Tie Breaker Question

[Vince4Heisman]

Ok this example is from 13/14 yr old league but I was wondering how high school or college would handle this particular situation. I can't recall.

The situation is there is a three way tie for first in a 15 game schedule. Each team played the others 3 times. Team A took 2 of 3 from Teams B and C but lost to two lower ranked teams. Teams B took two of three from team C. All teams have the same record of 12-3. Wouldnt this be broken by head to head matchups first so Team A would be 1 seed, and then head to had for the second place spot so Team B would get that?

What is being proposed is that a coin flip decides who gets "left out" and then use head to head for the remaining teams. I could see this being the case IF one team didnt own the series over both of the other teams...IE kinda like the Big 12 situation in football where Texas beat OU, Tech beat Texas and OU beat Tech. But in this case it would be like Texas beating the other two so they would get 1st spot.

How does high school handle that? I know the NFL goes to head to head matchups first....

this is how the rules are written currently

Tie Breakers to Determine Seeding

1) Head to Head record

2) If 3 teams are tied there will be a 3 way coin flip with the odd coin being out and seeded the lowest. Then the head to head record will be used for the 2 remaining teams. ex. if 3 teams are tied for 1st, then teams A, B and C will each flip a coin at the same time. Lets say team A &B turn up heads and team C is tails. Then team C is seed #3 and teams A&B will now use their head to head records to determine seeds #1 and #2.

Let me clarify. Seed 1 and 2 get byes in our post season tourney....seed 3 plays 6 and the winner of that plays 2...seeds 4 and 5 play with the winner playing seed 1....so being seed 1 is a big advantage getting a bye and playing 4 or 5, seed 2 is ok with the bye but sets up tough game with seed 3 in second round....seed 3 tough because have to win 3 games plus beating seed 2 and 1 possibly

 

[Horns11]

Seems like coin flip is definitely the most expedient option. All three teams would have a claim in this situation, and since there's no such thing as BCS rankings, and it's only junior high schoolers, I'd honor the results of a flip.

 

[Vince4Heisman]

Why would all three teams have a claim? Team A owns the series over Team B and C?

I read the rule as if the three way cant be broken by head to head records, IE each team owns the series over one team but not both, then you go to the coin flip.

 

[TXThorn]

The only way this should shake out with head-to-head being first tie-breaker is viewing it as a 3-team conference...the top 3. The rest of the league should be forgotten even if a h2h cannot be settled by records against each other, and all 3 have 3-3 records. Then you would move to points scored for and against, etc.

But in this situation the 3-team records vs one another should decide the order at 4-2, 3-3, and 2-4. So the order should be according to that. In a fair and just world that is, which we know it ain't. lol

I have seen weird rules such as head-to-head being used only when there are 2 teams tied, if more it moves on to the next tie-breaker. But I can't see why this would ever be the case from what was described and the amount each team plays one another resolving it. Then again strange, rare tie-breaker rules are far more common for leagues with much younger players.