SEC has a new tiebreaker in 2014

With the end of the BCS era, the SEC had to change its tiebreaker for the 2014 season and beyond, according to AL.com.

Previously, at the bottom of a lengthy list of tiebreakers, the SEC’s final deciding factor came at the hands of the highest ranked BCS team. Now, the conference developed a new tiebreaker: the conference will use the combined SEC record of the team’s cross-divisional opponents to determine the division champion. It would be the seventh step for a two-team tie.

In the SEC’s eight-game schedule, each team plays two cross-divisional foes, one permanent and the other rotating.

I guess it’s a good time for us to review the conference’s tiebreaker procedures:

Two-Team Tie

In the event two teams are tied for a division title, the following procedure will be used in the following order:

A. Head-to-head competition between the two tied teams;

B. Records of the tied teams within the division;

C. Head-to-head competition against 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 and a tie for first place will be broken before a tie for fourth place);

D. Overall record against non-divisional teams;

E. Combined record against all common non-divisional teams;

F. Record against the common non-divisional team with the best overall Conference record (divisional or non-divisional) and proceeding through other common non-divisional teams based on their order of finish within their division; and

G. Changed: Combined SEC record of the team’s cross-divisional opponents

Three-Team Tie (or more)

If three teams (or more) are tied for a division title, the following procedure will be used in the following order: (Note: If one of the procedures results in one team being eliminated and two remaining, the two-team tiebreaker procedure as stated in No. 1 above will be used):

A. Combined head-to-head record among the tied teams

B. Record of the tied teams within the division

C. Head-to-head competition against the team within the division with the best overall Conference record (divisional and non-divisional) and proceeding through the division (multiple ties within the division will be broken from first to last and a tie for first place will be broken before a tie for fourth place)

D. Overall Conference record against non-divisional teams

E. Combined record against all common non-divisional teams

F. Record against the common non-divisional team with the best overall Conference record (divisional and non-divisional) and proceeding through other common non-divisional teams based on their order of finish within their division; and

G. Changed: Combined SEC record of the team’s cross-divisional opponents

Photo Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports