In 2006, the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers finished tied with records of 88–74 in the National League West.
The team with the better head-to-head record (the 2001 Astros, 2005 Yankees, and 2006 Padres) was declared the division champion, thus receiving a better seed in the postseason.
On September 23, 1908, Johnny Evers of the Chicago Cubs capitalized on a base-running mistake by young Fred Merkle of the New York Giants to invalidate a game-ending winning run.
In 2008, the Chicago White Sox ended the season 1⁄2 game behind the Minnesota Twins for the American League Central division title.
The fractional difference was due to the September 13 game between the White Sox and the Detroit Tigers, which had been rained out and not yet rescheduled.
However, before the merger of the NFL and the American Football League (AFL) in 1970, it was possible to have a playoff game if two teams tied for a division title.
The Jets, who had won the East outright, defeated the Raiders and went on to stun the heavily favored NFL champion Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.
This made tie games, a fairly common occurrence in football before overtime was introduced in 1974, somewhat more valuable to teams compared to the half-win they are considered today.
Both the NFL and AFL had provisions prior to their merger to allow for two weeks of one-game playoffs if three or four teams tied for a division title.
Despite the relatively high probability of such a tie happening in a 12 or 14-game schedule compared to a longer season, this scenario never took place prior to the abolition of one-game playoffs.
The closest a three-way tie for a division came to happening was in 1957 when the Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers, and Baltimore Colts all entered the final week of the season with identical 7–4 records.
While there are no one-game playoffs in the NFL today, current scheduling practices (which include exclusively intradivisional matchups at the end of the season), combined with the NFL's short schedule, make it possible that the last week of the regular season will include a winner-take-all game between two teams, which has the effect and feel of a one-game playoff.
For example, the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys entered the final week of the 2011 NFL season tied at 8–7 for first place in the NFC East.
The teams, scheduled to play in Dallas, were both out of contention for a wild card berth, meaning the winner of the game would win the division, while the loser would miss the playoffs altogether.
Like in the NFL, one-game tiebreaking playoffs were a regular feature in the early years of the provincial competitions that were eventually consolidated into today's Canadian Football League in 1958.
The first two games (a three team playoff) were played during the 1947–48 season, the league's second year in existence, when it was still known as the Basketball Association of America.
The next time two teams finished tied for the final playoff spot in a division, the ABA did hold a tie-breaker game.
Under current rules, a tie between two teams for a conference's final playoff berth (this being the second wild card seed of a conference under the current format) can only be broken by the following tie-breakers: Prior to the 2005 introduction of the shootout in the NHL, ROW was simply referred to as "wins" for tiebreaker purposes.
In its modern era, the NHL has provisionally scheduled a one-game playoff near the end of the regular season on two occasions.
The NHL's most significant rival in its modern era, the World Hockey Association, actually held a one-game playoff.
Had the NHL tiebreakers been in effect, the Oilers would have qualified for the playoffs since they had superior goal differential — critics argued that the real reason the league ordered the playoff was that they wanted to give the Fighting Saints an extra chance to qualify because they were playing in a large, brand new arena whereas the Oilers were playing in a small and antiquated facility.
The Edmonton Eskimos and Regina Capitals ended the 1921-22 season of the Western Canada Hockey League with identical records of 14–9–1 with the sole tie being between the two teams.
In case of a tie at the top of the standings, rules called for a one-game playoff, with the winner claiming the conference's automatic bid.
The Ivy League held its first postseason tournaments for both men and women at the end of the 2016–17 season, with the top four teams in the conference standings participating at a predetermined site.
Otherwise, the teams' best last stone draw records are compared to determine playoff seeding and final pool or tournament ranking.
In the 1993 PBA Governors' Cup, there were two such games: to break the deadlock for the second seed, in which the winner faced the team with the best semifinals record.
A one-game playoff is at least theoretically possible in association football league competitions, where two teams competing for a significant prize are tied in all tie-breaking criteria.
Today, most league competitions will use extra time and/or a penalty shootout to settle drawn one-game playoffs if needed.
For example, the Premier League announced that there would be a one-game playoff for third place between Arsenal and Chelsea if the two teams had finished exactly level at the end of the 2012–13 season.
[14] Before tiebreak rules such as goal difference were utilised, the Scottish league championships in 1891 and 1905 were determined by one game playoffs.