SWAC tiebreaker rules change: Don’t give a flip

Nearly lost in the reaction to the SWAC’s cave in on the seven-game scheduling matrix was news that the league had finally straightened out its tiebreaker rules.

The new three-team football tie-breaker, rather than (not kidding here) a coin flip, will be best point differential among the tied teams.

“Nobody wants to get to the end of year and have a three-team coin toss,” Southwestern Athletic Conference commissioner Duer Sharp told me.

Yet, that very nearly happened last November, as Grambling played Southern in the final regular-season game for both. A win by the Jaguars would have levelled the two teams with Prairie View — and, by rule, a flip would have decided who advanced to represent the conference’s Western Division in the annual SWAC Championship Game.

Luckily for the league, it avoided a potential PR nightmare when Grambling won the Bayou Classic — and, therefore, the West outright.

“The (university) presidents (who have final league voting power) were uniform in saying that something has to be done so that it doesn’t happen again,” Sharp said. “It puts it in the hands of student-athletes. We dont have the BCS polls, or the formula those schools have to ultimately decide these ties. But with a point differential, if you can stop somebody or somebody can’t stop you, that decides who goes.”

I can’t say I wouldn’t have enjoyed the high drama of a quarter going end over end in New Orleans, with everything on the line. It makes for a good story.

Still, that was no way to win a divisional crown, and a chance at the SWAC title. They got this one right.

SWAC FOOTBALL DIVISIONAL TIE-BREAKER
In the event of a tie for the division championship, the following procedures will be used to break all ties to determine the SWAC Football Championship Game representative:
Only those Conference versus Conference Games (both division and non‐division) will be
counted in the Conference Standings.
1. TWO TEAM TIE
a. Head‐to‐head competition between the two tied teams.
b. Records of the tied teams within the division.
c. Head‐to‐head competition versus the team within the division with the best
overall (divisional and non‐divisional) Conference record and proceeding through
the division. Multiple ties within the division will be broken from first to last.
d. Overall record versus non‐division teams.
e. Combined record versus all common non‐divisional teams.
f. Record versus common non‐divisional team with the best overall Conference
(divisional and non‐divisional) record and proceeding through other common
non‐divisional teams based on their order of finish within their division.
g. Coin flip
2. THREE (OR MORE) TEAM TIE
(Once the tie has been reduced to two teams, go to the two‐team tie breaker format)
a. Head‐to‐head competition between the two tied teams.
b. Records of the tied teams within the division.
c. Head‐to‐head competition versus the team within the division with the best
overall (divisional and non‐divisional) Conference record and proceeding through
the division. Multiple ties within the division will be broken from first to last.
d. Overall record versus non‐division teams.
e. Combined record versus all common non‐divisional teams.
f. Record versus common non‐divisional team with the best overall Conference
(divisional and non‐divisional) record and proceeding through other common
non‐divisional teams based on their order of finish within their division.
g. Best point differential between the tied teams in head to head matchups
h. Coin Flip