of time, but later abandoned it. The game was usually played immediately preceding the championship game, but was not nationally televised. For most of its years, the NCAA featured consolation games in both regional play and within the Final Four. However, as the field expanded beyond 32 teams, the game lost significance. Eliminating the game also allowed the losing teams to return home rather than remaining in the Final Four city for an additional two days to play a game holding less interest than the championship. The National Football League had a consolation game, the Playoff Bowl, from to , which pitted the second-place team in each of the two conferences (based on regular season record from 1960 to ) against each other in Miami, Florida. Through the 1966 season, the only scheduled NFL playoff game was the Championship Game (with unscheduled conference tie-breaker games as necessary; only once during the 1960s, in 1965, was this required. In , the NFL playoff field expanded to four to include a division championship, with its first-round losers going to the Playoff Bowl, which had become increasingly unpopular with participating players, fans and officials. With interest declining for a third-place game, and an eight-team playoff field arriving with the AFL–NFL merger in , the Playoff Bowl was abandoned with minimal objection. The Philippine Basketball Association, from its inception, also had third place games preceding its conferences' playoff finals until this was removed the end of the season. Criticism of use in the Page playoff system Third place playoffs are especially controversial when they are used in tournaments that use a Page playoff system since there is only one semi-final game in this format. Critics argue that in such a formula, the loser of the semi-final should simply be awarded third place, while proponents of the third place game argue that without it, the importance of the medal round is lowered since the top two teams heading into the Page playoff would otherwise be guaranteed a medal: this argument carries less weight in tournaments where medals are not awarded, or are considered of relatively minor importance in comparison to winning the tournament. See also Classification match Knockout tournament Single-elimination tournament References Sports terminology