Bye (sports)
In sport, a bye is the preferential status of a player or team that is automatically advanced to the next round of a tournament without having to play an opponent in an early round.
In knockout tournaments, byes may be assigned either to reward the highest ranked participant, or randomly, to make a working bracket if the number of participants is not a power of two.
In round-robin tournaments, usually one competitor gets a bye in each round when there are an odd number of competitors, as it is impossible for all competitors to play in the same round. However, over the whole tournament, each plays the same number of games as well as sitting out for the same number of rounds. The "Berger Tables" used by FIDE for chess tournaments, provide pairings for even numbered pools and simply state that "Where there is an odd number of players, the highest number counts as a bye."
Similar to the round-robin context, in league sports with weekly regular-season play such as gridiron football or rugby, a team not scheduled to play on a given week or fixture can be said to be on its "bye week". Byes are necessary if there is an odd number of teams, but may also be used with an even number of teams, for example to provide rest breaks, as has been done in the National Football League.
Elimination tournaments
In a standard single-elimination tournament, each round has half the number of teams of the preceding round. Thus the finals will have two, the semi-finals will have four, the quarter-finals will have eight, etc. Thus, tournaments with competitors numbering a power of two can have a standard bracket in which all teams are paired up with the loser of each match eliminated and the winner moving on to the next round until only one champion remains.However, if the number of teams is not a power of two, a simple elimination tournament would eventually produce a round with an odd number of teams. For example, a tournament of nine teams could only have four matches in the first round, while a simple tournament of ten teams would produce a second round with five teams, meaning only two matches could occur.
Thus, if the number of participants is not a power of two, to make a working bracket byes are provided to automatically move certain participants into a later round without requiring them to compete in an earlier one.
When participants are ranked, participants with the highest ranking going into the tournament are given a bye to the second round, as it is generally seen as an advantage to be assured entry into a later round. In the NFL playoffs, for example, as of, the division-leader with the best record in each conference is given a bye to the second round. The Canadian Football League also grants a bye to its two division winners, directly to the division finals as four other teams compete in a semi-final week. In other tournaments where teams are unranked, a random draw may be used to determine the byes.
The number of teams offered a bye is generally designed to ensure that the next round consists of a power-of-two number of teams so the tournament can proceed as a simple single-elimination tournament from that round onward.
If the byes are all single first-round byes into the second round of a tournament, the number of byes required is the difference between the number of teams and the next-highest power of two. For example, a 12-team tournament will require four byes to ensure that instead of six teams in the second round, eight advance.
In postseason tournaments sponsored by the Kansas State High School Activities Association, a team which has a bye is awarded a win.
Examples from Gaelic football
In the Provincial Championships of Gaelic football, some teams receive a bye due to the irregular number of teams competing in each province. The different numbers resulted in different byes alignments in each Provincial Championship.For example, below is an assessment of the 2012 Provincial Championships, and their use of the "bye".
Seven teams contested the 2012 Connacht Senior Football Championship, so a quarter-final was not played by Mayo. Mayo therefore advanced directly to the semi-final to await the winner of the game between Leitrim and London.
Eleven teams contested the 2012 Leinster Senior Football Championship, so five teams were given first round byes. Three teams played winners of the three preliminary matches, while the other two played each other in the quarter-finals without playing a game in the preliminary round.
Six teams contested the 2012 Munster Senior Football Championship, so two teams were permitted to advance to the semi-finals without playing a game in the quarter-finals.
Nine teams contested the 2012 Ulster Senior Football Championship, so only Cavan and Donegal played in the preliminary round, while the other seven advanced via bye to the quarter-finals without playing a game in the preliminary round.
"Double byes"
While less common, byes can be offered for multiple rounds, or starting in a later round. A bye granted in a later round of the tournament eliminates the need for two byes in the previous round.In the English FA Cup, the football clubs in the top two league divisions receive two-round byes and enter in the third round "proper" ; the two next-highest divisions' teams will have entered in the first round. Another example is the UEFA Europa League, where teams from the highest-ranked nations enter the group stage directly without having to go through qualification.
The WNBA, from 2016 to 2021, had granted double byes to the league's top two seeds, while the next two seeds got first-round byes for their playoffs.
In NCAA Division I basketball, the 2009 Big East men's basketball tournament introduced "double byes", as the conference invited all 16 members to participate for the first time. To limit the number of games each round to four, the four highest seeded teams were advanced to the third round of competition, the 5th-8th seeded teams were given byes to the second round, and the bottom eight competed the first day.
Due to the realignment of major conferences, "double byes" were no longer needed by the Big East after 2013, but were added by the Southeastern Conference in 2013, the Atlantic Coast and Atlantic 10 conferences in 2014, the Big Ten in 2015, and after another round of conference realignment, the CAA and Sun Belt in 2023, as well as the American in 2024, as each expanded beyond 12 teams. Although the Atlantic Coast and Big Ten both expanded beyond 16 teams, they have instead opted to eliminate the worst-performing teams in each conference instead of adding additional rounds.
Various other conferences limit the number of games in each round to two. The OVC offers "double byes" to the semifinals for their top two teams, while the WCC offers "triple byes" to their top two teams. The Sun Belt also utilized this format beginning in 2025, with the top two teams being awarded "quintuple byes".
In Esports, "double byes" were most commonly seen during the ESL Pro League event for the Counter-Strike series of games, awarded to the teams who won each of the groups during the group stage; these were discontinued ahead of 2025 as EPL transitioned to a Major-style format. "Triple byes" were used for China's professional League of Legends league, known as the LPL, up until 2025, and were awarded to the top two teams during a split's regular season. Up until 2020, they were also used for South Korea's LCK, with the top team in their split regular season automatically making the Final as a result.
Hidden byes (play-in games)
In certain tournaments, the byes are somewhat disguised. When more teams are given first-round byes than actually compete in the first round, these first games may be referred to as "play-in" games and might not be formally labelled as a tournament round.From 2012 to 2019 and 2021, the Major League Baseball playoffs has included ten teams consisting of six division winners and four wild card teams. The first round of the playoffs consists of two wild-card games: single-game matches in which the four wild-card teams are reduced to two. The winners move on to the Divisional series with the six division winners for an eight-team, three-round tournament. Although this is billed as adding two extra "one-game showdowns" to the post-season, it could also be viewed as adding a fourth round to the ten-team tournament with six byes for the division winners.
The FA Cup also has certain teams compete in up to 6 preliminary rounds to qualify for the first round "proper".
Another example is the NCAA basketball tournament, which since 2011 has had 68 teams, effectively granting 60 byes, while eight teams compete in the "First Four" games for the remaining four spots in the round of 64. From 2011 to 2015, the "First Four" was considered the first round; the round of 64, played on Thursday and Friday, was called the "second round"; the round of 32 was then called the "third round", consisting of games played on Saturday and Sunday. In 2016, the naming reverted to the round of 64 being the "first round" once again, and the round of 32 being the "second round", though the play-in round and all eight of those teams are officially part of the tournament.
Bye weeks in football leagues
Certain professional rugby and gridiron football leagues use the term "bye week" - which really means nothing but "off week" - for any week during the regular season in which a team does not play a game.United States
Each NFL team has one "bye week" during a regular season; this is placed on the team's schedule, usually falling between Week 4 and Week 12 inclusive.During the and seasons, the league had an odd number of teams due to expansion. In each week during those seasons, one team had a bye: with one team each in the first and last week of the season having a bye, this meant they were required to play all their games with no break in the middle, meaning those two teams effectively had no byes.
The American Football League also had an odd number of teams in 1966 and 1967 following the addition of the Miami Dolphins, with each team having two bye weeks.
The NFL returned to the use of the bye week in so as to extend the 16-game regular season schedule to span 17 weeks to increase the number of viewable games for television contracts. The season spanned 18 weeks with each team having two bye weeks; it went back to 17 weeks with a bye week the next season through. Since, the season is 18 weeks long with a bye week and an additional 17th game.
Between and, the NFL had an odd number of teams as a result of the Cleveland Browns re-entering the league. Each week during these three seasons featured at least one team with its bye week, but the 2001 season also added an additional impromptu league-wide bye the weekend after the September 11 attacks. The league returned to having an even number of teams in with the addition of the Houston Texans, and implemented the current bye week system.
In the rare case of a game postponement that cannot be made up within the same week, the NFL may revise bye weeks assignments in order to reschedule the delayed game, making the postponement week those teams' new "bye week":
- Due to Hurricane Ike in, the Baltimore Ravens' and the Houston Texans' Week 2 matchup in Houston was postponed, which also impacted the Cincinnati Bengals' schedule. The Bengals–Texans game was moved to Week 8, the originally scheduled bye week for both teams. This allowed the Ravens–Texans game to be rescheduled in Week 10, the Ravens' original bye Week.
- Due to Hurricane Irma in, the Miami Dolphins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers Week 1 game was rescheduled to Week 11, the originally scheduled bye week for both teams.
- Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, several postponements occurred during. The first one that saw the league move games during bye weeks involved the Week 4 matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans, which also impacted the Baltimore Ravens' schedule. The Steelers-Titans game was moved to Week 7 due to a rash of COVID-19 cases among the Titans organization. The Steelers matchup with the Ravens was moved to Week 8 when they both had scheduled byes and would allow the Steelers and Titans to make up their matchup; the Ravens bye week was moved to Week 7. Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, when asked about the schedule change, referenced the aforementioned changes with the Texans and Bengals in 2008 and did not expect the changes to affect his team's planning.
Ever since the NFL started Thursday Night Football, teams that play on Thursday nights are sometimes referred to as having a "mini bye" until their next game, which is usually about 10 - 11 days away.