft , due to the Texans' bad record. Flores later alleged in a 2022 lawsuit that Dolphins owner Stephen M. Ross offered to pay him $ 100,000 for each game he lost. Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson faced allegations of deliberately losing the final game of the 2020 NFL season after he replaced starting quarterback Jalen Hurts with backup Nate Sudfeld . When Sudfeld relieved Hurts early in
8272-496: The worst record in the Western Conference, which would ensure that they would advance to a coin toss with whoever finished with the worst record in the Eastern Conference for the #1 overall pick in the 1984 draft ; the Rockets went 9–27 the rest of the way and finished with a 29–53 record to take the worst record in the Western Conference. The Rockets won the coin toss and used their top pick to draft Hakeem Olajuwon of
8366-546: Was considered one of the NFL's best quarterback prospects. The campaign was widely criticized by sports writers, who noted that it is not in the nature of professional athletes to intentionally lose games and that poor performance should bring punishment, not encouragement. The campaign was denounced by Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino when fans of his former team, the Miami Dolphins , began participating in it and Luck himself, who called it "stupid". Nonetheless,
8460-430: Was fined $ 750,000 during the 2022-2023 NBA Season when the Mavericks sat out starters during a key game for a chance to qualify for the play-in tournament . Acquiring high draft picks does not guarantee that teams will become consistent playoff contenders, let alone win championships or become dynasties. For example, the 2008 Detroit Lions acquired the first overall pick in the 2009 NFL draft after infamously becoming
8554-408: Was insufficient to ensure adequate parity in any given game or the overall financial performance of a sport (as distinguished from individual players or teams). Most importantly, the failure of most association football leagues to adequately regulate individual player compensation (that is, by imposing salary caps ) had resulted in too many games ending in predictable blowouts , and thereby reduced
8648-419: Was not able to survive the onset of professionalism . It responded to the trend – clubs secretly paying or indirectly compensating players – by establishing a "professional" class for 1869. As quickly as 1871, most of those clubs broke away and formed the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP). That new, professional Association was open at a modest fee, but it proved to be unstable. It
8742-496: Was replaced by the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs in 1876, which has endured to the present day. The founders of the new League judged that in order to prosper, they must make baseball's highest level of competition a franchise based system with exclusive membership, a strict limit on the number of teams, and each member having exclusive rights to their local market. The modest National League guarantee of
8836-646: Was reportedly because of such evidence that the EuroLeague adopted mandatory salary bands in September 2024. Promotion and relegation is used in international sports leagues such as in Europe , and many other parts of the world. It may be used in international sports tournaments. In tennis, the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup have promotion and relegation, with a 'World Group' (split into two divisions in
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