The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas. It consists of 16 full-member universities in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
Throughout its history, the National Football League (NFL) and other rival American football leagues have used several different formats to determine their league champions, including a period of inter-league matchups to determine a true national champion.
The National Football League (NFL) playoffs is the single-elimination tournament to determine the annual league champion. The four-round tournament is held after the league's regular season. Since the 2020 season, seven teams from each of the league's two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season winning percentage, with a tie-breaking procedure if required. The top team in each conference receives a first-round bye, automatically advancing to the next round. The tournament culminates in the Super Bowl, the league's championship game, competed between teams from each conference.
In some North American sports, the phrase games behind or games back refers to a common way to reflect the gap between a leading team and another team in a sports league, conference, or division.
In games and sport, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is any method used to determine a winner or to rank participants when there is a tie - meaning two or more parties have achieved a same score or result. And a tiebreaker provides the additional criterion or set of criteria to distinguish between the tied participants and establish a clear ranking or winner. In some sports, it is known as a countback.
The SEC Championship Game is an annual American football game that has determined the Southeastern Conference's season champion since 1992. For its first 32 seasons, the championship game pitted the SEC East Division regular season champion against the West Division regular season champion. With the SEC eliminating football divisions after the 2023 season, future games will feature the top two teams in the conference standings. Since 2007, the game has typically been played on the first Saturday of December, and the game has been held in Atlanta since 1994, first at the Georgia Dome, and at Mercedes-Benz Stadium since 2017.
A wild card 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 the records of teams which did not qualify directly by winning a division or conference.
In a group tournament, unlike a knockout tournament, there is no scheduled decisive final match. Instead, all the competitors are ranked by examining the results of all the matches played in the tournament. Typically, points are awarded for each match, with competitors ranked based either on total number of points or average points per match. A special type of group tournament is the Round-robin tournament, in which each player plays against every other player.
A one-game playoff, sometimes known as a pennant playoff, tiebreaker game or knockout game, is a tiebreaker in certain sports—usually but not always professional—to determine which of two teams, tied in the final standings, will qualify for a post-season tournament. Such a playoff is either a single game or a short series of games.
In sports, strength of schedule (SOS) refers to the difficulty or ease of a team's/person's opponent as compared to other teams/persons. This is especially important if teams in a league do not play each other the same number of times.
The 2008 Big 12 Conference football season saw ties is both northern and southern divisions, with tiebreakers used to select divisional representatives for the 2008 Big 12 Championship Game, in which Oklahoma won 62–21 against Missouri to qualify for the 2009 BCS National Championship Game.
The Big Ten Football Championship Game is a college football game held by the Big Ten Conference each year to determine the conference's season champion. The game, held after the regular season has been completed, currently matches the top two teams in the conference standings. It is typically held the first Saturday of December, although in 2020 it was played on the third Saturday of December due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis has been the site of the championship game since its inception in 2011 and is scheduled to host through 2028. Since 2017, the game's official title has been the Big Ten College Football Championship Game Presented by Discover following a sponsorship deal with Discover Financial.
The Pac-12 Football Championship Game was an annual college football game held by the Pac-12 Conference to determine the season's conference champion. The game from the 2011–2021 seasons had the champion of the North Division against the champion of the South Division. The inaugural game was held during the 2011 season. In 2022 and 2023, the two teams with the highest conference winning percentage faced off in the championship game.
The Mountain West Conference Football Championship Game is an annual postseason college football game played to determine the champion of the Mountain West Conference (MW).
The American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game is a college football game currently held by the American Athletic Conference each year to determine the conference's season champion. The inaugural game was held on December 5, 2015, at 12:00 pm ET.
The 2020 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament was a postseason men's basketball tournament for the Pac-12 Conference, scheduled to be played March 11–14, 2020, at T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It was canceled after the first round due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The winner of the tournament was to have received the conference's automatic bid to the 2020 NCAA tournament.
The 2020 Big South men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament that ended the 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season of the Big South Conference. It was held from March 3 through March 8, 2020 at various campus sites. The Winthrop Eagles received the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament after defeating Hampton 76–68 in the championship game.
The 2022 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball tournament was a postseason men's basketball tournament for the Pac-12 Conference held March 9–12, 2022, at T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The tournament winner, the Arizona Wildcats, received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
The 2024 Patriot League Men's Basketball Tournament was the conference postseason tournament for the Patriot League. The tournament was held March 5–13, 2024 at campus sites of the higher seeds. The winner received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
