The
playoffs,
postseason, or
finals of a
sports
league are a series of games played after the
regular season by the top competitors, to
determine the league champion or a similar accolade. The term and
concept are most widespread in North America.
In the U.S. and Canada, the vast distances and consequent burdens
on cross-country travel have led to regional groupings of teams,
usually called
divisions. Generally, during the regular
season, teams play more games against opponents that are within
their own grouping than those outside it. Since every team has not
necessarily had a chance to prove itself against every other team,
a playoff is necessary every season. Any team that wins its
grouping is eligible to participate in the playoffs. As playoffs
became more popular, they were expanded to allow teams that
finished second or even lower in the grouping to participate. If a
team has to be the best of all the lower-ranked teams, these teams
are known as
wild card teams,
such as in the
Major League
Baseball system.
Playoffs in the National Basketball Association
The present organization known as the
National Basketball
Association, then called the BAA (Basketball Association of
America), had its inaugural season in 1946–1947.
In the current system, eight clubs from each of the league's two
conferences qualify for the playoffs, with separate playoff
brackets for each conference. In the 2002–03 season, the
first-round series were expanded from best-of-5 to best-of-7; all
other series have always been best-of-7. In all series, home games
alternate between the two teams in a 2-2-1-1-1 format, except for
the NBA Finals, in which the format is 2-3-2.
The 2-3-2 finals format was adopted for the 1985 finals, copying
the format that was then in effect in the National Hockey League.
Prior to 1985, almost all finals were played in the 2-2-1-1-1
format (although the 1971 finals between Milwaukee and Baltimore
were on an alternate-home basis, some 1950s finals used the 2-3-2
format, and the 1975 Golden State-Washington and 1978 and 1979
Seattle-Washington finals were on a 1-2-2-1-1 basis). Also, prior
to the 1980s, East and West playoffs were on an alternate-home
basis except for those series when distance made the 2-2-1-1-1
format more practical.
Teams are seeded according to their regular-season record. The
three division champions and best division runner-up receive the
top four seeds, with their ranking based on regular-season record.
The remaining teams are seeded strictly by regular-season
record.
However, the NBA system differs from other sports playoffs in the
fact that division champions are not guaranteed home-court
advantage at any time in the playoffs, as home-court advantage is
decided strictly on regular-season record, without regard to
seeding.
The NBA playoffs are often criticized for having too many teams, as
it is common to see losing teams in the playoffs.
See
NBA Playoffs and
2009 NBA Playoffs for more information and
the current
NBA
postseason.
Playoffs in the National Football 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's possible one was
held in 1917, but that's not known for sure).
The Buffalo
and Rochester
metropolitan areas each played a championship game,
the winners of which would advance to the "New York Pro
Championship" on Thanksgiving weekend. The top New York
teams were eventually absorbed into the NFL upon its founding in
1920, but the league (mostly driven by an
Ohio League that did not have true championship
games, though they frequently scheduled
de facto
championship matchups) did not adopt the New York league's playoff
format, opting for a championship based on regular season record
for its first twelve seasons; as a result, four of the first six
"championships" were disputed. Technically, a vote of league owners
was all that was required to win a title, but the owners had a
gentlemen's agreement to
pledge votes based on a score (wins divided by the sum of wins and
losses, with a few tiebreakers). When two teams tied at the top of
the standings in 1932, an
impromptu playoff game was scheduled
to settle the tie.
The
National Football
League divided its teams into divisions in 1933 and began
holding a single playoff championship game 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
AFL-NFL merger brought the
American Football League
into the NFL, the NFL began to use a single wild card team in each
conference in its playoffs, in order to produce eight contenders
out of six divisions; this was later expanded 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. The winners of each division automatically earn a
playoff spot and a home game in their first rounds, and the two top
non-division winners from each conference will also make the
playoffs as wild-card teams. The top two teams with the best
records in the regular season get a first round bye, and each of
the bottom two division winners plays one of the two wild-card
teams. Each winner of a wild-card game then plays one of the two
bye teams. The winners of these two games go to the conference
championships, and the winners of those conference championship
games then face each other in the
Super
Bowl.
NASCAR implemented a "playoff" system
beginning in 2004, that they coined the "
Chase for the NEXTEL Cup."
Currently, only NASCAR's top series uses the system. In the
original version of the Chase (2004-2006), following the 26th race
of the season, all drivers in the top 10 and any others within 400
points of the leader got a spot in the 10-race playoff. Like the
current system, drivers in the Chase had their point totals
adjusted. However, it was based on the number of points at the
conclusion of the 26th race. The first-place driver in the
standings led with 5,050 points; the second-place driver started
with 5,045. Incremental five-point drops continued through 10th
place with 5,005 points). In addition, drivers received 180 points
for winning a race, 5 bonus points for leading the most laps, and 5
bonus for leading a single lap.
The current version of the Chase was announced by NASCAR chairman
and CEO
Brian France on January 22,
2007. After 26 races, the top 12 drivers advance to contend for the
points championship and points are reset to 5000. Each driver
within the top 12 gets an additional 10 points for each win during
the "regular season," or first 26 races, thus creating a seeding
based on wins. The Chase consists of 10 races and the driver with
the most points at the conclusion of the 10 races is the
NEXTEL Cup Series Champion. Drivers can earn 5
bonus points for leading the most laps, and 5 bonus points for
leading a single lap.Brian France explained why NASCAR made the
changes to the chase:
"The adjustments taken [Monday] put a greater emphasis
on winning races.
Winning is what this sport is all about.
Nobody likes to see drivers content to finish in the
top 10.
We want our sport -- especially during the Chase -- to
be more about winning."
Beginning with the
2008 season, the
playoff will become known as the "Chase for the Sprint Cup" due to
the NEXTEL/
Sprint merger.
Playoffs in Major League Baseball
Playoffs in the National Hockey League
The
National Hockey League
has always used a playoff tournament to determine its champion,
generally opening up its playoff games to a much larger number of
teams, including those with a losing regular season record in some
years. Because of the grueling nature of the sport, the
Stanley Cup playoffs is considered to be one of
the hardest championships in all of professional sports to
win.
From the NHL's inception to 1920, when ownership of the Stanley Cup
was shared between the NHL and the
Pacific Coast Hockey
Association the regular season was divided into two halves,
with the top team from each half moving on to the league finals,
which was a two-game total goals series in 1918 and a best-of-seven
series in 1919. In 1920, the
Ottawa Senators were
automatically declared the league champion when the team had won
both halves of the regular season. The two halves format was
abandoned the next year, and the top two teams faced off for the
NHL championship in a two-game total goals series.
At the time, the NHL champion would later face the winners of the
PCHA and, from 1921, the
Western Canada Hockey League in
further rounds in order to determine the Stanley Cup champion.
During this time, as the rules of the NHL and those of the western
leagues differ (the main difference being that NHL rules allowed
five skaters while the western leagues allowed six), the rules for
each game in the Stanley Cup Finals alternated between those of the
NHL and the western leagues. Before the WCHL competed for the
Stanley Cup, the Stanley Cup Finals was a best-of-five series.
Following the involvement of the WCHL, one league champion was
given a bye straight to the finals (a best-of-three affair starting
in 1922), while the other two competed in a best-of-three
semifinal. As travel expenses were high during these times, it was
often the case that the NHL champions were sent west to compete. In
a dispute between the leagues in 1923 about whether to send one or
both western league champions east, the winner of the PCHA/WCHL
series would proceed to the Stanley Cup Finals while the loser of
the series would face the NHL champions, both series being
best-of-three.
In 1924 the NHL playoffs expanded from two to three teams (with the
top team getting a bye to the two-game total goal NHL finals), but
because the first-place
Hamilton
Tigers refused to play under this format, the second and third
place teams played for the NHL championship in a two-game total
goals affair. The Stanley Cup Finals was returned to the
best-of-five format the same year.
With the merger of the PCHA and WCHL in 1925 and its collapse in
1926, the NHL took sole control of the Stanley Cup, and from this
point the NHL playoffs and the Stanley Cup playoffs are considered
synonymous. The NHL was subsequently divided into the Canadian and
American divisions until the 1937-38 season. For 1927, six teams
qualified for the playoffs, three from each division, with the
division semifinals and finals being a two-game total goals affair
and the Stanley Cup Finals a best-of-five affair. In 1928, the
playoff format was changed so that the two teams with identical
division ranking would face each other (ie. the first place teams
played each other, the second place teams play each other, and
likewise for the third place teams). The first place series was a
best-of-five affair, with the winner proceeding to the
best-of-three Stanley Cup Finals, while the others was a two-game
total goals series. The winner of the second and third place series
played each other in a best-of-three series, with the winner
earning the other berth to the Stanley Cup Finals. This format had
a slight modification the following year, where the semifinal
series became a two-game total goals affair and the Stanley Cup
Finals became a best-of-five series. The two-game total goals
format was abolished in 1937, with those series being changed to
best-of-three affairs.
The 1938-39 season saw the reduction of teams from 10 to 7, and
with it an end to the Canadian and American divisions. The Stanley
Cup playoffs saw the first and second place teams play against each
other in a best-of-seven series for one berth in the Stanley Cup
Finals, while the third to sixth place teams battled in a series of
best-of-three matches for the other berth (with the third place
team battling the fourth place team, and the fifth place team
against the sixth place team). The playoff format introduced in the
1938-39 season had a best-of-seven Stanley Cup Finals, which still
stands today.
The 1942-43 season saw the removal of the
New York Americans, and thus the six
remaining teams formed the
Original
Six. During this era, the playoff format went unchanged, with
the first and third place teams battling in one best-of-seven
semifinal, while the second and fourth place teams battled in the
other best-of-seven semifinal. During this time,
Detroit Red Wings fans often threw an
octopus onto the ice as a good luck charm, as eight wins were
required to win the Stanley Cup.
The Modern Era expansion saw the number of teams double from six to
twelve in the 1967-68 season, and with it the creation of the
Western and Eastern Conferences. The playoff format remained
largely the same, with all series remaining best-of-seven, and the
Western and Eastern Conference champions battling for the Stanley
Cup. The 1970-71 season, because of fan demand, brought forth the
first interconference playoff matchup outside of the Stanley Cup
Finals since the pre-war expansion, which had the winner of the 2
vs 4 matchup in one conference take on the winner of the 1 vs 3
matchup in the other conference for a berth in the Stanley Cup
Finals. The following year had one minor change to its playoff
format: a stronger team would face a weaker opponent. Thus, instead
of a 1 vs 3 and 2 vs 4 matchup in the first round, the first round
had a 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 matchup. This practice of having stronger
teams facing weaker opposition would continue to the present
day.
The 1974-75 seasons saw another change to its playoff system to
accommodate the league of now 18 teams, 12 of which qualified for
postseason berth. The top team from each conference would earn byes
to the Stanley Cup quarterfinals, while the second and third place
teams from each division started their playoff run from a
preliminary round. In each round of the playoffs, the teams
remaining were seeded regardless of divisional or conference
alignment, with the preliminary-round series being a best-of-three
affair while the remainder of the series remained best-of-seven.
The 1977-78 season had one minor change in its playoff format:
although the second place finishers from each division would
qualify for the preliminary round, the four playoff spots reserved
for the third-place teams were replaced by four
wild-card
spots - spots for the four teams with the highest regular-season
point total but which did not finish first or second in their
divisions.
With the absorption of four teams from the
World Hockey Association in the
1979-1980 season, a new playoff system was introduced where 16 of
the league's 21 teams would qualify for postseason play. The four
division winners would qualify for the playoffs while twelve
wildcard positions rounded out the sixteen teams. At the beginning
of each round the teams were seeded based on their regular season
point totals, with the preliminary round being a best-of-five
series while all other playoff series were best-of-seven.
The 1981-1982 season brought forth the return of divisional
matchups, with the top four teams from each division qualifying for
the postseason play. Division champions would be determined,
followed by the Conference champions, who would meet in the Stanley
Cup Finals. The division semifinals was a best-of-five affair until
the 1986-87 season, when it became a best-of-seven series, while
all other series remained best-of seven.
The 1993-94 season brought forth the change in the playoff format
that would result in the format being used today. The division
winners would occupy top three seeds while five wildcard berths
completed the conference playoff draws, with all series being
best-of-seven. One quirk that was abolished with division
realignment in the 1998-99 season was that the higher-ranked teams
in Western Conference interdivisional matchups had the option of
having home ice rotate on a 2-2-1-1-1 basis or a 2-3-2 basis, and
if the latter was chosen having the bulk of their games at home or
on the road. The 1998-99 season also brought forth a re-seeding of
conference playoff matchups after the first round, as well as a
third division in each conference.
Association football
As a rule, international
association football (soccer) has only
had championship playoffs when a league is divided into several
equal divisions/conferences/groups (MLS,
Primera División de
México) and/or when the season is
split into two periods (as in many
leagues in Latin America). In leagues with a single table done only
once a year, as in most of Europe, playoff systems are used.
A
test match is a match played at the end of a season
between a team that has done badly in a higher league and one that
has done well in a lower league of the same football
league system. The winner of the test match
plays in the higher league the following year, and the loser in the
lower league.
England
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 the number of mid-table
clubs with nothing to play for at the end of the season. The
Football Conference introduced
play-offs in 2002 after the Football League agreed to a two-club
exchange with the Conference.
The top two teams in the
Football League Championship
and in
Football League One are
automatically promoted to the division above and thus do not
compete in the play-offs. The top three teams in
Football League Two and the champion of
Conference National are also
automatically promoted. In each of these divisions the four clubs
finishing below the automatic promotion places compete in
two-legged semi-finals with the higher-placed club enjoying home
advantage in the second leg. The
away
goals rule does not apply for the semi-finals, which has led to
some games swinging the way of a team that otherwise would have
been beaten by the rule.
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
. The
Conference play-off final is
also played at Wembley.
In 2003,
Gillingham proposed
replacing the current play-off system with one involving six clubs
from each division and replacing the two-legged ties with one-off
matches. If adopted, the two higher-placed clubs in the play-offs
would have enjoyed first-round byes and home advantage in the
semi-finals.
It was a controversial proposal — some people
did not believe a club finishing eighth in the League could compete
in the Premiership while others
found the system too American
for their
liking. Although League chairmen initially voted in favour
of the proposal, it was blocked by
The FA 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 and goals scored; to date, this has
never happened.
Italy
In 2004-05, Italy's professional league introduced a promotion
playoff to its second tier of football,
Serie
B. It operates almost identically to the system currently used
in England. The top two clubs in Serie B earn automatic promotion
to
Serie A with the next four clubs entering
a playoff to determine who wins the third promotion place, as long
as fewer than 10 points separate the third and fourth-placed teams
(which often occurs).
Like the English playoffs, the Italian playoffs employ two-legged
semi-finals, with the higher finisher in the league table earning
home advantage in the second leg. If the teams are level on
aggregate after full time of the second leg, away goals are not
used, but extra time is used. Unlike England, the Italian playoff
final is two-legged, again with the higher finisher earning home
advantage in the second leg. In both rounds, if the tie is level on
aggregate after extra time in the second leg, the team that
finished higher in the league standings wins.
In 2004, Italy's football (soccer) league used a two-legged test
match to determine one spot in the top level of its system,
Serie A. Some leagues in continental Europe
combine automatic promotion/relegation with test matches.
For
example, in the Netherlands
, only one club is automatically relegated from its
top level, the Eredivisie, each season,
with the winner of the second-flight being promoted. The
next two lower-placed teams enter a promotion/relegation
mini-league with high-placed teams from the
Dutch First Division
Belgium
In the
Belgian
Jupiler League, the
17th team (out of 18) in the final standings has to join a playoff
pool with three teams from the Belgian Second Division after each
season, to determine which of these teams gets to play in the
Jupiler League the oncoming
season. Originally, these playoffs were introduced in 1974
and were part of the Belgian 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
Jupiler League, with the 17th team taking part in the playoff. As a
result, this playoff is still called the
Belgian Second Division
Final Round, although one team from the Jupiler League now
takes part each year.
Japan
J.League in Japan
uses a test
match between the third-from-bottom team in J1 and third-place team
in J2 (see J. League
Promotion/Relegation Series).
Mexico
Mexico's top flight league, the
Primera División de
México, divides its 18 teams into three groups of six. In each
of
two annual tournaments,
every team plays every other team in the league once (17 games),
after which the top two teams in each group advance to the
Liguilla and the next four best teams overall advance to
the
Repechaje. The four Repechaje teams play a single
home-and-away round, with the best team (by points) facing the
worst team and the second-best facing the second-worst. The winners
of these two series advance to the Liguilla.
In the Liguilla, all rounds are home-and-away. Teams are drawn so
the best team plays the worst, the second-best plays the
second-worst, and so on. After one round, the teams are redrawn so
the best remaining team again plays the worst remaining one and the
second-best faces the second-worst in the semi-finals. The two
winners of this round play each other for the championship.
There is no playoff between the Apertura and Clausura winner. As a
result, the league crowns two champions each year. After each
Clausura, the team with the lowest points-per-game total for the
previous six tournaments (three years, counting only Primera
División games) is relegated to
Primera División A to be replaced by
that league's champion (if eligible).
Netherlands
In
The
Netherlands
, a playoff
was introduced in season 2005-2006. It is used to determine
which teams from the
Eredivisie qualify
for European football. The playoff system has been criticized by
clubs, players and fans as the number of matches will increase.
Under the original playoff format, it was possible, though
thoroughly unlikely, that the runner-up would not qualify for
Europe; the following year, the format was changed so that the
second-place team was assured of no worse than a
UEFA Cup berth. Starting in 2008–09, the
format was changed yet again. The champion goes directly to the
Champions League; the
runner-up enters the second qualification round of the CL; the
number three enters the fourth (and last) qualification round of
the UEFA Europa League (EL; the new name of the UEFA Cup from
2009–10 onward) and the number four goes to the third qualification
round of the EL. The only play-off will be for the clubs placed 5th
through 8th. The winner of that play-off receives a ticket for the
second qualification round of the EL.
Playoffs are also part of the
promotion and relegation structure
between the
Eredivisie and the
Eerste Divisie, the two highest football
leagues in the Netherlands.
Scotland
The
Scottish Premier League
experimented briefly with playoffs in the mid-1990s, with only one
team -
Dundee United - achieving
promotion through it (
Partick
Thistle were relegated at their expense). Currently, the bottom
team is relegated to the First Division of the
Scottish Football League, and the
top team from there is promoted. In the First/Second and
Second/Third Division, while the champions are automatically
promoted and the bottom team relegated, there are playoffs of the
second-bottom teams against the second, third and fourth placed
teams from the league below. Home and away ties decide semi-finals
and a final, and the overall winner plays in the higher league the
following season, with the loser in the lower league.
Greece
Starting in
2008–09,
Super League Greece instituted a playoff
system to determine all of its places in European competition for
the following season, except for that of the league champion.
Currently, the league is entitled to two Champions League places
and three in the Europa League. The playoff currently takes the
form of a home-and-away mini-league involving the second- through
fifth-place teams, under the following conditions:
- The fifth-place team starts the playoffs at 0 points.
- The remaining teams start with a number of "bonus points"
determined as follows:
- The number of points earned by the fifth-place team during the
main league season is subtracted from the totals of each other club
involved in the playoffs.
- The resulting number is then divided by 5 and rounded to the
nearest whole number.
- At the end of the playoffs, the winner receives the country's
second Champions League place, and the remaining teams receive
Europa League berths, entering the competition at different points
according to their playoff finishes.
United States and Canada
In
Major League Soccer in the
U.S. and Canada
, at the end
of the regular season, the top four
teams in each Conference advance to the Conference Semifinals, the
first round of the postseason knockout
tournament. The winner of each conference will play for the
MLS Cup, the league championship.
Conference Semifinal series are conducted under a home-and-away,
aggregate-goal format, with single-game Conference Championships
determining the MLS Cup Finalists. For each Conference, the 1st
seed plays the 4th seed, and the 2nd seed faces the 3rd seed in the
Conference Semifinal series, with the lower seeded team hosting the
first game.
The team that scores the most goals in the home-and-away series
advances to the single elimination Conference Championship. If the
teams are tied after 180 minutes in the Conference Semifinal
series, a 30-minute extra time period (divided into two 15-minute
periods) would be played followed by a penalty-kick shootout, if
necessary. The team with the higher seed between the two Conference
finalists will host the Conference Championship game.
In the case of ties after regulation in the Eastern and Western
Conference Championship games and MLS Cup, 30 minutes of extra time
(divided into two 15-minute periods) would be played followed by a
penalty-kick shootout, if necessary, to determine the
winners.
MLS does not use the away goals rule in any playoff series.
Women's Professional
Soccer, which currently operates only in the U.S., conducts a
four-team stepladder tournament consisting of one-off knockout
matches. The third seed hosts the fourth seed in the first round.
The winner of that game advances to the "Super Semifinal", hosted
by the second seed. The Super Semifinal winner travels to the first
seed for the championship game.
International playoffs
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
European Football
Championship.
In the
qualification
playoffs for the
2006 FIFA World
Cup, for example:
Knockout competitions
In addition to their league competitions, most European footballing
nations also have
knockout
cup competitions - English football, for example, has the
FA Cup and the
League Cup. These competitions are open
to many teams—92 clubs compete for the League Cup, and hundreds
compete for the FA Cup. These competitions run concurrently with
the "regular season" league competitions and are not regarded as
playoffs.
Australian rules football
Playoffs are used in the
Australian Football League (AFL),
where they are known as
finals - although unlike North
American leagues, participating teams only come from within a
single division, and also consist of single matches rather than
series.
The top eight teams at the end of the regular season qualify for
the finals. Two teams are eliminated in each round until only two
teams remain (the participants in the
Grand
Final), the system is structured so that higher-ranked teams
are given a more advantageous draw.
The system used by the
AFL works as follows:
Week One
- First-ranked team vs fourth-ranked team (1st Qualifying
Final)
- Second-ranked team vs third-ranked team (2nd Qualifying
Final)
- Fifth-ranked team vs eighth-ranked team (1st Elimination
Final)
- Sixth-ranked team vs seventh-ranked team (2nd Elimination
Final)
The winners of the qualifying finals advance directly to week
three, while the losers of the elimination finals are eliminated.
The remaining four teams continue on to week two.
Week Two
- Loser of 2nd qualifying final vs winner of 2nd elimination
final (1st Semi-Final)
- Loser of 1st qualifying final vs winner of 1st elimination
final (2nd Semi-Final)
The two winners advance to week three while the losers are
eliminated.
Week Three
- Winner of 1st qualifying final vs winner of 1st semi-final (1st
Preliminary Final)
- Winner of 2nd qualifying final vs winner of 2nd semi-final (2nd
Preliminary Final)
The two
winners advance to the Grand Final, held in week four at the
Melbourne
Cricket Ground
.
Rugby league
Play-offs in National Rugby League
Play-offs are used to decide the premiers of the
National Rugby League (NRL) in
Australasia, where they are known as
finals (also as
semi finals or
semis) - although unlike North
American leagues, participating teams only come from within a
single division, and also consist of single matches rather than
series. The term play-off was used in the
NSWRL competition
to describe sudden death matches used as tie breakers for finals
qualification.
The top eight teams at the end of the regular season qualify for
the finals. Two teams are eliminated in each round until only two
teams remain (the participants in the
Grand
Final), the system is structured so that higher-ranked teams
are given a more advantageous draw.The
McIntyre Final Eight System,
used by the NRL but previously used by the AFL, works as
follows:
Week One
- First-ranked team vs eighth-ranked team (4th Qualifying
Final)
- Second-ranked team vs seventh-ranked team (3rd Qualifying
Final)
- Third-ranked team vs sixth-ranked team (2nd Qualifying
Final)
- Fourth-ranked team vs fifth-ranked team (1st Qualifying
Final)
After this round, the four winners are ranked in order of their
positions at the end of the regular season, as are the four losers.
The two highest ranked winners advance directly to week three,
while the two lowest ranked losers are eliminated. The remaining
four teams continue on to week two.
Week Two
- Third highest-ranked winner vs highest-ranked loser (1st Semi
Final)
- Fourth highest-ranked winner vs second highest-ranked loser
(2nd Semi Final)
The two winners advance to week three while the losers are
eliminated.
Week Three
- Highest-ranked winner from Week One vs winner of 1st semi-final
(1st Preliminary Final)
- Second highest-ranked winner from Week One vs winner of 2nd
semi-final (2nd Preliminary Final)
The two
winners advance to the Grand Final, held in week four at ANZ
Stadium
in Sydney
.
Play-offs in Super League
The European
Super League rugby league competition has used a play-off
system to decide its champion since 1998. The original play-off
format featured the
top
five highest-ranked teams after the regular season rounds.
Starting in 2002, the play-offs added an extra spot to allow
the top six to
qualify. With the addition of two new teams for the
2009 season, the play-offs expanded to
eight teams. The current
format works like this:
Week One
- Qualifying Play Off 1: 1st vs 4th (winner receives a bye to
week three)
- Qualifying Play Off 2: 2nd vs 3rd (winner receives a bye to
week three)
- Elimination Play Off 1: 5th vs 8th (loser goes
out)
- Elimination Play Off 2: 6th vs 7th (loser goes
out)
Week Two
- Preliminary Semi Final 1: QPO 1 Loser vs EPO 1 Winner
- Preliminary Semi Final 2: QPO 2 Loser vs EPO 2 Winner
Week Three
- Qualifying Semi Final 1: QPO 1 Winner vs PSF 1 or PSF
2 Winner *
- Qualifying Semi Final 2: QPO 2 Winner vs PSF 1 or PSF
2 Winner *
Week Four
- Grand
Final: Winners of Qualifying Semi-Finals meet at Old Trafford
* Opponents decided by the QPO winner (in Week 1) that finished
higher in the regular season
Other leagues
The two tiers directly below Super League, the
Championship and
Championship 1—formerly the National Leagues
until the 2009 addition of
a French
club to the previously all-British competition—still use the
old top six system to determine which teams are promoted between
its levels. Before the 2008 season, when Super League established a
franchising
system and ended automatic promotion and relegation in Super
League, the National Leagues also used this system to determine the
team that earned promotion to Super League. The top six system
involves the following:
Week One
- Elimination Semi-final A: 3rd vs 6th
- Elimination Semi-final B: 4th vs 5th
Week Two
- Elimination Final: Winners of Elimination Semi-final A vs
Winners of Elimination Semi-final B
- Qualification Match: 1st vs 2nd
Week Three
- Final Qualifier: Winners of Elimination Final vs Losers of
Qualification Match
Week Four
- Grand Final: Winners of Qualification Match vs Winners of Final
Qualifier (in Super League, at Old Trafford)
Rugby union
England
In the
Guinness Premiership the
top four qualify for the playoffs, where they are not referred to
by that name. The tournament is a
Shaughnessy playoff: the team who
finished first after the league stage plays the team who finished
fourth, while the team who finished second plays the team who
finished third in the Semi-Finals with the higher-ranked team
having homefield advantage.
The winners of these semi-finals qualify for
the Premiership Final at Twickenham
, where the winner will be champions of the
league.
France
The highest level of French rugby union, the
Top
14, will expand its playoffs starting with the current
2009–10 season from a
four-team format to six teams. In the new system, the top two teams
after the double round-robin season will receive a first-round bye.
The first-round matches will involve the third- through sixth-place
teams, bracketed so that 3 hosts 6 and 4 hosts 5. The winners then
advance to face the top two teams in the semifinals, which will
continue to be held at neutral sites.
The winners of these
semifinals qualify for the final at Stade de France
, where the winner will be champions of the league
and receive the Bouclier de
Brennus. Before 2009–10, the playoffs format was
identical to that of the Guinness Premiership with the exception of
neutral sites for the semifinals.
The second level,
Rugby Pro D2, uses
the standard four-team playoff, but involving the second- through
fifth-place teams, to determine the second of two teams promoted to
the next season's Top 14 (the champions earn automatic promotion).
The promotion semifinals are held at the home fields of the second-
and third-place teams, and the promotion final is held at a neutral
site.
Magners League
The
Magners League in the Celtic nations
of Ireland
, Scotland
, and Wales
will adopt a
four-team playoff, identical in format to that of the Guinness
Premiership, starting with its upcoming 2009–10 season.
New Zealand
Both domestic competitions in New Zealand rugby — the fully
professional
Air New Zealand Cup
and the nominally amateur
Heartland Championship — use a
playoff system to determine their champions, although the term
"playoff" is also not used in New Zealand.
Air New Zealand Cup
In the
2006 Air New Zealand
Cup, the first season of the revamped domestic structure in
that country, the top six teams after Round One of the competition
automatically qualified for the playoffs, officially known as Round
Three. Their relative seeding was determined by their standings at
the end of the Top Six phase of Round Two. The teams that finished
below the top six entered repechage pools in Round Two, with the
winner of each pool taking up one of the final two playoff slots.
The seventh seed was the repechage winner with the better record,
and the eighth seed was the other repechage winner.
From
2007 onward, the
former Rounds One and Two were collapsed into a single pool phase
of play in which all teams participate. In 2007 and
2008, the top eight teams advanced
to the playoffs; in the final season of the Air New Zealand Cup
format in
2009, the top
four advanced to the playoffs.
The playoffs in each season format have consisted of a
single-elimination tournament. The teams are bracketed in the
normal fashion, with the higher seed receiving home-field
advantage. In 2007 and 2008, the playoff was rebracketed after the
quarterfinals, with the highest surviving seed hosting the lowest
surviving seed and the second-highest surviving seed hosting the
third surviving seed. The winners of these semifinals qualify for
the Air New Zealand Cup Final, held at the home ground of the
higher surviving seed.
Heartland Championship
In the Heartland Championship, teams play for two distinct trophies
— the more prestigious Meads Cup and the Lochore Cup. The 12
Heartland Championship teams are divided into two pools for
round-robin play in Round One, with the top three in each pool
advancing to the Meads Cup and the bottom three dropping to the
Lochore Cup.
Round Two in both the Meads and Lochore Cups is an abbreviated
round-robin tournament, with each team playing only the teams it
did not play in Round One. The top four teams in the Meads Cup pool
at the end of Round Two advance to the Meads Cup semifinals; the
same applies for the Lochore Cup contestants.
The semifinals of both cups are seeded 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3, with the
higher seeds earning home field advantage. The semifinal winners
advance to their respective cup final, hosted by the higher
surviving seed.
Super Rugby
In May 2009,
SANZAR, which operates the
Super 14 competition, announced that it
would adopt a playoff when it expands to Super 15 for the 2011
season. The playoff will involve six teams—the winners of each of
three conferences, plus the three non-winners with the most
competition points without regard to conference affiliation.
The top two conference winners will receive a first-round bye; each
will face the winner of an elimination match involving two of the
four other playoff teams.
Playoffs in the Canadian Football League
The playoffs begin in November. After the regular season, the top
team from each division has an automatic home game berth in the
Division Final, and a bye week during the Division Semifinal. The
second-place team from each division hosts the third-place team in
the Division Semifinal, unless the fourth-place team from the
opposite division finishes with a better record. This "crossover
rule" does not come into play if the teams have identical
records—there are no tiebreakers. While the format means that it is
possible for two teams in the same division to play for the
Grey Cup, so far only one crossover team
has won the divisional semifinal game. The winners of each
Division's Semifinal game then travel to play the first place teams
in the Division Finals. Since 2005, the Division Semifinals and
Division Finals have been sponsored by
Scotiabank and are branded as the "Scotiabank
East Championship" and "Scotiabank West Championship". The two
division champions then face each other in the Grey Cup game, which
is held on the third or fourth Sunday of November.
The
Edmonton Eskimos are notable
for qualifying for the CFL playoffs every year from
1972 to
2005,
a record in North American pro sports. The Eskimos are also notable
for being the first crossover team to ever win the divisional
semifinal game.
Playoffs in Japan's Baseball Leagues
Before 1950 the original
Japanese Baseball League had been a
single-table league of franchises. After it was reorganized into
the
Nippon Professional
Baseball (NPB) system, a series of playoffs ensued between the
champions of the
Central League and
Pacific League.
Before the playoff system is placed in both professional leagues,
the Pacific League had applied a playoff system for twice. The
first is between 1973-1982, which they applied a split-season and
have an 5-game playoff between the winning teams of both halves of
season (unless a team won both of the half so that they need not to
play such games). And the second time was between 2004-2006, which
the top three team will play a two-staged stepladder knockout (3
games in first stage and 5 games in second stage) the decide the
League Champion (and the team playing in
Japan Series). After applied with such system,
the
Seibu Lions (now Saitama
Seibu Lions),
Chiba Lotte
Marines and
Hokkaido
Nippon Ham Fighters, which claimed the Pacific League Champion
under such system, were all able to clinch the following Japan
Series in that season. The success of such playoff system made
Central League, which never used
playoff system to decide League Champion, show interest in a
playoff system. In 2007, a new playoff system, named "Climax
Series", is introduced to both professional leagues in NPB to
decide the team playing in Japan Series. The Climax Series
basically applied the rule of the playoff system in Pacific League.
But unlike the previous playoff system, Climax Series does not
affact teams' standing nor individual records in regular season
which the previous playoff system in Pacific League did, this means
the winner of Japan Series may not be the winner of the League. The
Chunichi Dragons takes the
advantage of such system in the first Climax Series-implemented
season, finishing second in regular season, but swept
Hanshin Tigers and League Champion
Yomiuri Giants in Central League Climax
Series, and beat the Champion of Pacific League Climax Series
Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters to claim their first Japan Series in
52 years.
In 2008, the format of Climax Series will have a slight change, in
which the second stage will be played for 6-games, and in which the
League Champion will have an extra 1-game advantage.
See also
Notes and references
- For a detailed history of the evolution and development of the
finals system used by the Victorian Football League
(VFL) and, later, by the Australian Football League
(AFL) see Early VFL Final systems and
McIntyre
System.
- For a detailed history of the evolution and development of the
finals system used by the Victorian Football League
(VFL) and, later, by the Australian Football League
(AFL) see Early VFL Final systems and
McIntyre
System.
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