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Hayes: Playoff poll not part of SEC Championship tiebreaker, sources say
By Matt Hayes
Published:
DALLAS — The SEC is still working through tiebreaker scenarios with a new single division format, but one thing is certain: The College Football Playoff poll will not be part of the process, multiple sources told Saturday Down South.
The selection committee for the CFP poll will choose teams for the new 12-team format, but its final poll is after conference championship games. Therefore, the incomplete selection process can’t factor into what has become a growing formula in the SEC, sources said.
That growth is based on the size of the new 16-team SEC with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma, potential scenarios, and that multiple teams with identical records is a possibility. Complicating all of that is the possibility that some of those teams might not have played one another.
Last season in the Big 12, as many as 5 teams had paths to the conference championship game in late November.
On the final week of the regular season, Texas beat Texas Tech and Oklahoma State beat BYU to earn spots in the championship game. Texas was the league’s only 1-loss team, and Oklahoma State and Oklahoma had identical records, but the Cowboys had the head-to-head win over the Sooners and advanced.
Don’t expect the SEC tiebreaker to veer much from the Big 12 or ACC formulas. Those formulas include but aren’t limited to head-to-head winner, winning percentage against tied teams, and winning percentage against common opponents.
Both the Big 12 and ACC use the Team Rating Score by SportSource Analytics as a late tiebreaker. If teams are still tied after the process, the final tiebreaker is a coin toss in the Big 12 and a draw in the ACC.
The SEC will use a draw as the last tiebreaker, sources said.
Matt Hayes is a national college football writer for Saturday Down South. You can hear him daily from 12-3 p.m. on 1010XL in Jacksonville. Follow on Twitter @MattHayesCFB
