Wild card (sports)

Wild card is term to most commonly refer to a playoff spot that is open to teams from multiple divisions in certain conditions.

Some occurrences include:
 * The NHL using two wild card spots in each conference which is open to all of the teams that don't finish in the top three spots in their own division. The wild card spots are awarded to the two teams with the best records after the other teams are removed from the criteria.


 * Some leagues have made the possibility of a team that finishes in fifth place in a division take the playoff spot in the other division in either their conference or league if they had a better record than the fourth place team in the division they don't play in.