# Sports in which no scoring is possible

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-which-no-scoring-is-possible/975396>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [November 22, 2022, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-which-no-scoring-is-possible/975396 "2022-11-22T18:10:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 72

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**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2022, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-in-which-no-scoring-is-possible/975396/72 "2022-11-28T16:16:58Z")

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> [@Wrenching\_Spanners](#):
>
> I realise this has never occurred, but how would the nomenclature difference be handled? Team B had 9 wins but won the division based on 10.5 assessed wins?

Yeah, probably something like “9 wins, but three ties effectively gave them 10 1/2 wins.”

> [@Wrenching\_Spanners](#):
>
> Silly side question, but hopefully within the scope of the OP. Could an NFL team have a scoreless season (8.5 “assessed wins”) and still make the playoffs? I know that teams can make the playoffs with losing records, but ties mean points (aka 0.5 “assessed wins”) to their rivals. Suppose that within a division, one team had 17 ties and no other team had any ties besides games played against the winless/loseless team. Could the team with only ties make it to the playoffs?

It’d be entirely possible, but it would all depend on the records of the other teams in their division and conference.

NFL teams are organized into two “conferences” of 16 teams; each conference is then sub-organized into four “divisions” of 4 teams each. There are two ways to qualify for the playoffs:

- Winning your division, by having the best win-loss record of the four teams in your division
- Earning a “wild card” berth, by having one of the three best win-loss records in your conference, among teams which didn’t win a division

There have been three teams which have won their divisions with only 7 wins (2020 Washington, 2014 Carolina, 2010 Seattle), and three which have done so with only 8 wins (2013 Green Bay, 2011 Denver, 2008 San Diego); in all of those cases, they were the “best” team in a weak overall division.

So, yeah, it’d be entirely possible for a team with, effectively, 8.5 wins (all through ties) to make the playoffs, but it’d entirely depend on what the other teams’ records were.

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