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206-408: In team sports in the U.S. and Canada, the vast distances and consequent burdens on cross-country travel have led to regional divisions of teams. Generally, during the regular season, teams play more games in their division than outside it, but the league's best teams might not play against each other in the regular season. Therefore, in the postseason a playoff series is organized. Any group-winning team

412-494: A conference championship game to determine the winner of the conference. Between conference games, non-conference games, a conference championship game, and up to two bowl games if ranked among the top four college teams in the country by the College Football Playoff Committee . Only the four Playoff teams are eligible to participate in two bowl games in one postseason instead of a single one for

618-646: 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 , 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

824-557: 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

1030-462: 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 the 2008–09 season , the top four teams advanced to

1236-859: A Playoff semifinal game. The theoretical 16th game has only been possible since the beginning of the College Football Playoff era in the 2014 season . Furthermore, the College Football Playoff will expand to 12 teams instead of 4 starting in the 2024 season, and, with its new bracket format, means that a team could potentially play in up to 18 games. For non-conference regular season games, FBS teams are free to schedule match-ups against any other FBS team, regardless of conference. A small number of FBS teams are independent , and have total control over their own schedule. Non-conference games are scheduled by mutual agreement and often involve "home and homes" (where teams alternate as hosts ) and long-established rivalries . A 2014 study found that teams from

1442-780: A conference championship. The FBS currently has ten conferences, which are often divided into the " Power Four conferences " – which consist of the most prestigious schools and enjoy a certain amount of autonomy from NCAA rules – and the less prominent " Group of Five ". Although FCS programs can draw thousands of fans per game, many FCS schools attempt to join the FBS in hopes of increased revenue, corporate sponsorship, alumni donations, prestige, and national exposure. However, FBS programs also face increased expenses in regards to staff salaries, facility improvements, and scholarships. The athletic departments of many FBS schools lose money every year, and these athletic departments must rely on subsidies from

1648-693: 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

1854-614: 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

2060-727: A network that airs its home games. In the mid-2000s, college and conferences began to create their own television networks; such networks include the Big Ten Network , BYUtv , the Longhorn Network (which was folded into the SEC Network in 2024), and the Pac-12 Network . In 2012, college football games drew over 400 million viewers. The Big Ten (then popularly known as the Western Conference)

2266-554: 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,

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2472-523: 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

2678-401: 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

2884-434: 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

3090-521: 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

3296-472: 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

3502-557: 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

3708-476: 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 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

3914-521: 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,

4120-462: A scheduling agreement with that conference that calls for the Fighting Irish football team to play five games each season against ACC schools, and to play each other ACC school at least once every three years. Finally, in 2015, Navy became a football-only member of The American, ending more than a century of football independence. Realignment continued at a lower level through the rest of

4326-411: A semifinal bowl game, and in the national championship game could theoretically play 16 games in a season instead of the 15 games you would have to play with the same scenario. No team has played a 16th game in one season, due to the unlikelihood and very low chances of a team playing Hawaii at some point, finishing the season ranked in the top four, opting in to a 13th regular season game, and then winning

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4532-625: 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

4738-412: 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 the two conferences, which led to the institution of a larger playoff tournament. After the 1970 AFL–NFL merger brought

4944-530: 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

5150-565: 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

5356-520: 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

5562-432: 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

5768-666: A transition are Delaware and Missouri State , which began their transitions in 2024 and will join CUSA in 2025. The next school scheduled to complete an FBS transition is Kennesaw State University , which started its transition in 2023 ahead of its 2024 move to Conference USA. The following table shows revenue for each conference reported by the Knight Commission for the 2021–22 academic year. Note: Values from some universities are not reported here. The only conferences made up entirely of state-supported universities are

5974-581: A varsity sport. In order to retain FBS membership, schools must meet several requirements. Before 2023, FBS schools had to average at least 15,000 home attendance (over a rolling two-year period). An FBS school must sponsor a minimum of 16 varsity intercollegiate teams (including football), with at least six men's or coeducational teams and at least eight all-female teams. Across all sports, each FBS school must offer at least 200 athletic scholarships (or spend at least $ 4 million on athletic scholarships) per year, and FBS football teams must provide at least 90% of

6180-420: 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

6386-606: 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

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6592-613: 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

6798-615: A wildcard player sometimes becomes the top seed. The organizers of three of the Grand Slam tournaments —the Australian Open , French Open , and US Open — grant one wildcard nomination to each of the other two. Christopher Clarey described this practice as "nothing more than mutual back scratching" and "an outdated symbol of elitism". NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision ( FBS ), formerly known as Division I-A ,

7004-462: 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 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

7210-559: 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 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

7416-599: 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 the EFL Championship (the second tier of English football), teams finishing 3rd to 6th after

7622-456: 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

7828-556: 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;

8034-629: Is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As of the 2024 season, there are 10 conferences and 134 schools in FBS. College football is one of the most popular spectator sports throughout much of the United States. The top schools generate tens of millions of dollars in yearly revenue. Top FBS teams draw tens of thousands of fans to games, and

8240-404: 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

8446-402: 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 the end of the league, CONCACAF Nations League Finals and UEFA Nations League Finals . In Argentine football, playoffs in the style of

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8652-430: 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

8858-964: The AP National Championship Trophy , while the American Football Coaches Association awards the AFCA National Championship Trophy . The AFCA trophy was previously awarded to the winner of the BCS National Championship Game (a predecessor of the College Football Playoff National Championship game), which operated from 1999 to 2014. The Football Writers Association of America awarded the Grantland Rice Trophy until after

9064-438: 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 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

9270-601: 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 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 ,

9476-574: 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

9682-716: The Big East to the ACC. The Big East responded by adding schools from Conference USA. College football underwent another major conference realignment in the first half of the 2010s. Members of the Big East left the conference to join the Big 12 and ACC. The Big 12 lost members to the SEC, the Pac-12, and the Big Ten, while the Big Ten also gained one former ACC member. The remaining members of

9888-704: The Bowl Coalition in order to determine the FBS champion. In 1998, the two remaining major conferences joined with the other five conferences to form the Bowl Championship Series . The BCS used a rankings system to match up the top two teams in the BCS National Championship Game . However, even the BCS era saw split national championships , as in 2003 the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll selected different national champions. The College Football Playoff replaced

10094-544: 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 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

10300-549: 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

10506-708: The Great Midwest Conference , two conferences which had not sponsored football. The Big West stopped sponsoring football after the 2000 season, and was essentially replaced by the Sun Belt Conference , which added former Big West members and began sponsoring football in 2001. In the mid-2000s, the Big East added former basketball-only member Connecticut, while Temple left the conference (before eventually returning in 2013). During another phase of realignment in 2005 , three schools jumped from

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10712-569: The Mid-American Conference . Most recently, UConn went independent in 2020 when the school left The American to rejoin many of its historic basketball rivals in the current Big East Conference. Notre Dame competed under a full ACC schedule only also in 2020 in response to logistical concerns that arose from the effects of COVID-19 . The most recent realignment is currently ongoing , with the majority of conference changes in this cycle taking place in 2023 and 2024. It started with

10918-508: 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

11124-729: The National Football Foundation established the College Football Hall of Fame . Notable individual awards include: The NCAA does not officially name a national champion, but several other organizations name national champions and all conferences participate in the College Football Playoff in order to determine a champion. The winner of the College Football Playoff receives the College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy . The AP awards

11330-585: The Pop-Tarts Bowl provides a match-up between teams from ACC and the Big 12 . A small number of long-established bowls played a major role in the Bowl Championship Series , which was used to select the national champion until the 2013 season, and these bowls continue to play a major role in the College Football Playoff . Under the playoff, there are six major bowls, known as the New Year's Six, which host

11536-432: 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 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

11742-706: 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

11948-549: The Western Athletic Conference discontinued football sponsorship prior to the 2013 season , there have been ten conferences in the FBS. Through the 2023 season, all of the FBS conferences have between ten and fourteen members, although independent Notre Dame has a scheduling agreement with the fourteen-member ACC. The ten conferences are split into two groups for the purposes of the College Football Playoff . The " Power Four conferences " consist of most of

12154-499: The Western Athletic Conference . The Mountain West lost schools to the Big 12, Pac-12, and the FBS independent ranks, and added several schools from the WAC. After several defections, leaving the conference with only two football-sponsoring schools remaining, the WAC dropped its sponsorship of football. The early-2010s realignment cycle also affected the FBS independent ranks. BYU left

12360-551: 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

12566-482: The forward pass was legal. The IAAUS had formed after President Theodore Roosevelt , responding to several deaths that had occurred during football games, requested that colleges find ways to make football a safer sport. In 1935, the Heisman Trophy was presented for the first time; the award is generally considered to be college football's most prestigious individual award. In 1965, the NCAA voted to allow

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12772-419: The platoon system , in which different players played on offense and defense; teams had previously experimented with the concept in the 1940s. In 1968, the NCAA began allowing freshmen to compete in games; freshmen had previously been required to take a redshirt year. In 1975, after a growth of "grants-in-aid" (scholarships given for athletic rather than academic or need-based reasons), the NCAA voted to limit

12978-597: 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

13184-403: The stronger conferences frequently play non-conference games against teams from the weaker conferences or, occasionally, against FCS teams . FBS teams are free to schedule up to forty percent of their games against FCS teams, but FBS teams can only use one win per season against an FCS team for the purposes of bowl eligibility . Additionally, the FCS opponent must have averaged at least 80% of

13390-421: 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

13596-457: 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 a championship based on regular-season record for its first twelve seasons; as

13802-479: The "home game" requirement. FBS–FCS games, known as "money games", are often home games for the FBS team, and victories by FCS teams are considered to be upsets . FCS teams receive hundreds of thousands of dollars for their participation in these FBS–FCS games. The Football Bowl Subdivision gets its name from the bowl games that many FBS teams play at the end of the year, although other college divisions also have their own bowl games . FBS bowl games are played at

14008-402: 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

14214-400: 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

14420-499: 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

14626-409: 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

14832-529: 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"

15038-481: 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

15244-486: 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

15450-484: The 1982 season, while the Missouri Valley Conference stopped sponsoring football prior to the 1985 season. In 1991, the Big East recruited several independents and began sponsoring football, becoming a major conference. In 1996, Conference USA (CUSA), formed the previous year by the merger of the non-football Metro and Great Midwest Conferences, also began sponsoring football. That same year,

15656-557: The 2010s and into the early 2020s. Georgia Southern joined the Sun Belt Conference upon transitioning to the FBS level in 2014. The Eagles won the Sun Belt Conference championship outright in their first year as an FBS member. The 2016 season saw FCS Coastal Carolina join the Sun Belt Conference for non-football sports while beginning a transition to FBS football; the football team joined the Sun Belt in 2017. That season

15862-496: The 2013 season, and the National Football Foundation awards the MacArthur Bowl . Since the disputed end of the 2003 season , the various organizations have been able to agree on a single national champion. Many of the school names on the maps below are abbreviated in order to save space. The following is a list of such abbreviations along with each school's full name: In addition to the list of FBS football programs in

16068-513: The 2024 season, the only FBS conference that uses divisions is the SBC. The American, the Big 12, and CUSA all previously utilized division systems before abandoning them after losing some of their member schools to realignment: UConn left The American in July 2020, and Marshall , Old Dominion , and Southern Miss left CUSA in July 2022, leaving both those conferences with an odd number of members, while

16274-480: The 2nd year of two-year transition process. Due to that, JMU tried to become bowl eligible in 2023, but the NCAA refused it. However, when only 79 non-transitional FBS teams were available to fill the 82 FBS bowl slots for that season, JMU, which had finished its regular season with an 11–1 record, was allowed to fill one of the vacant slots. On July 1, 2023, two outgoing FCS teams Jacksonville State and Sam Houston joined CUSA. The most recent schools to start such

16480-852: The ACC and MW announcing similar intentions for 2023, and the Big Ten, MAC, and SEC doing the same for 2024. Since the 2018 season , all conferences have held a championship game that determines the conference champion. The Sun Belt was the last conference to launch a championship game, as well as the most recent to split into divisions for football, with both the title game and the divisional alignment debuting in 2018. That conference chose to form football divisions despite having only 10 football members; it has since expanded to 14 members while maintaining its divisional alignment. AAC (unofficial) Sun Belt (unofficial) † "Big Four" or " Power Four " conferences that enjoy "autonomy status" under NCAA rules Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia joined

16686-547: The ACC, and Army left the independent ranks to become a football-only member of The American. 2025 will also see two new teams transition from FCS to FBS as Delaware and Missouri State will join CUSA, respectively from CAA Football and the Missouri Valley Football Conference , and also the departure of UMass from the independent ranks to become a full member of the MAC. In September 2024,

16892-429: The BCS championship, the participating teams in the College Football Playoff National Championship are determined by two semi-final bowls—hosted by two of the consortium's six member bowls yearly—and the top two teams as determined by the selection committee do not automatically advance to the game in lieu of other bowls. The game is played at a neutral site, determined through bids by prospective host cities (similarly to

17098-599: The BCS starting with the 2014 season; it featured four teams through the 2023 season, after which it expanded to 12 teams. Since 2021, when the Supreme Court unanimously held in NCAA v. Alston that restrictions on name, image, and likeness compensation violated antitrust law , FBS football players have been able to make money from sources other than college scholarships. However, there remains no unified system to provide players with such compensation. College football

17304-463: The Big 12 has not used divisions since the early-2010s conference realignment left it with 10 members. The Pac-12, however, chose to abandon divisions entirely as a result of the NCAA Division I Council ruling that conferences would no longer be required to maintain divisions in order to hold a conference championship. It was the first conference to entirely abandon divisions due to this, with

17510-427: The Big 12, which also added former football independent BYU. In 2024, Oklahoma and Texas joined the SEC, while 10 of the 12 members of the Pac-12 left for other power conferences— UCLA , USC , Oregon, and Washington for the Big Ten; Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah for the Big 12; and California and Stanford for the ACC. In addition, Kennesaw State upgraded to FBS and joined CUSA, SMU left The American for

17716-547: The Big East split into two conferences: the American Athletic Conference ("The American") and a new conference that assumed the Big East name but does not sponsor football. The American added several schools from CUSA, but lost one school each to the ACC and Big Ten after its first season. In turn, CUSA added FCS schools and schools from the Sun Belt Conference . The Sun Belt Conference replenished its membership by adding FCS schools and schools from

17922-528: 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

18128-478: 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

18334-473: 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 ,

18540-707: 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 the Stagg Bowl , has been played annually in Salem , Virginia at Salem Football Stadium since 1993. It

18746-642: 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 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

18952-563: The FBS. Although all college football players are eligible for many of these awards (such as the Heisman Trophy ), FBS players usually win these awards, and other awards (such as the Walter Payton Award ) exist to honor players in other divisions and the FCS. In addition to the national awards listed below, FBS conferences also have their own awards, and several organizations release a yearly College Football All-America Team . In 1951,

19158-399: The FCS limit of 63 scholarship equivalents over a rolling two-year period. (Before the 2022 season, this limit had been 90%. ) An FBS team must schedule a total of five home games per year; for the purposes of scheduling, a "home game" must take place at a venue in which the team plays 50% of its "home games", although a team is allowed to count one neutral-site game against an FBS team toward

19364-622: The FCS. In the 1996 NCAA conference realignment , the Southwest Conference dissolved, and four Texas teams from that conference joined with the Big 8 schools to form the Big 12 Conference . The Western Athletic Conference expanded to sixteen members, but half of the schools left in 1999 to form the Mountain West Conference . Conference USA (CUSA) formed from a merger of the Metro Conference and

19570-693: The MAC and SBC. The FBS has experienced several realignments since its formation in 1978, with many teams changing conferences, dropping out of the FBS, or moving up from the FCS. In 1982, the size of the division was cut considerably, and the Southern Conference and the Ivy League were demoted to the FCS. In 1985, the Missouri Valley Conference stopped sponsoring football. In the 1980s and 1990s, several independents joined conferences, dropped football, or joined

19776-463: The MW in 2011 for football independence and the non-football West Coast Conference . In 2013, Idaho and New Mexico State , the last two football-sponsoring schools in the WAC, became FBS independents, but would return to their former football home of the Sun Belt Conference as football-only members the following year. Also in 2013, Notre Dame became a full but non-football member of the ACC, entering into

19982-1052: The Mountain States Conference and the Border Conference formed the Western Athletic Conference. In 1969, the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (PCAA), later known as the Big West Conference , was formed by several Division II California schools that sought to join Division I. Division I separated into Division I-A (the predecessor to the FBS) and I-AA (predecessor of the FCS ) prior to the 1978 season . At that time, there were several independent I-A schools and twelve Division I-A conferences:

20188-425: 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

20394-437: 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

20600-457: 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

20806-493: The NCAA and allowed teams to televise all of their games. After a period during which FBS schools negotiated collectively under the College Football Association , Notre Dame's 1991 television contract ushered in an era in which schools and conferences negotiate their own television contracts. This new era of television led to several waves of conference realignment, most notably in 1996 , 2005 , and

21012-500: The NCAA does not officially award an FBS football national championship , nor does it sanction a playoff tournament to determine such a champion on the field. As the College Football Playoff did not exist until 2014, organizations such as the Associated Press and AFCA have historically sought to rank the teams and crown a national champion, by taking a vote of sports writers and coaches, respectively. Various cities across

21218-540: The Pac-12 started a rebuilding process by raiding the Mountain West Conference, with five MW members ( Boise State , Colorado State , Fresno State , San Diego State , and Utah State ) set to join the Pac-12 in 2026. The MW first responded by announcing that UTEP would join from CUSA in 2026, soon followed by Hawaiʻi upgrading its MW membership from football-only to all-sports in 2026. Several awards are given each year to players and coaches in

21424-537: The Playoff. The decades preceding the advent of the Playoff also included attempts by the premier FBS conferences and bowl games to attempt to organize matchups so that the FBS national championship was decided on the field, such as the Bowl Coalition from 1992 to 1994, the Bowl Alliance from 1995 to 1997, and the Bowl Championship Series from 1998 to 2013. The FBS is the highest level of college football in

21630-473: 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 a finals series/playoff

21836-511: 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

22042-699: 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

22248-612: The Southeastern Conference (SEC), Big Ten, Pacific-10 (Pac-10), Big 8 , Southwest Conference (SWC), Western Athletic Conference (WAC), PCAA (which later changed its name to the Big West), Missouri Valley Conference , Southern Conference , Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Mid-American Conference (MAC), and the Ivy League . The Ivy League and the Southern Conference left for Division I-AA prior to

22454-528: The Southwest Conference dissolved, and four of its former members joined with the Big 8 to form the Big 12 Conference. In 1999, eight schools broke away from the WAC to form the Mountain West Conference (MW). Prior to the 2000 season, the Big West stopped sponsoring football. The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) began sponsoring football in 2001. After periods of conference realignment in 2005 and

22660-524: 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

22866-677: 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

23072-477: The Sun Belt Conference upon transitioning to the FBS level in 2014. Prior to joining the Sun Belt, GASOU won six FCS (I-AA) national championships and have produced two Walter Payton Award winners. The Eagles first continuously fielded a football team in 1924; however, play was suspended for World War II and revived in 1981. The Eagles competed as an FCS independent from 1984 until 1992 as the Eagles' main conference at

23278-433: The United States have created their own postseason contests, called bowl games , in which they traditionally invite teams to participate. Historically, these bowl games were mostly considered to be exhibition games involving a payout to participating teams. However, in the modern era, some of the bowls serve as semifinal games of the Playoff and the remainder constitute the de facto postseason for teams that fail to qualify for

23484-790: The United States, and FBS players make up the vast majority of the players picked in the NFL Draft . For every sport but football, the NCAA divides schools into three major divisions: Divisions I , II , and III . However, in football , Division I is further divided into two sub-divisions: the Bowl Subdivision, abbreviated as the FBS, and the Championship Subdivision , abbreviated as the FCS. Divisions are themselves further divided up into conferences , which are groupings of schools that play each other in contention for

23690-469: 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

23896-621: The all-sports Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), barred the Dukes from competing in or hosting team championships in any sport for that conference during the 2021–22 season according to then-current CAA bylaws. (The CAA football league, branded as CAA Football , is technically a separate entity from the all-sports CAA.) However, the Dukes were eligible for at-large bids to all NCAA team championships in 2021–22. By meeting FBS scheduling requirements in 2022, JMU played an FBS schedule in year one of their transition process, which normally only occurs in

24102-669: The announcements by Oklahoma and Texas that they would leave the Big 12 for the SEC no later than 2025. The Big 12 and its departing members later announced a 2024 departure date. The first actual conference changes came in 2022, with the Sun Belt gaining Marshall , returning Old Dominion , and Southern Miss from CUSA, and FCS upgrader James Madison . The following year saw CUSA add Jacksonville State , Sam Houston (both from FCS), New Mexico State and Liberty (FBS independents) but lose Charlotte , Florida Atlantic , North Texas , Rice , UAB , and UTSA to The American. In turn, The American lost Cincinnati , Houston , and UCF to

24308-751: The annual spending requirement rises to $ 6 million. Also starting in 2027–28, FBS programs must not only provide at least 90% of the required number of football scholarships, but must provide at least 90% of the maximum number of scholarships across a total of 16 sports, including football. The FBS season begins in late August or early September and ends in January with the College Football Playoff National Championship game. Most FBS teams play 12 regular season games per year, with eight or nine of those games coming against conference opponents. All ten FBS conferences hold

24514-416: 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

24720-403: 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",

24926-598: The best team in the country, and the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll began rankings teams in the middle of the 20th century. In many seasons, selectors such as the AP and the Coaches Poll designated different teams as national champions. Often, more than one team would finish undefeated , as the top teams were not guaranteed to play each other during the regular season or in bowl games. In 1992, five major conferences established

25132-817: 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, 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

25338-592: 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

25544-415: 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

25750-429: The divisional round, the lowest-seeded winner of a wild-card game then plays the lone bye team; the two wild-card winners also advance to play each other. The winners of these two games go to the conference championships, and the winners of those conference finals then face each other in the Super Bowl . The College Football Playoff National Championship is a post-season college football bowl game , used to determine

25956-651: 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

26162-485: The early 2010s that saw the expansion of the ACC, Big Ten, SEC, and Pac-10 (which changed its name to the Pac-12), the WAC reorganized as a non-football conference and the Big East split into the American Athletic Conference and a new non-football conference that retained the Big East name. Most of the 134 FBS schools are members of an FBS conference, but there are also a small number of independent schools . Since

26368-405: The early 2010s . FBS games continue to be a major draw on television, as over 26 million people watched the 2014 BCS National Championship Game . National networks such as CBS, ABC, NBC, several ESPN networks, and several Fox networks have all covered the FBS, as have several regional and local networks. As conferences negotiate their own television deals, each conference is affiliated with

26574-493: The end of the season in December or January, and collectively generate over $ 400 million per year as of 2012. For the 2017–18 bowl season , there were 40 bowl games . In order to be bowl eligible , an FBS team must have a winning record. In certain cases – usually if not enough teams have winning records – 5–7 and 6–7 teams can also be selected to bowls. Many bowls have an established conference tie-in; for example,

26780-417: 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:

26986-433: 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

27192-424: The fifteen largest American stadiums by capacity all host FBS teams or games. Since July 1, 2021, college athletes have been able to receive payments for the use of their name, image, and likeness . Prior to this date colleges were only allowed to provide players with non-monetary compensation such as athletic scholarships that provide for tuition, housing, and books. Unlike other NCAA divisions and subdivisions,

27398-529: 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 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

27604-481: 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

27810-413: 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 the grand final. Both semifinals were two-legged, while

28016-466: The first team ever to go unbeaten in conference play in their first FBS season. Since the Eagles were under transitional status, the university filed for a postseason waiver to allow the Eagles to play in a bowl game; however, the NCAA denied Georgia Southern's waiver request and a subsequent appeal since enough full member FBS teams became bowl-eligible during the season. Liberty University began its FBS transition process on July 1, 2017. The NCAA granted

28222-473: 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

28428-498: The game and the organizational structure of college football have evolved significantly during that time. The first college football game was played in 1869, but the game continued to develop during the late 19th and early 20th century. During this period, Walter Camp pioneered the concept of a line of scrimmage , the system of downs , and the College Football All-America Team . The 1902 Rose Bowl

28634-456: 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

28840-464: The largest and best-known college athletic programs in the country. A school from one of the power conferences (including the Pac-12, which was a power conference prior to 2024) won every BCS National Championship Game (which operated from 1999 to 2014), and has won every College Football Playoff National Championship . The remaining five conferences are known as the " Group of Five ". Any conference may split its teams into two divisions; however, as of

29046-401: 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

29252-547: 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

29458-480: 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

29664-412: 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

29870-560: The maximum number of football scholarships (which is currently 85). In October 2023, the NCAA announced major changes to FBS membership requirements. The average home attendance requirement, which had largely gone unenforced in the 21st century and was suspended in 2020 due to COVID-19 impacts, was permanently eliminated, effective immediately. Effective in 2027–28, minimums on both the total number of, and spending on, athletic scholarships in all FBS programs will be enforced. The number of required athletic scholarships will increase to 210, and

30076-518: 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

30282-511: 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

30488-474: The non-football ASUN Conference in 2018. Conference USA (CUSA) eventually announced in November 2021 Liberty's future addition to that conference, with Flames football moving to CUSA starting in the 2023 season. Three schools began FBS transitions on July 1, 2022. James Madison University joined the Sun Belt after meeting the NCAA minimum of five FBS opponents at its home stadium, as required and scheduled. This happened after James Madison's FCS conference,

30694-412: The number of athletic scholarships each school could offer. In 1968, the NCAA required all teams to identify as members of either the University Division (for larger schools) or the College Division (for smaller schools), and in 1973, the NCAA divided into three divisions. At the urging of several larger schools seeking increased autonomy and commonality, Division I-A was formed prior to the 1978 season ;

30900-452: 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

31106-423: 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

31312-421: 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 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

31518-406: 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

31724-431: 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

31930-408: 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

32136-427: 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

32342-400: 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

32548-418: 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 a feature of the qualification tournaments for the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Football Championship . In the qualification playoffs for

32754-411: 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

32960-405: 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,

33166-407: 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,

33372-425: 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

33578-509: 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

33784-463: The quarterfinal and semifinal games prior to the College Football Playoff National Championship game. Conferences receive millions of dollars for each school that appears in the playoff, and appearances in other bowls are also quite lucrative. In addition to the regular bowls, some postseason bowls, such as the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl , match up teams of all-stars and NFL Draft entrants. College football has been played for over one hundred years, but

33990-440: 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

34196-409: 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 a final, the winners of which would advance to

34402-421: 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

34608-465: The remaining schools formed the Missouri Valley Conference. In 1932, several Southern schools formed the SEC after breaking away from the Southern Conference, and in 1953 several more schools seceded from the Southern Conference to form the ACC. In 1946, several Midwestern schools formed the MAC. Several elite Northeastern schools had formed the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League in 1901, and its members (plus Brown University , not an EIBL member at

34814-451: The remaining teams in Division I formed the Football Championship Subdivision or FCS (then known as Division I-AA). In 1981, members of the College Football Association attempted to create a fourth division consisting solely of the most competitive schools, but this effort was defeated. In the 1992 season , the SEC split into divisions and played the first FBS conference championship game . The Big 12 and Western Athletic Conference did

35020-431: 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

35226-403: 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

35432-527: The rest of the university. In many states, the highest-paid public employee is the head coach of an FBS team. FBS schools are limited to a total of 85 football players receiving financial assistance. Nearly all FBS schools that are not on NCAA probation give 85 full scholarships. The three United States service academies that are FBS members are technically subject to the 85-scholarship limit, but are effectively exempt because all of their students receive federally-funded full scholarships whether or not they play

35638-420: The rest, and only the winners of the two playoff semifinal bowl games will play a 15th game when they meet in the College Football Playoff National Championship . The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors and teams that play at Hawaii get a special exemption and are allowed to play an extra regular season game in order to defray travel costs, so an FBS team that plays 13 regular season games, a conference championship game,

35844-416: 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

36050-438: 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

36256-405: The same for the 1996 season , and most conferences eventually adopted divisions and championship games. The NCAA does not officially award an FBS football championship, but several teams have claimed national championships. Other organizations have also sought to rank the teams and crown a national champion. The Dickinson System and other methods were formed in the early 20th century to select

36462-442: The school a waiver from its normal transition rules that require an invitation from an FBS conference before beginning the transition. The Flames played in the Big South Conference in 2017 but were not eligible for the FCS playoffs. For 2018 to 2022, the Flames became an FBS independent. The school initially intended to remain a Big South member in other sports until it received an invitation to an FBS conference, but instead joined

36668-503: 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 the Netherlands), usually between teams that didn't perform well enough to earn an automatic spot. A test match

36874-435: 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,

37080-432: 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

37286-401: 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,

37492-403: 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

37698-405: 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 the end of the season (which, effective in 2016–17, changed from

37904-409: 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

38110-404: 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,

38316-440: The time) signed the Ivy Group Agreement, which governed football competition between the signatories, in 1945; the Ivy League was formally founded in 1954, when the agreement was extended to cover all sports. In 1959, the Pacific Coast Conference dissolved, and most of its former members formed the new Athletic Association of Western Universities, which became the Pac-8 when more former PCC members joined. In 1962, several schools from

38522-457: The time, the Trans America Athletic Conference (now known as the Atlantic Sun Conference, or ASUN), did not sponsor football, and as a member of the Southern Conference from 1993 until 2013, winning 10 SoCon championships. The Georgia Southern Eagles finished their first FBS season 9–3 overall and was undefeated in Sun Belt Conference play at 8–0; winning the Sun Belt Conference championship outright in its first year as an FBS member. They were also

38728-473: 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

38934-413: 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

39140-425: 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

39346-452: 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

39552-402: 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

39758-541: 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

39964-437: 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

40170-450: 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

40376-436: Was also the last for Idaho and New Mexico State as Sun Belt football members. After 2017, New Mexico State returned to independent status, while Idaho downgraded to FCS football—becoming the first program ever to voluntarily do so without extenuating circumstances —and added football to its all-sports membership in the Big Sky Conference . Also in 2016, UMass went independent after turning down an offer of full membership in

40582-438: 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

40788-404: 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

40994-414: 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

41200-493: Was first broadcast on radio in 1921, and first broadcast on television in 1939. Television became profitable for both schools and the NCAA, which tightly controlled the airing of games in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The NCAA limited each football team to six television appearances over a two-year period. The 1981 Supreme Court case NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma & University of Georgia granted television rights to individual schools as opposed to

41406-413: Was founded in 1896, after which several other schools joined to form conferences, including the Pacific Coast Conference , the MVIAA, the Southwest Conference, the Southern Conference , the Mountain States Conference (also known as the Skyline Conference), and the Border Conference . In 1928, six schools seceded from the MVIAA to form the Big Six Conference, which later expanded to the Big Eight in 1957;

41612-448: 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; the two teams immediately above contested promotion/relegation series with

41818-402: 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

42024-479: 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 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

42230-412: 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

42436-419: Was the first bowl game in college football history, and the event began to be held annually starting with the 1916 Rose Bowl . In the 1930s, other bowl games came into existence, including the Sugar Bowl , the Cotton Bowl Classic , and the Orange Bowl . The 1906 college football season was the first season played under the IAAUS (which would later change its name to the NCAA ) and the first season in which

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