Sports league

A sports league is an organization that coordinates teams or competitors, schedules recurring contests, and determines standings or champions under shared rules.

League table: A ranking of competitors based on results across a competition. League standings summarize performance across scheduled matches.
League commissioner: An executive responsible for administering and representing a sports league. The commissioner commonly enforces league rules and oversees its operations.
Knockout tournament: A competition format in which a loss eliminates an entrant from further play. Unlike league play, a knockout format can decide a champion through a short elimination bracket.
Sports fandom: Emotional and social attachment to a sport, team, or athlete. Recurring league seasons give fans continuing teams and rivalries to follow.
Round-robin tournament: A competition format in which each entrant plays every other entrant, usually once or more. Many leagues use round-robin schedules to compare teams directly.
Draft (sports): A process through which teams select eligible players in a structured order. A draft can distribute new talent among league teams.
Sports cup competition: A sports contest, often organized as a knockout tournament, that awards a cup to its champion. Cup competitions can run alongside a league without determining its season standings.
Sports rivalry: A sustained competitive antagonism between athletes, teams, or fan communities. League schedules repeatedly stage matchups that can deepen rivalries.
Promotion and relegation: A system that moves teams between divisions according to their performance. It links league divisions through results rather than fixed membership.
Free agency: A system allowing eligible athletes to negotiate contracts with teams without being assigned by a draft or transfer. Free agency governs player movement within many professional leagues.

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