Tie Breaker

by cthom on Feb 17, 2008 8:42 AM EST

Looking at the remaining schedule for UK and Vandy, the Cats schedule is not easy by any means, but is a bit more favorable than Vandy's since we have Arkansas at home. I couldn't remember what they use for the tiebreaker for seeding in the SEC tournament, if for example both teams end up with an 11-5 record and split the regular season games against each other. Hopefully they don't use the number of points. Does anybody here know?

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record within the division

UK 4-2 (UGA, @UT, @USC, UF remaining)
Vandy 5-3 (UGA and UT both at home remaining)

by GoLightning on Feb 17, 2008 9:50 AM EST reply actions

Tie break rules are as follows

From the SEC website comes this pdf file that explains the conference tourney seeding tiebreaker on page 7. (It's an 8-page pdf.)

Basically, in order:

Head-to-head
Division record (the 10 games)
win-loss record vs. the #1 divisional team (repeat in order through 2-6 as necessary)
Non-divisional win-loss record within conference (6 games)
Win-loss vs. #1 of the opposite division (repeat through 2-6 as before if needed)
Coin flip by conference commissioner

Hope that helps. There are also rules for a 3-way (or more) tie, but I'll stick to the 2-team question at hand for brevity.

by David Hooper on Feb 17, 2008 4:28 PM EST reply actions

Interesting

Division record (the 10 games)
Non-divisional win-loss record within conference (6 games)

Isn't Tiebreaker #4 redundant?

If both teams have the same Conference record (necessitating the tiebreaker) and both teams have the same Division record (necessitating the need to move to another tie breaker) doesn't it stand to reason that their Non-division record will also be the same?

Can anyone come up with a scenario where Team A and Team B have the same Conference record, the same Division record, but different Non-division records?

Looking for a rock to wind a piece of string around.

by JLeverenz on Feb 18, 2008 3:42 PM EST up reply actions

You are correct.

It is redundant. The same problem exists in the 3-way tiebreaker. If you are in the tie in the first place, you all have identical conference records. If you all also have identical division records, then you must have identical non-dvisional records by simple math.

So, Kentucky fan = smarter than SEC?

(Remember, I'm attending UT, so I'm not parading my own school by that statement. Nice catch.)

by David Hooper on Feb 18, 2008 10:21 PM EST up reply actions

Applying the tiebreaker here

would seem to favor Kentucky. They've only lost 2 divisional games, while Vandy has lost 3. If both teams win out except for Kentucky losing to Tennessee, then you'd go all the way through the first 4 tiebreakers. Since Kentucky's nondivisional loss is to MSU and Vandy's is to Ole Miss, you'd probably see Kentucky win on the 5th tiebreaker. MSU would likely be #1 or #2 in the West, so they would be used in the tiebreaker before Ole Miss.

That's projecting a lot, but the current numbers slightly favor Kentucky.

Of course, if Kentucky wins out, the whole thing is moot after the second tiebreaker.

by David Hooper on Feb 17, 2008 4:34 PM EST reply actions