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B10 Division Tie Breaker

ryoder1

Well-Known Member
Feb 17, 2007
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I know, I know this is getting way ahead of things but it is fun to think about.

I was looking at the B10 division tiebreaker and if and this is a huge IF ....we end up tied with O$U and scUM meaning we all beat one of the other two with no other losses and lose to one of the other two again no other losses (we lose to O$U and beat scUM; O$U beats us and loses to scUM; scUM loses to us and beats O$U)......then I think we actually will win the tiebreaker assuming Wisky and Iowa continue to win. It is the 5th tiebreaker that compares the cumulative winning percentage of your non division opponents. O$U has Neb and Purdue and scUM has Neb and Wisky. That should work in our favor. The tiebreaker rules are focused on within the division so our Iowa loss is not hurting us until tiebreaker #6 but I think we win the tiebreaker before it gets to that tiebreaker with tiebreaker #5.

Obviously we have to win all of our games except O$U to get into this scenario then hope scUM can knock off O$U. This assumes Sparty is knocked out by all of us. This also assumes Clifford can play and is effective and the Mustipher loss is not horrible or unrecoverable to the interior D-line. Lots of IFs but interesting that we may actually catch a break in this tiebreaker system.

You can look up the tiebreaker rules yourself and check of I am interpreting it correctly.
 
You’re remembering that we also lost to Iowa, right?
Yes, but that is what is strange, it does not seem to hurt us in this division tiebreaker system. It does eventually but we win an earlier tiebreaker which is the cumulative records of our non division opponents. Look at it yourself and see if you draw the same conclusion.
 
No Tiebreaker for us in that scenario. We would have two conference losses and OSU and Mich would only have one conference loss each. Need to win out or have MSU in the mix also and have four teams with 2 losses.
 
You are also looking at the wrong tie-breaker criteria. The new criteria the Big Ten put out a few years ago is much simpler in case of the same record.

Tiebreaker Criteria #1 - team with closest proximity to Columbus, Ohio that has red in their uniform automatically goes to the Championship.

Tiebreaker Criteria #2 - team with blue and yellow in their uniform that is closest to Detroit, MIchigan goes to championship.

Tiebreaker Criteria #3 - If Neither #1 or #2 are going to the Championship from the Big Ten East, then Big Ten doesn't care and whichever AD and Coach gravels the most to the Big Ten office and commissioner and puts a life size poster of Barry Alvarez up in their football building and agrees to sell their soul and do whatever the league says for the next 5 years without question gets to go.
 
Yes, but that is what is strange, it does not seem to hurt us in this division tiebreaker system. It does eventually but we win an earlier tiebreaker which is the cumulative records of our non division opponents. Look at it yourself and see if you draw the same conclusion.

In your scenario, we have 2 losses in the B10 and OSU and UM have 1. They both would need to lose to someone else.
 
In your scenario, we have 2 losses in the B10 and OSU and UM have 1. They both would need to lose to someone else.

Check this out. The tiebreakers are not focused on overall won/loss records.
 

Check this out. The tiebreakers are not focused on overall won/loss records.
I guess the debate is what do they mean by teams being "tied". I am interpreting it as tied in terms of the same record within the division. If they mean tied being the same record in the conference then of course we lose out.
 

Check this out. The tiebreakers are not focused on overall won/loss records.
Iowa is in the Big Ten conference…to get to the point where tiebreakers matter, you’d need to have identical conference records.
 
I guess the debate is what do they mean by teams being "tied". I am interpreting it as tied in terms of the same record within the division. If they mean tied being the same record in the conference then of course we lose out.

It’s conference record not division.
 

Check this out. The tiebreakers are not focused on overall won/loss records.
It goes by conference record 1st, then if they both have the same conference record, the tie breakers kick in. Has always been like this
 
Okay got it. Thanks. That should be clarified on their website. Thought that was too good to be true.
 
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