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Here’s how B1G division winners will be determined with canceled games

Published: Oct 28, 2020 · 4:25 PM EDT

The Big Ten is prepared for a situation in which its teams haven’t played an equal amount of games at the end of the year.

With Wisconsin-Nebraska already canceled — and more cancelations likely to come later in the year — here’s how the Big Ten is planning to determine division winners for an uneven amount of games played.

Minimum Criteria

Teams are required to play at least six of the eight games in order to qualify for a division title. There is an exception — if the average number of games played drops below eight, then to qualify a team would have to play at least two games less than the average.

So if the average games played drops to seven, the minimum number of games to be considered for a division title becomes five.

Determining division champions

With all conference games completed, the best winning percentage in all conference games.
In the event of an unbalanced schedule due to cancellation of games:
1. If two (or more)teams have the same number of conference losses but a different number of conference wins, head-to-head results will take precedence over winning percentage, as long as the two (or more) teams meet minimum number of games language noted above.
2. If the game was cancelled between two teams with the same winning percentage in all conference games or the same number of conference losses but a different number of conference wins, move to tiebreaker for two teams below.
3. If a game or games was cancelled between three or more teams with the same winning percentage in all conference games or the same number of conference losses but a different number of conference wins, move to tiebreaker for three or more teams below.
4. The team or teams with the best winning percentage in all conference games and both championship game participants will earn at least a share of the division championship.

Tie-breaker scenarios

If there’s a tie, here’s how the Big Ten will handle that:

The winner of the game between the two tied teams shall be the representative. If the game was cancelled between the two teams, move to next step in tiebreaker.
The records of the two tied teams will be compared based on winning percentage within their division:
1. (a)In the event of an unbalanced schedule: If two teams have the same number of division losses but a different number of division wins, move to next step in tiebreaker.
2. If two teams have a different number of division losses, the teams will be compared based on winning percentage within their division.
The records of the two tied teams will be compared based on winning percentage against the next highest placed teams in their division in order of finish (3, 4, 5, 6, and 7):
1. (a)When arriving at a group of tied teams while comparing records, use each team’s record based on winning percentage against the collective tied teams as a group, rather than record against the individual teams.
2. (b)In the event of an unbalanced schedule:
  1. I) If one or both teams did not play a certain team, move to the next highest placed teams in their division in order of finish.
  2. II). If one or both teams did not play all teams in the group of tied teams, move to the next highest placed team or teams in their division in order of finish.
  3. iii.If one or both teams did not play the lowest placed team in their division, move to next step in tiebreaker.
The records of the two tied teams will be compared based on winning percentage against all common conference opponents.
The records of the two tied teams will be compared based on the best cumulative conference winning percentage of non-divisional opponents:
1. (a)Example: East 1 non-divisional opponents are 20-7, East 2 non-divisional opponents are 19-8–East 1 would be the representative.
2. (b)In the event of an unbalanced schedule, the records of the two tied teams will be compared based on the best cumulative conference winning percentage of non-divisional opponents, regardless of how many non-divisional opponents each team played. If one or both teams played no non-divisional opponents, move to next step in tiebreaker.
The records of the two tied teams will be compared based on winning percentage against the highest placed non-divisional teams in their division order of finish (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7).
1. (a)When arriving at a group of tied teams while comparing records, use each team’s record based on winning percentage against the collective tied teams as a group, rather than record against the individual teams.
2. (b)When comparing records against a single team or a group of teams, the record will prevail, even if the number of games played against the team or group are unequal (i.e. 1-0 is better than 0-0, 2-0 is better than 1-0, etc.).
The team with the best overall winning percentage [excluding exempted games] shall be the representative, regardless of number of games played.
The representative will be chosen by random draw.

Spenser Davis

Spenser is the news manager at Saturday Road and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.