Tiebreaker Procedures

[bmore187]

With the NFL realigning into eight four-team divisions to accommodate the arrival of the Houston Texans, the league adopted new tiebreaking rules.
Common opponents will now be the third tiebreaker within a division after head-to-head games and division record because each of the four teams will have 14 common games in the 16-game schedule. The owners also moved the strength-of-victory tiebreaker ahead of the strength-of-schedule tiebreaker.
The six postseason participants from each conference will now be seeded as follows:
1. The division champion with the best record.
2. The division champion with the second-best record.
3. The division champion with the third-best record.
4. The division champion with the fourth-best record.
5. The Wild Card club with the best record.
6. The Wild Card club with the second-best record.
The following procedures will be used to break standings ties for postseason playoffs and to determine regular-season schedules.
NOTE: Tie games count as one-half win and one-half loss for both clubs
[b]TO BREAK A TIE WITHIN A DIVISION[/b]
If, at the end of the regular season, two or more clubs in the same division finish with identical won-lost-tied percentages, the following steps will be taken until a champion is determined.
[b]Two Clubs[/b]
1. Head-to-head (best won-lost-tied percentage in games between the clubs).
2. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the division.
3. Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games.
4. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference.
5. Strength of victory.
6. Strength of schedule.
7. Best combined ranking among conference teams in points scored and points allowed.
8. Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed.
9. Best net points in common games.
10. Best net points in all games.
11. Best net touchdowns in all games.
[b]Three or More Clubs[/b]
(Note: If two clubs remain tied after third or other clubs are eliminated during any step, tie breaker reverts to step 1 of the two-club format).
1. Head-to-head (best won-lost-tied percentage in games among the clubs).
2. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the division.
3. Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games.
4. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference.
5. Strength of victory.
6. Strength of schedule.
7. Best combined ranking among conference teams in points scored and points allowed.
8. Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed.
9. Best net points in common games.
10. Best net points in all games.
11. Best net touchdowns in all games.
[b]TO BREAK A TIE FOR THE WILD-CARD TEAM[/b]
If it is necessary to break ties to determine the two Wild-Card clubs from each conference, the following steps will be taken.
1. If the tied clubs are from the same division, apply division tie breaker.
2. If the tied clubs are from different divisions, apply the following steps.
[b]Two Clubs[/b]
1. Head-to-head, if applicable.
2. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference.
3. Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games, minimum of four.
4. Strength of victory.
5. Strength of schedule.
6. Best combined ranking among conference teams in points scored and points allowed.
7. Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed.
8. Best net points in conference games.
9. Best net points in all games.
10. Best net touchdowns in all games.
11. Coin toss.
[b]Three or More Clubs[/b]
(Note: If two clubs remain tied after third or other clubs are eliminated, tie breaker reverts to step 1 of applicable two-club format.)
1. Apply division tie breaker to eliminate all but the highest ranked club in each division prior to proceeding to step 2. The original seeding within a division upon application of the division tie breaker remains the same for all subsequent applications of the procedure that are necessary to identify the three Wild-Card participants.
2. Head-to-head sweep. (Applicable only if one club has defeated each of the others or if one club has lost to each of the others.)
3. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference.
4. Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games, minimum of four.
5. Strength of victory.
6. Strength of schedule.
7. Best combined ranking among conference teams in points scored and points allowed.
8. Best combined ranking among all teams in points scored and points allowed.
9. Best net points in conference games.
10. Best net points in all games.
11. Best net touchdowns in all games.
12. Coin toss.
When the first Wild-Card team has been identified, the procedure is repeated to name the second Wild-Card, i.e., eliminate all but the highest-ranked club in each division prior to proceeding to step 2, and repeated a third time, if necessary, to identify the third Wild Card. In situations where three or more teams from the same division are involved in the procedure, the original seeding of the teams remains the same for subsequent applications of the tie breaker if the top-ranked team in that division qualifies for a Wild-Card berth.
[b]OTHER TIEBREAKING PROCEDURES[/b]
1. Only one club advances to the playoffs in any tie-breaking step. Remaining tied clubs revert to the first step of the applicable division or Wild-Card tie breakers. As an example, if two clubs remain tied in any tie-breaker step after all other clubs have been eliminated, the procedure reverts to step one of the two-club format to determine the winner. When one club wins the tie breaker, all other clubs revert to step 1 of the applicable two-club or three-club format.
2. In comparing division and conference records or records against common opponents among tied teams, the best won-lost-tied percentage is the deciding factor since teams may have played an unequal number of games.
3. To determine home-field priority among division titlists, apply Wild-Card tiebreakers.
4. To determine home-field priority for Wild-Card qualifiers, apply division tiebreakers (if teams are from the same division) or Wild-Card tiebreakers (if teams are from different divisions).
5. To determine the best combined ranking among conference teams in points scored and points allowed, add a team's position in the two categories, and the lowest score wins. For example, if Team A is first in points scored and second in points allowed, its combined ranking is 3. If Team B is third in points scored and first in points allowed, its combined ranking is 4. Team A then wins the tiebreaker. If two teams are tied for a position, both teams are awarded the ranking as if they held it solely. For example, if Team A and Team B are tied for first in points scored, each team is assigned a ranking of 1 in that category, and if Team C is third, its ranking will still be 3.
[b]TIEBREAKING PROCEDURE FOR SELECTION MEETING[/b]
If two or more clubs are tied in the selection order, the strength-of-schedule tie breaker is applied, subject to the following exceptions for playoff clubs:
1. Clubs not participating in the playoffs shall select in the first through 20th positions in reverse standings order.
2. The Super Bowl winner is last and Super Bowl loser is next-to-last.
3. The losers of the Conference Championship games shall select 29th and 30th based on won-lost-tied percentage.
4. The losers of the Divisional playoff games shall select 25th through 28th based on won-lost-tied percentage.
5. The losers of the Wild-Card games shall select 21st through 24th based on won-lost-tied percentage.
If ties exist in any grouping except (2) above, such ties shall be broken by strength of schedule. If any ties cannot be broken by strength of schedule, the divisional or conference tiebreakers, if applicable, shall be applied. Any ties that still exist shall be broken by a coin flip.

[Fricknmaniac]

Don't worry, lots of people will still be confused.

[DMH_in_WA]

Hard not to be confused with those rules.

All it means to us, we win our last two we're no worse than #2 seed.

In that event, if Houston and NE each lose one of their final two -OR- NE loses their final two, we're #1 seed.

[Fricknmaniac]

Or if the Steelers and Ravens go 1-1, the Patriots and Texans both go 0-2. That would also put us with the #1 seed. But admittedly no one wants to acknowledge that scenario since it involves the Ravens losing.

[PuRock]

[quote name='Fricknmaniac' timestamp='1324498328' post='917603']
Or if the Steelers and Ravens go 1-1, the Patriots and Texans both go 0-2. That would also put us with the #1 seed. But admittedly no one wants to acknowledge that scenario since it involves the Ravens losing.
[/quote]

That and the fact that its a lot of losing by the top 4 teams. That would be a combined 2-6 record for the four best AFC teams.

[MsMarvel73]

Yup...tie-breaker procedures give me a headache. This confirms it.

[bmore187]

[quote name='Fricknmaniac' timestamp='1324497840' post='917591']
Don't worry, lots of people will still be confused. [img]http://content.boards.baltimoreravens.com//public/style_emoticons/default/tongue.png[/img]
[/quote]
lol

[Fricknmaniac]

I'm going to go ahead and try to condense the tiebreaking a procedures a little bit to try and make them less confusing for those that are confused.

If at any time during a tiebreaking step one team is better than all the remaining teams, then they win that tiebreaker. If at any time one team is worse than the other remaining team(s) then they lose that tiebreaker. If there are 3 or 4 teams in a tiebreaker, then at any time a team is eliminated, the tiebreaker procedures reset with the remaining teams.

Note: There are more tiebreakers after Strength of Victory, but they're not worth mentioning since SoV will almost always break a tie.

[b]TO BREAK A TIE WITHIN A DIVISION[/b]
[b]Two Clubs[/b]
1. Head-to-head sweep
2. Best winning percentage in games played within the division.
3. Best winning percentage in common games. (Common games are opponents that both teams faced) (For the AFC North this year, this would be the games against the AFC South and the NFC West.)
4. Best winning percentage in games played within the conference.
5. Strength of victory.

[b]Three or More Clubs[/b]
1. Head-to-head sweep. (A team wins if they've won all the games against the other tied teams, also a team will be eliminated if they've lost all the games against the other teams)
2. Best winning percentage in games played within the division.
3. Best winning percentage in common games.
4. Best winning percentage in games played within the conference.
5. Strength of victory.

[b]TO BREAK A TIE FOR THE WILD-CARD TEAM AND FOR SEEDING[/b]
1. Apply divisional tiebreakers until there is only one team from each division remaining.
[b]Two Clubs[/b]
1. Head-to-head, if applicable.
2. Best winning percentage in games played within the conference.
3. Best winning percentage in common games, minimum of four. (If the teams did not play head-to-head, then they will have 5 common games.)
4. Strength of victory.

[b]Three or More Clubs[/b]
1. Head-to-head sweep. (Applicable only if one club has defeated each of the others or if one club has lost to each of the others.)
2. Best winning percentage in games played within the conference.
3. Technically this is common games, but it is impossible for three teams to have enough common games to trigger this tiebreaker.
4. Strength of victory.

I'm going to post a few example scenarios in a few minutes.

[Fricknmaniac]

Note all of these examples are purely hypothetical to show the situations and how the tiebreakers are determined (Yes I know the Ravens swept the Steelers this year.)

[u]Example 1[/u]: Ravens, Steelers, and Bengals all finish tied at 10-6. The Ravens and Steelers swept the Bengals. Their records in the Division are Ravens: 5-1 Steelers 4-2 Bengals 2-4

Three team tiebreaker: [b]Step 1[/b]. The Bengals were swept by the other two teams in the tiebreaker (0-4) and they are eliminated.

The tiebreaker resets to the two team tiebreaker.

Two team tie breaker: [b]Step 1[/b]: Ravens and Steelers split the season series so it goes to [b]Step 2[/b]: The Ravens have a better divisional record (5-1) than the Steelers (4-2). So the Ravens win the division.

[u]Example 2[/u]: (Actual example based on the real records this year) The Ravens, Steelers, Patriots, and Texans all finish 12-4.

[b]Step 1[/b]: Do divisional tiebreakers first. The Ravens swept the Steelers head to head, so they win the division.

Three team tiebreaker:

[b]Step 1[/b]: Head to head. Between Ravens, Patriots and Texans none of them defeated both of the other teams (because neither team played the Patriots).

[b]Step 2[/b]: Conference Record: The Texans have the best Conference record (10-2) than the Ravens (9-3) and Patriots (9-3). As a result the Texans get the #1 seed. Since the Texans have gotten their seed, the tiebreakers resort to a two team tiebreaker.

[b]Step 1: [/b]Raven and Patriots: Head to head. They did not play, not applicable.

[b]Step 2[/b]: Conference Record: They both have the same conference record (9-3).

[b]Step 3: [/b]Common games: They are both 4-1 in common games (Ravens beat Steelers x2, Colts, and Jets, lost to Chargers.) (Patriots beat the Jets x2, Colts, Chargers, and lost to the Steelers.)

[b]Step 4[/b]: Strength of Victory: This is the record of the teams that each of the teams have beaten. The Ravens win this tiebreaker.

[Wacko4Zacko]

We need Texans to win out because that will prevent any chance of Pittsburgh getting a 1st round bye, but we can winout at same time. Texans winning out would be a safety blanket for us to fall onto so that Steelers cant get #1 or #2

[Dudeman]

[quote name='Wacko4Zacko' timestamp='1324502695' post='917691']
We need Texans to win out because that will prevent any chance of Pittsburgh getting a 1st round bye, but we can winout at same time. Texans winning out would be a safety blanket for us to fall onto so that Steelers cant get #1 or #2
[/quote]

How do you figure? I figure the best thing for us is to continue rooting against the Patriots, Steelers, AND Texans.

[usmccharles]

im perfectly fine with the 2 seed. then ill will just hope somone beats the 1 seed, but if the pats or texans are the one seed im not too worried about going into their house and beating them. Texans dont have mario williams and andre johnson and have a rookie qb. Pats will obviously be the harder test but as long as we can get to brady and get a couple hits on him he will get rattled, then run rice at least 25 times.

I swear to god, if ray rice doesnt get the ball at least 20 times the rest of the year, including playoffs im going to freak the eff out.

[BenDufusberger]

[quote name='usmccharles' timestamp='1324504615' post='917726']
im perfectly fine with the 2 seed. then ill will just hope somone beats the 1 seed, but if the pats or texans are the one seed im not too worried about going into their house and beating them. Texans dont have mario williams and andre johnson and have a rookie qb. Pats will obviously be the harder test but as long as we can get to brady and get a couple hits on him he will get rattled, then run rice at least 25 times.

[b]I swear to god, if ray rice doesnt get the ball at least 20 times the rest of the year, including playoffs im going to freak the eff out.[/b]
[/quote]

If Cam is reading that , he's doing the following calculation :

"Let's see , 2 regular season games , 2 playoff games , and the SB. That's 5 games. 20 divided by 5 equals 4 carries per game. I can live with that ! "

"Consider it done ! "

[Wacko4Zacko]

[quote name='Dudeman' timestamp='1324502823' post='917695']

How do you figure? I figure the best thing for us is to continue rooting against the Patriots, Steelers, AND Texans.
[/quote]
Because its a backup plan think about it. If we lose one of our last and Pitts wins out, but the Texans also win out then that puts Texans at #2 seed and last thing we would wants the Steelers to have is homefield and a 1 week bye. But in all truthful I am hoping Ravens to winout, but its always good to have a plan B for us Ravens fans.