A year ago, the Big 12 conference had to add wording to its new tie-breaking procedures in mid-November as the league moved to 14 teams prior to the departures of the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns.
The procedure revealed by the SEC on Wednesday as the nation’s best football conference adds the Sooners and the Longhorns to move to 16 teams comes after the league eliminated divisions starting this season.
Here’s how it’s going to work for the conference, used in descending order until the tie is broken:
- Head-to-head competition among the tied teams
- Record versus all common Conference opponents among the tied teams
- Record against highest (best) placed common Conference opponent in the Conference standings, and proceeding through the Conference standings among the tied teams
- Cumulative Conference winning percentage of all Conference opponents among the tied teams
- Capped relative total scoring margin versus all Conference opponents among the tied teams
- Random draw of the tied teams
The conference will use the same tie-breaking system if multiple teams are tied for first place or for second place with the first-place team designated as the home team for the championship game.