three way tie

[TheCommissioner]

this was brought up in another thread. but does anybody know what happens when there is a three way tie for first in a district?

 

[Bradley]

UIL schools have a coin flip.

 

[freeagent]

this was brought up in another thread. but does anybody know what happens when there is a three way tie for first in a district?

It is totally dependent on (1) the sport, but here we'll talk football, and most importantly, the individual district's rules concerning tie breakers. What SHOULD happen is that the district schools should decide the tie breaking procedures in advance of the district season, put them in writing and then follow them if and when a tie which involves playoff seeding or participation comes to play.

You can do the coin flip. But I HATE the coin flip, because it puts the decision on who plays and who stays home on something that was NOT determined on the field.

When you have a three (or more) way tie, the first thing you should do is determine the records of the teams against each other. Let's make the case of a three way tie. Often, you've had School A beat School B, School B beat School C, and School C beat School A ... so all are 1-1 in head-to-head play. You still have a tie. We'll get to that in a moment.

But let's say that School A beat School C. That knocks C out of the race (3rd highest seed of the three teams) and takes it down to a two way race between A and B. I'm assuming that the district rules for breaking a two-way tie is head to head meeting results, and there, A was the winner (highest seed of the three teams) and B is next (second highest seed of the three teams).

But usually, a three way tie means that the teams split their series among themselves and are all 1-1 in head to head competition. This is where rules written in advance are extremely helpful. Teams know what they have to do to make the playoffs -- it's similiar to reading the NFL playoff scenarios that start popping up in the late weeks of the NFL season.

What is a common tool is point differential in those head to head games. Many 6 and crowded field football districts (TAPPS and UIL) put a point cap on the most points you can earn towards this in a game to prevent coaches and players from running up the score. 21 points is a common limit.

So, let's say A beat B 50-20, B beat C 30-20 and C beat A 26-18.

A gets 21 points for its win over B (the maximum) and loses 8 in its loss to C; net +13
B gets 10 points for its win over C and loses 21 (the maximum) for its loss to A; net -11
C gets 8 points for its win over A and loses 10 for its loss to B; net -2.

In this scenario, the seeds would go to A, C, and B in that order.

We had another tiebreaker in case there was a tie in this category, it was fewest points allowed in head-to-head matches. I guess if there was a tie there, you could extend it to all district games. But after the fewest points, we then relied on the coin flip. We did get to the scenario above (point differential) in 2006.

You could use the old UIL penetrations rule (offensive penetrations inside the 20) but that depends on the accuracy of team statistics, so I wouldn't use it.

The key thing is to determine those tie breakers in ADVANCE so that no one will feel that the decision was made after the fact. I feel sorry for any district that does not have written tie breaker rules as we enter week 9; I hope somebody can decide the issue on the field, because the off-the-field options aren't going to be pretty.

And don't say you weren't warned ... because TAPPS always suggests that this be one of the topics as any district organizes their seasons.

 

[TheCommissioner]

thanks john, that info was pretty helpful.

 

[dsanders]

TAPPS has each district deciding its own rules on three-way ties...the district should have decided this at their district meeting. Districts can choose coin toss or a points system.

 

[dsanders]

District 1's tiebreak rule:

NO CLEAR WINNERS: In the event there is no clear winner, the winner will be chosen on a point system. The point system would represent the positive or negative number of points you could accumulate in one game of 20 points.The points are determined by the difference in the two teams' score. If the difference is less than 20 points, then the actual difference would be would be be represented either positively or negatively for each team in that game. Points would be accumulated in all district games. The team with the highest number of points would represent the district. If a tie still existed after this then there would be a coin flip to determine play-off teams.

 

[freeagent]

District 1's tiebreak rule:

NO CLEAR WINNERS: In the event there is no clear winner, the winner will be chosen on a point system. The point system would represent the positive or negative number of points you could accumulate in one game of 20 points.The points are determined by the difference in the two teams' score. If the difference is less than 20 points, then the actual difference would be would be be represented either positively or negatively for each team in that game. Points would be accumulated in all district games. The team with the highest number of points would represent the district. If a tie still existed after this then there would be a coin flip to determine play-off teams.

Good rule ... but how I read it is that it involves ALL district games. Easy when the district is three teams and all three teams are involved in the tie. But I'm not sure how it would work in a larger district (although probably the result would be the same; I say that not to be a nit-picker, but you do have to think out tiebreakers to POSSIBLE problems that might end up in a result different than expected/anticipated) ... but ANY tie breaker rule written and agreed to in advance is better than no tie breaker rule at all.