Arizona Wildcats Now Know Big 12 Conference Title Tiebreakers

The Big 12 Conference has revealed its tiebreakers for the title game, which could have a major impact on the Arizona Wildcats.

Dec 3, 2022; Arlington, TX, USA; A view of the Big 12 conference championship logo as Kansas State Wildcats warms up before the game between the TCU Horned Frogs and the Kansas State Wildcats at AT&T Stadium. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

The 2024 college football season is the first for the Arizona Wildcats in the Big 12. They are one of four former Pac-12 members that have joined this season, along with Arizona State, Colorado and Utah.

Their membership brings the total number of teams playing football up to 16. As a megaconference, some rules needed to be adjusted when it came to the conference title game, with ties being at the forefront.

How those tiebreakers will be handled has officially been announced.

As shared by Heather Dinich of ESPN, the first tiebreaker that will be used is the head-to-head record. If two teams finish with the same record and face off against each other, the victor of that game will be the higher seed.

If there was no head-to-head matchup, the tiebreaker that will be used is the winning percentage against common conference opponents. 

No. 3 is, “The tied teams will be compared based on win percentage against the next highest-placed common opponent in the standings (based on the record in all games played within the conference) proceeding through the standings.”

In the fourth tiebreaker, the combined win percentage of conference opponents will be used. Fifth is the total number of victories the tied teams have in a 12-game season.

If even more tiebreakers are needed, the Big 12 will use SportsSource Analytics and select the higher-rated team following the end of the regular season. If none of that works, a good old-fashioned coin toss is option No. 7.

It will be interesting to see how all of this works for Arizona. Their matchup against the Kansas State Wildcats isn’t considered a conference game because it was scheduled before realignment.

The Baylor Bears and Utah have a similar situation in Week 2 as the game was scheduled before both being members of the Big 12. How will those count for these tiebreakers if it is considered an out-of-conference game against a conference opponent?

Since those contests won’t count toward conference records, more than likely they aren’t going to be part of the equation in tiebreakers. That could be good or bad news for the Wildcats depending on how the games go.

With so many teams in the conference, there are bound to be some ties in the standings. These tiebreakers will come into play if two teams don’t separate themselves atop the league during conference play.