The Official Website of the Southeastern Conference
The Official Website of the Southeastern Conference

SEC Divisional Tie-Breaker

3334 days ago
SEC Digital Network
Photo: RD Moore | SEC Digital Network

In the event of a tie for the division championship, the following procedures will be used to break all ties to determine the SEC Football Championship Game representative. All Conference versus Conference Games (both division and non-division) will be counted in the Conference Standings.

1. 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;

G. Best cumulative Conference winning percentage of non-divisional opponents; and

Example (Western 1 would be the representative)

Tied Teams
Non-Divisional Opponents Cumulative Record
Western 1
Eastern Opponents: 14-2
Western 2
Eastern Opponents: 12-4

H. Coin flip of the tied teams.


2. 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. Best cumulative Conference winning percentage of non-divisional opponents (Note: If two teams' non-divisional opponents have the same cumulative record, then the two-team tiebreaker procedures apply. If four teams are tied, and three teams' non-divisional opponents have the same cumulative record, the three-team tiebreaker procedures will be used beginning with 2.A.);

Example (Western 1 would be the representative)

Tied Teams
Non-Divisional Opponents Cumulative Record
Western 1
Eastern Opponents: 14-2
Western 2
Eastern Opponents: 12-4
Western 3
Eastern Opponents: 8-8

H. Coin flip of the tied teams with the team with the odd result being the representative (Example: If there are two teams with tails and one team with heads, the team with heads is the representative).