Insport, abye 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.[1]
Inknockout (elimination) tournaments, byes may be assigned either to reward the highest ranked participant(s), or randomly, to make a workingbracket if the number of participants is not apower of two (e.g. 16 or 32).
Inround-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 byFIDE 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."[2]
Similar to the round-robin context, in league sports with weekly regular-season play such asgridiron football orrugby, a team not scheduled to play on a given week or fixture (competition period) can be said to be on its "bye week".[3] 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 theNational Football League (NFL).
In a standardsingle-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 (if the number is not odd to start with). 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 (e.g. 16 or 32), to make a workingbracket 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 theNFL playoffs, for example, as of2020, the division-leader with the best record in each conference is given a bye to the second round.[4] TheCanadian Football League (CFL) 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 (16−12) to ensure that instead of six teams in the second round, eight advance (as the four byes avoid two of the four teams being eliminated).
In postseason tournaments sponsored by theKansas State High School Activities Association, a team which has a bye is awarded a win.
In the Provincial Championships ofGaelic 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 the2012 Connacht Senior Football Championship, so a quarter-final was not played byMayo. Mayo therefore advanced directly to the semi-final to await the winner of the game betweenLeitrim andLondon.
Eleven teams contested the2012 Leinster Senior Football Championship, so five teams were given first round byes. Three teams (Carlow,Dublin andWexford) 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 the2012 Munster Senior Football Championship[broken anchor], so two teams (Clare andCork) were permitted to advance to the semi-finals without playing a game in the quarter-finals.
Nine teams contested the2012 Ulster Senior Football Championship, so onlyCavan andDonegal played in the preliminary round, while the other seven advanced via bye to the quarter-finals without playing a game in the preliminary round.
While less common, byes can be offered for multiple rounds (e.g. a "double bye" directly into the third round), or starting in a later round (e.g. the top-ranked team in the first round is given a bye straight to the third round). A bye granted in a later round of the tournament eliminates the need for two byes in the previous round.
In the EnglishFA Cup, the football clubs in the top twoleague divisions receive two-round byes and enter in the third round "proper" (of eight); the two next-highest divisions' teams will have entered in the first round. Another example is theUEFA Europa League, where teams from thehighest-ranked nations enter the group stage directly without having to go through qualification.
TheWNBA, 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 theirplayoffs.
InNCAA Division I basketball, the2009 Big East men's basketball tournament introduced "double byes", as the conference invited all 16 members to participate for the first time (previously only the top twelve were invited). 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 therealignment of major conferences, "double byes" were no longer needed by the Big East after 2013, but were added by theSoutheastern Conference in 2013, theAtlantic Coast andAtlantic 10 conferences in 2014, theBig Ten in 2015, and afteranother round of conference realignment, theCAA andSun Belt in 2023, as well asthe 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. TheOVC offers "double byes" to the semifinals for their top two teams, while theWCC offers "triple byes" to their top two teams. The Sun Belt also utilized this format beginning in2025, with the top two teams being awarded "quintuple byes".
InEsports, "double byes" were most commonly seen during theESL Pro League event for theCounter-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 aMajor-style format. "Triple byes" were used forChina's professionalLeague of Legends league, known as theLPL, up until 2025, and were awarded to the top two teams during a split's regular season. Up until 2020, they were also used forSouth Korea'sLCK, with the top team in their split regular season automatically making the Final as a result.
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, theMajor League Baseball playoffs has included ten teams consisting of six division winners and four wild card teams (the top-ranked non-division-winners). The first round of the playoffs consists of twowild-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.
TheFA Cup also has certain teams compete in up to 6 preliminary rounds to qualify for the first round "proper".
Another example is theNCAA 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",[5] though the play-in round and all eight of those teams are officially part of the tournament.
Certain professionalrugby andgridiron 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. (School teams may also have non-competing weeks, but these are scheduled by individual schools/conferences and more commonly termed "open dates" or "idle weeks".)
EachNFL 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.[6]
During the1960 and1966 seasons, the league had an odd number of teams due to expansion. Each week during those seasons, one team had a bye, including one team each in the first and last week of the season; thus, because they had to play all their games with no break in the middle, those two teams effectively hadno byes. TheAmerican Football League (which at the time was a completely separate league, but later became theAmerican Football Conference) also had an odd number of teams in1966 and1967 following the addition of theMiami Dolphins, leaving each team with two bye weeks.
The NFL returned to the use of the bye week in1990[7] so as to extend the 16-game regular season schedule to span 17 weeks to increase the number of viewable games for television contracts. The1993 season spanned 18 weeks with each team having 2 bye weeks; it went back to 17 weeks with a bye week the next season through2020. Since2021, the season is 18 weeks long with a bye week and an additional 17th game.
Between1999 and2001, the NFL had an odd number of teams (31) as a result of theCleveland Brownsre-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 theSeptember 11 attacks. The league returned to having an even number of teams (32) in2002 with the addition of theHouston 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,[8] the NFL may revise bye weeks assignments in order to reschedule the delayed game, making the postponement week those teams' new "bye week":
The media may also sarcastically refer to a team having a "bye week" or a "second bye" if that team is playing an especially poor team, and is all but assured of a win.[citation needed]
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.
Historically, bye weeks in the NFL were considered beneficial, providing teams an opportunity to rest and strategize, potentially improving their performance in the subsequent game. Studies from 2002 to 2010 indicated that teams returning from a bye week had a significant 2.2-point advantage over teams without this break. However, this advantage has significantly diminished over time. Data from 2012 to 2023 shows this advantage reduced to just 0.3 points.[13]
The shift in bye week efficacy has been attributed to changes in NFL rules. Specifically, a 2011 amendment to thecollective bargaining agreement mandated that teams could not use the entire bye week for practice; players were required to have at least four days off. This change suggests that the previous advantage was not solely due to rest and relaxation but was also influenced by the additional preparation time teams once had.[13]
Traditionally, theCFL has had nine teams and required bye weeks. Beginning 2018, each team has three bye weeks and 18 games over a 21-week regular season.[14]
In most seasons, (from 2014 to 2017 and prior to 2007), each team has two bye weeks during the 20 week 18-game regular season. When the league had only 8 teams, the league usually had no bye weeks. However between 2007 and 2013, the league had one bye per team over in two weeks in August (4 teams would have a bye during week 6 and the other 4 teams would have a bye on week 7).
In Australia'sNational Rugby League (NRL), each team has three byes each season. With the competition expanding to an odd number of teams from the2023 NRL season, one club is required to have a bye each round. During the representative period of the season (such as theState of Origin), multiple byes are scheduled to the clubs that are expected to have the most players involved in the representative match, in the round preceding the representative fixture, to allow those clubs to sufficiently rest those players and prevent them from fielding a weakened side. On the competition ladder, teams are typically awarded two points (equivalent to a win) during their bye week.
TheAustralian Football League, which comprises an even number of clubs, gives each club a bye week in mid-season[a], as well as a bye the week before thefinals. In1915,1919to 1924,1942and 1943,1991to 1994 and2011, when there were an odd number of clubs competing, each club was given two byes.
In both leagues, and under many other professional and amateur sports leagues in Australia, higher placed teams do not earn byes duringfinals, but instead the opportunity not to be eliminated by losing their first-round match (also called a double chance). This practice is common in Australia, but it is not used in most other countries, to earn an easier passage to the Grand Final as reward for finishing higher on the ladder. This is different from a double elimination format, in which a team has to lose both in the tournament and the repechage to be eliminated.
TheA-League Men also had bye rounds in the2019-20 season and the2024-25 season[15] due to an odd amount of teams being in the competition afterexpanding the amount of teams in the league. The top two placed regular season teams earn a bye into the semi finals of theA League Finals.[16]
In a variation of the round-robin case, at certain high-level competitions inartistic gymnastics, teams cycle through the apparatuses in an "Olympic Order" with scheduled byes in between.[17]
As an example, theNCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships has 36 teams with six teams apiece at six regional sites, with 12 advancing to two semifinal rounds of six that decide participants for the final "Super Six".[18] In each of these nine sextets, each team competes during four of six "rotations" with the other two as byes – scheduled before the uneven bars and the floor exercise. For example, Semifinal II of the 2018 championships operated as follows[19]
| Rotation | Vault | BYE | Bars | Beam | BYE | Floor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Utah | Kentucky | Florida | Oklahoma | California | Washington |
| 2 | Washington | Utah | Kentucky | Florida | Oklahoma | California |
| 3 | California | Washington | Utah | Kentucky | Florida | Oklahoma |
| 4 | Oklahoma | California | Washington | Utah | Kentucky | Florida |
| 5 | Florida | Oklahoma | California | Washington | Utah | Kentucky |
| 6 | Kentucky | Florida | Oklahoma | California | Washington | Utah |
In aSwiss-system tournament ofchess with an odd number of players, one player gets a bye in each round, but not all players will get a bye (as there are fewer rounds than there are players).FIDE specifies that "pairing-allocated" byes in their sanctioned chess tournaments may not be awarded multiple times to the same participant. Contrasting use in some single-elimination brackets, the byes are to be allocated to the lowest-rated eligible player in the pool.[20]