How the belt works
A lineal championship works like a boxing title: to become the champion, you have to beat the champion. Every league on this site has exactly one belt, and it has been passed from team to team, game by game, since that league's first game.
The rules every league shares
- It starts at game one. The winner of a league's first game picks up the belt.
- Beat the holder, take the belt. Any game counts — regular season or playoffs, home, away or neutral. Preseason and exhibition games don't.
- Ties go to the champ. A tie is a successful defense. Overtime and shootout wins are wins.
- The belt follows the franchise. Relocations and renames don't reset anything.
- The season ends, the belt stays. A holder whose season is over, whether it missed the playoffs or ran out of games, keeps the belt until it plays again. The belt is frozen until then and opens the next season with that team.
- Folded holders. If the holder's franchise folds or stops playing, the belt goes back to the most recent earlier holder that is still playing, the same rule our sister site, the College Football Belt, uses.
League notes
NFL. The belt starts with the first league game on record: Dayton Triangles 14–0 Columbus Panhandles on October 3, 1920. Games from 1920 count only between clubs that were members of the league that season. AFL (1960–69) and AAFC (1946–49) games are included, so those teams could only reach the belt by beating an NFL holder. Franchise histories follow the team through moves and renames (the Rams are one franchise from Cleveland to St. Louis to Los Angeles).
NBA. The belt starts with the first game in league history: the New York Knicks beat the Toronto Huskies 68–66 on November 1, 1946. The Basketball Association of America seasons (1946–49) count, as the NBA counts them; ABA games don't. Regular-season, NBA Cup, play-in and playoff games all count; preseason and All-Star games don't. Franchises follow the NBA's official histories: the Charlotte Hornets own the 1988–2002 Hornets years, and the Pelicans begin in 2002.
NHL. The belt starts with the league's first game: the Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators 7–4 on December 19, 1917 (the first of that night's two games). Overtime and shootout wins count as wins, since that's the result the NHL puts in the standings; ties, possible until 2004–05, are successful defenses. Only games between two NHL clubs count, so the Stanley Cup Finals against Pacific Coast and Western league champions (1918–26) don't. Franchises follow the NHL's own records: the Toronto Arenas, St. Patricks and Maple Leafs are one franchise, and the Utah Mammoth are their own franchise, not the Coyotes.
MLB. The belt starts with the first National League game: Boston beat Philadelphia 6–5 on April 22, 1876. National League games count from 1876, American League games from 1901, plus interleague games and the whole postseason, so the belt couldn't cross into the American League until the 1903 World Series. Tie games, called for darkness or weather before the lights era, are successful defenses; forfeits go to the team awarded the win. The other major leagues of the 1800s and 1910s, and the Negro Leagues, never played the holder in an official game, so they never had a shot at it. Franchises follow the team through moves and renames: the Braves are one franchise from Boston to Milwaukee to Atlanta.
WNBA. The belt starts with the league's first game, New York at Los Angeles on June 21, 1997, and counts every regular-season, Commissioner's Cup and playoff game (not All-Star games). Overtime wins count as wins.
MLS. The belt starts with the league's first game, San Jose 1–0 D.C. United on April 6, 1996, and counts every regular-season and playoff game. A draw is a successful defense; a game settled by a shootout (MLS's tiebreaker from 1996 to 1999, and in the playoffs) goes to the shootout winner. A club that folds vacates the belt to the most recent earlier holder still playing.
NWSL. The belt starts with the league's first game in April 2013 and counts every regular-season, playoff and Challenge Cup game ESPN lists. A draw is a successful defense; a game settled on penalties goes to the shootout winner.
PWHL. The belt starts with the league's first game, New York at Toronto on January 1, 2024. Overtime and shootout wins count as wins.
CFL. The belt starts with the 1998 Grey Cup: the champion carries it into the 1999 season, and it counts every regular-season and playoff game since, including the Grey Cup. A tie is a successful defense. Teams that folded or moved (the Rough Riders, Renegades and the 1990s U.S. teams) vacate the belt to the most recent earlier holder still playing.
Premier League. The belt starts with the first Football League game in 1888 and follows England's top flight: the First Division until 1992, the Premier League since. A draw is a successful defense. In a knockout game settled on penalties, the shootout winner takes (or keeps) the belt. A holder that drops out of the league, by relegation, vacates the belt, which goes back to the most recent earlier holder still in the league.
La Liga. The belt starts with Spain's first league game in February 1929. A draw is a successful defense. In a knockout game settled on penalties, the shootout winner takes (or keeps) the belt. A holder that drops out of the league, by relegation, vacates the belt, which goes back to the most recent earlier holder still in the league.
Serie A. The belt starts with the first round of the single-table Serie A in October 1929. A draw is a successful defense. In a knockout game settled on penalties, the shootout winner takes (or keeps) the belt. A holder that drops out of the league, by relegation, vacates the belt, which goes back to the most recent earlier holder still in the league.
Bundesliga. The belt starts with the Bundesliga's first matchday in August 1963. A draw is a successful defense. In a knockout game settled on penalties, the shootout winner takes (or keeps) the belt. A holder that drops out of the league, by relegation, vacates the belt, which goes back to the most recent earlier holder still in the league.
Ligue 1. The belt starts with the 1937–38 French first division, the first season with a full, dated fixture list in the archive (earlier seasons' games carry placeholder dates, so their order is unknown). A draw is a successful defense. In a knockout game settled on penalties, the shootout winner takes (or keeps) the belt. A holder that drops out of the league, by relegation, vacates the belt, which goes back to the most recent earlier holder still in the league.
Eredivisie. The belt starts with the Eredivisie's first season, 1956–57. A draw is a successful defense. In a knockout game settled on penalties, the shootout winner takes (or keeps) the belt. A holder that drops out of the league, by relegation, vacates the belt, which goes back to the most recent earlier holder still in the league.
International. The men's international belt starts with the first decisive international, England 4–2 Scotland at the Kennington Oval on March 8, 1873 (the first, in Glasgow in 1872, was a 0–0 draw), and counts every full international between national teams that have played World Cup qualifying: friendlies, qualifiers and tournaments alike. A draw is a successful defense, and a shootout winner takes (or keeps) the belt. It follows the same idea as the Unofficial Football World Championships.
Liga MX. The belt starts with the opening round of the 2013 Apertura and counts every Apertura and Clausura game, Liguilla included; a season on this site is the Apertura and the Clausura that follows it. A draw is a successful defense. In a knockout game settled on penalties, the shootout winner takes (or keeps) the belt. A holder that drops out of the league, by relegation, vacates the belt, which goes back to the most recent earlier holder still in the league.
UFL. The belt starts with the merged league's first game in March 2024 and counts every regular-season and playoff game, the championship included. A renamed team keeps the belt (the Renegades and the Gamblers); the three clubs that left after 2025 vacate it to the most recent earlier holder still playing, since the league named no successors for them.
College hockey. The belt starts with the 2013–14 season opener and counts every Division I men's game ESPN lists: non-conference, conference, conference tournaments and the NCAA tournament through the Frozen Four. A tie is a successful defense; a game decided in overtime or a shootout goes to the winner on the scoreboard.
AFL. The belt starts with round one of the 2017 season (as far back as ESPN's results go) and counts every home-and-away and finals game, the Grand Final included. A draw is a successful defense.
NRL. The belt starts with round one of the 2017 season (as far back as ESPN's results go) and counts every regular-season and finals game, the Grand Final included. A draw is a successful defense.
The three rulesets, side by side
The College Football Belt, the College Basketball Belt and the pro-league belts on Belt Holders run on the same idea and differ only where the sports do: ties, draws and shootouts, who counts as a league member, and what happens when a holder stops playing.
| College Football Belt | College Basketball Belt | Belt Holders (pro leagues) · this site | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where it starts | College football's first game: Rutgers over Princeton, 6–4, on November 6, 1869. | The reigning national champion when the game-by-game record begins: Kentucky for 1949–50; Texas for the women's belt in 1986–87. | Each league's first game on record, from the NHL's first night in 1917 to the Premier League's 1888 start. |
| Which games count | Every game, bowls and the playoff included. From 1978 on, only games between two Division I teams. | Every Division I game: regular season, conference tournaments, the NCAA tournament and the other postseason events. A loss to a non-Division I team doesn't move it. | Regular season and playoffs. Preseason, exhibitions and cup competitions don't count. |
| Ties and draws | A tie kept the belt with the holder (there hasn't been one since overtime arrived in 1996). | No ties: basketball plays overtime until someone wins. | A tie or a draw is a successful defense. Overtime and shootout wins are wins; a penalty shootout decides a knockout game. |
| When the holder doesn't play | The belt waits: a bye, an opted-out bowl or a canceled season leaves it where it is, offseason included. | The belt waits through the offseason with the holder. | The belt is frozen until the holder plays again, even when it missed the playoffs. |
| When the holder stops playing | If a holder drops football or leaves Division I, the belt goes back to the most recent earlier holder still playing. | If a holder leaves Division I, the belt goes back to the most recent earlier holder still playing. | A folded franchise, or a club relegated out of the league, vacates the belt to the most recent earlier holder still in the league. |
| Moves and renames | Programs don't move; a rename is the same program. | Same: a rename is the same program. | The belt follows the franchise through relocations and renames (the Rams from Cleveland to St. Louis to Los Angeles). |
Sources
NFL results from 1920–2020 come from FiveThirtyEight's public NFL game archive; 2021 onward from the open nflverse project. NBA results from 1946–47 through 2014–15 come from FiveThirtyEight's public NBA archive; 2015–16 through 2024–25 from NBA.com's season schedules; 2025–26 onward from ESPN's public scoreboard. NHL results come from the NHL's own statistics API, every regular-season and playoff game since 1917. MLB results through last season come from Retrosheet: the information used here was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by Retrosheet (www.retrosheet.org). The current season comes from MLB's public Stats API. WNBA results come from the wehoop project (sportsdataverse, CC BY 4.0): WNBA Stats game logs for 1997–2001 and ESPN schedules since 2002, with the latest games from ESPN. MLS results for 1996–2016 come from engsoccerdata (James Curley, GPL); since 2017 from American Soccer Analysis; upcoming games from ESPN. NWSL results and upcoming games come from ESPN's public scoreboard. PWHL results come from the fastRhockey project (sportsdataverse, MIT), which archives the league's own game data. CFL results come from the schedule tables on Wikipedia's team-season articles and the playoff brackets on its season articles (list of CFL seasons), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; each game is checked against both teams' pages. English top-flight results since 1888 come from engsoccerdata (James Curley, GPL), and from openfootball (public domain) since 2025–26. La Liga results since 1929 come from engsoccerdata (James Curley, GPL), and from openfootball (public domain) since 2025–26. Serie A results since 1929 come from engsoccerdata (James Curley, GPL), and from openfootball (public domain) since 2025–26. Bundesliga results since 1963 come from engsoccerdata (James Curley, GPL), and from openfootball (public domain) since 2025–26. French top-flight results since 1937–38 come from engsoccerdata (James Curley, GPL), and from openfootball (public domain) since 2025–26. Eredivisie results since 1956 come from engsoccerdata (James Curley, GPL), and from openfootball (public domain) since 2025–26. International results since 1872 come from Mart Jürisoo's international football results (CC0). Liga MX results and upcoming games come from ESPN's public scoreboard. UFL results and upcoming games come from ESPN's public scoreboard. College hockey results and upcoming games come from ESPN's public scoreboard. AFL results and upcoming games come from ESPN's public scoreboard. NRL results and upcoming games come from ESPN's public scoreboard. The data is updated automatically every couple of hours.