Season ( sports ) In an organized sports league , a season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session . For example , in Major League Baseball , one season lasts approximately from April 1 to October 1 ; in Association football , it is generally from August until May ( although in some countries , especially those in Scandinavia and North America , the season starts in the spring and finishes in the autumn , due either to weather conditions encountered during the winter or to limit conflict with locally more popular football codes ) . A year can often be broken up into several distinct sections ( sometimes themselves called seasons ) . These are : Preseason . Most team sports have a period of training to recover fitness levels , followed by exhibition game s ( commonly known as " " friendlies " " in football ( soccer ) lexicon ) prior to the start of their regular seasons ( " pre - season training " and " pre - season " games ) . The game results do not count in the season standings of the teams , so they serve conveniently to test player candidates and to practice teamwork under game conditions . They may be used to promote the team effectively both at home and elsewhere . For some teams a pre - season overseas tour may be profitable , even lucrative . For some leagues , overseas games may promote their sport or their league to new audiences . In some sports there may be a pre - season curtain - raiser or " supercup " competition — for example , in England , the previous season ' s winners of the FA Cup and Premier League play one another for the Community Shield before the start of the regular season . Part of the profits from this game are divided up amongst all teams participating in both competitions the year before , to donate to charities and good causes in their local area while the rest is given to national charities and good causes by The FA itself . Regular season . In almost every sport the term " regular season " would refer to the sport ' s league competition . In most countries the league is played in a double round - robin format , where every team plays every other team twice , once at their home venue , and once away at the oppositions venue as visitors . The results over all games are accumulated and when every team has completed its full schedule of games , a winner is declared . In addition to the regular season league competition , many sports also operate an elimination cup tournament . A cup tournament can either take the form of a league cup , where members of a league competition are seeded using their standings from the previous year , or an association cup which is open to teams playing the sport at all levels providing they are affiliated to the National body for that sport . These competitions usually run alongside the regular league competitions , though often there is a small overlap where the cup either begins slightly before or ends slightly after the regular season . It is not uncommon for the cup final to be held the week after the last games of the league . In such a set - up it is usual for the top division teams to be given a bye into the last few rounds while the smaller teams are randomly drawn against each other in the early rounds . This set - up allows for the possibility of relative minnows and small - town teams to become giant - killers and eliminate one of the big Nationally recognised clubs from the competition . In North American , and some Australian sports , the cup tournament is held immediately after rather than during the regular season and using the seedings from it . Also , in these sports , the league champion is determined by the cup competition , known as playoffs in North America and " finals " in Australia . In all four major US sports , winning the cup final ( Super Bowl , World Series , NBA Finals and Stanley Cup ) is vastly more important than winning the league . Similarly , in most major Australian sports , winning the cup final , most often called a Grand Final ( as in the AFL , NRL and A - League ) , is more important than winning the regular season . However , that country has a tradition of presenting special trophies to teams that top the regular - season table ( called " minor premiers " in the AFL and NRL , and " premiers " in the A - League ) . Leagues that play sports that primarily developed in North America such as Japanese professional baseball and professional baseball is organized similarly , while sports that developed primarily in Europe such as top flight of association football uses the traditional European double round - robin format with no playoffs . In North America , this may be in part due to the unusual way in which that region ' s sports leagues are scheduled . Rather than every team playing all others twice , teams may play more games against local rivals than teams in other parts of the country . For example , the NBA ' s Los Angeles Lakers will play the Los Angeles Clippers ( a team within their division , a sub division of the conference ) four times in a regular season , while both will only play the Boston Celtics , who are in the opposite Eastern Conference , twice . Part of this is due to the vast geographic distances between some teams in North America - measured in a straight line Los Angeles is 2 , 606 miles ( 4 , 194 kilometers ) from Boston , for instance - and a desire to limit travel expenses . In the scheduling system used in the NFL , it is possible for two teams to only meet every four years . Major League Baseball has the most uneven schedules of all the four major North American sports . In MLB the conferences are called leagues instead , but have exactly the same effect as conferences ( as with all North American sports leagues , leagues , conferences and division are not based on skill , but instead geography , history and rivalries ) . Teams play 19 games against each of teams in their own division each year but will only play 18 games total against all of the teams in the other league . Because each of the interleague matchups is part of a 3 - game series , teams will play no games at all against most teams from the other league . In Australia , the two largest football leagues , the AFL ( Australian rules football ) and NRL ( rugby league ) , both grew out of competitions held within a single city ( respectively Melbourne and Sydney ) and only began expanding to the rest of the country when inexpensive air travel made a national league possible . These leagues use a single table instead of being split into divisions . Many association football leagues in Latin America have a very different system . Because most Latin American countries never had a football cup competition , they instead split their season into two parts , typically known as the Apertura and Clausura ( Spanish for " opening " and " closing " ) . Most countries that use this system , Argentina being one notable example , crown separate league champions for each part of the season , using only league play . A few others , such as Uruguay , crown one champion at the end of a playoff involving top teams from each half of the season . Mexico operates its Apertura and Clausura as separate competitions that both end in playoffs . A system similar to the Apertura and Clausura developed independently in Philippine professional basketball , with formerly two , now three tournaments ( called " conferences " ) in one season , with each conference divided into an " elimination round " ( the regular season ) and the playoffs in the North American sense . Winning the playoffs is the ultimate goal of every team for every conference ; while there is no season championship , winning all conferences within a single season is rare and has only happened four times 1975 , and has not happened since 1996 . The elimination round and playoffs setup has permeated down to the local level and in most team sports , although seasons are not divided into conferences . Postseason . Many sports leagues have playoffs that occur after the regular season is complete . A subset of the teams enter into a playoff tournament , generally a pre - determined number with better overall records ( more wins , fewer losses ) during the regular season . There are many variations used to determine the champion , the league ' s top prize . European leagues have also started holding playoffs ( called " play - offs " ) after a double round - robin " regular season " . The Football League started its promotion play - offs in 1987 , with the third up to the sixth - ranked teams participating for the final promotion berth ( the two top teams are automatically promoted ) . Elsewhere , relegation playoffs are also held to determine which teams would be relegated to the lower leagues . One prominent top - level association football league , the Eredivisie of the Netherlands , uses two different playoffs — one for relegation purposes , and the other to determine one of the league ' s entrants in the following season ' s UEFA Europa League . In Superleague Greece , which currently has two places in the UEFA Champions League and three in the Europa League , the teams that finish second through fifth in the regular season enter a home - and - away " playoff " mini - league that determines the country ' s second Champions League place , and the points at which the other three teams enter the Europa League . Although rugby union did not become professional until 1995 , that sport has a long history of playoffs , primarily in France and the Southern Hemisphere . The French national championship , now known as Top 14 , has conducted a championship final since its inception in 1892 , and first used multiple rounds of playoffs in 1920 . South Africa ' s Currie Cup has determined its champions by playoffs since 1968 , and New Zealand ' s National Provincial Championship , the top level of which is now known as the ITM Cup , has used playoffs since its inception in 1976 . Argentina ' s Nacional de Clubes has determined its champion by playoffs since its inception in 1993 . Currently , two separate competitions feed into the Nacional , the Torneo de la URBA ( for Buenos Aires clubs , held since 1899 ) and Torneo del Interior ( for the rest of the country ) ; both use playoffs to determine their champions . Super Rugby , involving regional franchises from Australia , New Zealand , and South Africa , has used playoffs to determine its champions since its creation as Super 12 in 1996 . By contrast , other European countries were slow to adopt playoffs in rugby union . The English Premiership only began playoffs in 1999 – 2000 , and did not use them to determine the league champion until 2002 - 03 . The Celtic League , now known as Pro12 , resisted a playoff system even longer ; its champions were determined solely by league play from its inception in 2001 – 02 until playoffs began in 2009 – 10 . When the UEFA Champions League reformatted in 1993 , it added a " knockout stage " involving four teams that finished at the top two places in their respective groups . Like North American sports leagues , this setup prevented some participants from facing each other , necessitating a two - round knockout stage to determine the champions . It has since been expanded to the 4 - round knockout stage today . The Copa Libertadores has applied a knockout stage since the 1988 tournament , expanding to the current four - round format next season . All intercontinental club football competitions now feature a knockout stage . Off - season . The off - season , vacation time , or close season is the time of year when there is no official competition . Although upper management continues to work , the athletes will take much vacation time off . Also , various events such as drafts , transfers and important off - season free agent signings occur . Generally , most athletes stay in shape during the off - season in preparation for the next season . Certain new rules in the league may be made during this time , and will become enforced during the next regular season . As most countries which have a league in a particular sport will operate their regular season at roughly the same time as the others , international tournaments may be arranged during the off season . For example , most European football league club competitions run from July or August to May , subsequently major international competitions such as the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Football Championship are organised to occur in June and July . Seasons by league . The table represents typical seasons for some leagues by month . Blank or white denotes off - season and pre - season months and solid colors mark the rest of the year . Leagues in the same sport use the same color .