How do NorCal league playoffs work?

The top teams of your flight, the group of teams you play in the regular season, go to the playoffs. The higher place hosts each match, so a better finish also means home courts.

Who goes to the playoffs, and who hosts?

A flight of six teams or more sends its top four: 1st hosts 4th, 2nd hosts 3rd, and the higher place hosts the final. With five teams or fewer, only the top two go, so they play one match and 1st hosts 2nd. (USTA NorCal's 2026 league regulations)

In a flight of just two teams, the playoff match is played only if both captains agree, or else the team higher in the standings goes on. When an area such as Marin splits a league into flights, two flight winners then play once more, at the courts of the team higher in the standings.

Who goes on to Sectionals?

The team that wins an area's playoffs goes on to Sectionals, which decide the section's champion. USTA NorCal can also send a wildcard from the areas with the most teams in a league, but its regulations don't say which areas have one. (USTA NorCal's rules)

How many matches do you need to play in the playoffs?

To play in your team's playoffs with a C (computer) or M (earned playing only Mixed) rating, you need two matches for that team, and one default counts. With an S (a level you picked yourself), A (appealed) or D (disqualified or promoted) rating, you need three matches in a 3-line league or four in a bigger one. No default counts for those ratings. A match that ended in a retirement still counts toward those numbers, so an injury on court doesn't cost you one. (USTA NorCal's rules)

Where the data comes from says what each letter after a rating means.

How is a tie in the table broken?

A tie on team matches won goes to the most lines won, then the fewest sets lost, the fewest games lost, head-to-head and a coin toss. A match tiebreak in place of a third set counts as one set and one game, so it can decide a tie. (USTA NorCal's rules)

Adult 40 & Over 3.0 to 4.5 plays four lines and ranks teams by points instead, with doubles 1 worth 2 points and every other line worth 1. In those leagues a tie on points skips lines won, so it goes to the fewest sets lost, then the fewest games lost, head-to-head and a coin toss.

What does the Desk do with these rules?

The league page orders its table by this tie-break order. With a Desk Pass, the chat's playoff report uses the playoff format, so it can give your team's chance of each round the format holds, up to the title.

USTA NorCal can set another format for one league. So when a flight's playoffs this season took a different number of teams, the report gives only the team's chance of each seed, its place in the playoff draw.

Where each rule is in the regulations (LLAR is USTA NorCal's own Local League Area Regulations)

• Who goes to the playoffs, and who hosts: (NorCal LLAR) Playoffs, page 37.
• Who goes on to Sectionals: 2.02A(1) Local League Competition, page 36.
• Wildcards: (NorCal LLAR) Wildcards, page 39.
• The matches you need to play in the playoffs: (NorCal LLAR) Match Minimum for Playoffs, page 25.
• A retired match: 2.03A(3)a, page 40.
• The tie-break order: (NorCal LLAR) Procedure in the Event of a Tie, page 36.
• The match tiebreak: 2.01C(4) Match Scoring and Formats, page 34.
• Adult 40 & Over points: (NorCal LLAR) Adult 40 & Over Tie-Break Procedure for a 4-line Format, pages 36 and 37.