I thought I’d write a post describing what happens in the event of a tie in the Big Ten (the real football, not the elimination). As most of you know, the Big Ten has 2 divisions. The East consists of Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Maryland, Indiana, and that’s it*. The shit** division consists of Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, Northwestern, Purdue, Minnesota, and Illinois. Seriously, this is the way the divisions are laid out… because Jim Delaney is a dumbass. I mean I know Nebraska is having a bad year and Iowa is decent once in a while but come on… Rutgers would be tied for 3rd*** in this division right now…
Anyway, here’s how it works. Stay with me because there’s a whole bunch of words arranged into sentences here… Every team plays everyone in their division(6 games), 3 teams from the other division, and 3 non-conference games. The winner of the West plays the winner of the East in Indianapolis. The winner of each division is the team in that division with the best conference record. (games against non-Big Ten teams don’t count). If there are two teams with the same conference record in the division then the team that won the head-to-head matchup is the winner. If there are more than two teams with the same conference record in the division then they go through a huge list of tiebreakers**** until there are only 1 or 2 teams left un..tie..broken. If at any point there are 2 teams left then the one who won the head to head matchup wins the division… Confused yet? Let’s go through two possible examples:
Let’s assume that Penn State, Michigan State, and Michigan win the rest of their games. This would mean that PSU, MSU, UM, and OSU are all tied in the East at 7-2. (assuming OSU beats Illinois). The first step in the list™ is to compare the tied teams’ records against each other. In this situation:
PSU: 1-2 with losses to OSU and MSU and Win over UM
MSU: 2-1 with loss to OSU and wins over PSU, UM
OSU: 2-1 with loss to UM and wins over PSU, MSU
UM: 1-2 with losses to MSU, PSU
UM and PSU are eliminated. With only 2 teams left, OSU beat MSU so OSU is the winner.
Now let’s assume the same situation but MSU loses to Rutgers and/or Maryland. Now we have 3 teams in the East at 7-2 (UM, PSU, OSU) Again compare the records against eachother (UM=1-1, OSU=1-1, PSU=1-1). Still 3 so go to the next TB™ This is to compare each team’s record against the division.
UM: 4-2 (Losses against MSU, PSU)
PSU: 4-2 (W: IU, UM, Rutgers, MD, L: OSU, MSU)
OSU: 5-1(W: IU, Rutgers, MD, PSU, MSU)
OSU still wins. There are situations in which OSU doesn’t win but a. they’re not likely b. they don’t help further explain the tie breaker, and c. I’m not gonna spell them out because, you know… NEVER EAT POULTRY WHEN THE SCORE IS TIED!
Everybody get it? No? Perfect. Tune in next week when we discuss gravitational parabolas and why it’s a bad idea to throw god damn fades to receivers listed at 5’11”.
*Oh and some high school from New Jersey I guess.
**Sorry I misspelled worst… I mean West.
***Possibly higher as they would have probably played Wisconsin, Iowa, and Northwestern instead of Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State
****I’m going to make the official name of this list “The-List-Of-Tie-Breakers-That’s-Really-Long-and-Way-Too-Complicated-For-Rutgers-To-Understand-But-Fortunately-They’ll-Never-Have-To-so-Once-Again-They-Shouldn’t-Be-In-The-Big-Ten”™ The whole list is here if you’re interested but we’ll likely not get past the first one or two.