[NU Sports] What if.............. (fwd)

[Jim Bendat]

It's a two step process. First, the Big Ten has its tie-breaking 
procedures to determine who the conference rep to the BCS major bowl 
shall be.  Then, the second step is that the three bowls (other than the 
Rose Bowl) will decide which one of them takes that pre-determined Big 
Ten rep.  It's that simple.  -- Jim B.

John Labbe wrote:

> OK, this tie-breaking discussion is getting complicated.  For some 
> reason, I can recall debates about how this procedure works going 
> years back, when the question can be answered by referring to the 
> rules (see link below).  But it turns out that this year, at least, 
> this procedure is a bit more complicated than I thought.
>
> It turns out that if there's a tie, the BCS bowls will get to pick 
> which Big Ten team they want.  Who knew that?  Read on to learn more.
>
> There was some suggestion in some of the earlier posts that the BCS 
> bowls gets to pick their team from the Big Ten or that ranking in the 
> BCS determines the Big Ten representative.  I thought this was 
> incorrect.  It was my understanding that the Big Ten gets to pick its 
> automatic BCS representative using whatever procedure it chooses, and 
> it has chosen to use its own set of tie-breaking procedures.  The only 
> exception to the normal tie-breaking rules, to my knowledge, was if 
> one of the teams tied for the Big Ten championship was ranked #1 or #2 
> in the BCS, in which case that team would get the automatic bid and 
> play in the national championship game, regardless of the normal 
> tie-breaking procedures.
>
> But in fact, the Big Ten's tie-breaking procedures are ONLY for use in 
> years when the Rose Bowl is NOT the national championship game and the 
> Big Ten winner, therefore, goes to the Rose Bowl.  Hence, the set of 
> tie-breakers that we're familiar with only applies for selecting a Big 
> Ten team for the Rose Bowl, not for any other BCS bowl, like this year.
>
> Check out the rules at the following link:
>
> http://bigten.collegesports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/102204aad.html
>
> According to those rule:
>  "In years that the Rose Bowl hosts the national championship game and 
> the Conference champion is not ranked No. 1 or No. 2, the champion or 
> co-champion will be available for selection by the Orange, Sugar, 
> Fiesta, or other bowls designated for inclusion in the BCS."
>
> That's the scenario this year.  So in theory, if there's a tie between 
> PSU and Michigan, for instance, a BCS bowl could pick PSU if it wanted 
> to, even though the normal Big Ten tie-breaking procedures would pick 
> Michigan.  Or in a tie between PSU and OSU, a BCS bowl could pick 
> OSU.  Interesting that the commentators haven't talked about this, but 
> they're not really good at reading fine print until a bowl makes a 
> pick they don't expect.
>
> The rules then go on to say:
>
> "If the champion or co-champion is not ranked No. 1 or 2, that team 
> shall participate in the Rose Bowl in years when the Rose Bowl is not 
> hosting the national championship game as follows: [then the 
> tie-breaking procedures are spelled out]"
>
> That's not this year.  But for the heck of it, if you were to apply 
> the regular tie-breakers, here's the analysis that would apply:
>
>
> First, to return to the original question:  If there's a four-way tie 
> between PSU, OSU, NU, and Wisconsin, the answer would be simple:  PSU 
> would get the Rose Bowl bid.  That's because you use the head-to-head 
> tie breaker first and PSU beat all three of the other teams.  It 
> doesn't matter that OSU and Wisconsin didn't play each other.  They 
> each lost to PSU, so PSU gets the nod.  (See tie-breaking rule 7(a).)
>
> Second, if there's a three-way tie between PSU, Wisconsin, and Ohio 
> State, the answer would again be simple:  PSU would get the Rose Bowl 
> bid.  See above.  (See tie-breaking rule 6(a).)
>
> Third, if there's a three-way tie between PSU, Wisconsin, and 
> Michigan, it's a little more complicated.  The head-to-head doesn't 
> work because each team beat one of the other two but lost to one of 
> the other two, as well (i.e., their each 1-1).  So as Stephen points 
> out, Michigan is eliminated because they have the lower overall 
> record, and then PSU beats Wisconsin head-to-head.  (See tie-breaking 
> rule 6(d).)
>
> Again, the previous three paragraphs of analysis do not apply to this 
> year, but it's the way the normal tie-breakers would play out, if they 
> applied.  Presumably the BCS bowls would consider these tie-breaking 
> principles in making their decision, but not necessarily, I don't 
> suppose.
>
>
> On Nov 6, 2005, at 3:31 PM, SjT (Stephen J. Truog) wrote:
>
>>> PSU holds all tiebreakers as long as it beats MSU to
>>> finish the
>>> season.  If they lose that game, the winner of the
>>> Ohio State/Michigan
>>> game would go (assuming OSU beats NU and Michigan
>>> beats Indiana).
>>
>>
>> Not necessarily. If PSU, Wisconsin and the OSU/UM
>> winner all wind up 6-2 in league play - PSU still
>> goes. Head to head can't be used (everyone's 1-1 if
>> it's Michigan and OSU/UW never played), so you then
>> eliminate the team with the worst overall mark, and
>> OSU/UM both lost out of conference where PSU and UW
>> did not. So then you have PSU-UW and the Nits win.
>>
>> The only way PSU loses this is if they lose, Michigan
>> wins out and no one else (besides Northwestern)
>> finishes 6-2. There is no way we can win the bid and
>> Michigan beat both PSU and NU. Stupid Wolverines.:)
>>
>> But 6-2 would still be a nice finish - conference
>> co-title or not. GO CATS!!! BEAT THE BUCKS!!!
>> -SjT
>>
>> * * * * * * * * *
>> STEPHEN J. TRUOG
>> sjtruog at yahoo.com
>> GO CATS!!!
>>
>>
>>        
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