Big Ten Announces Guidelines for Conference Championship Tiebreakers

The Big Ten has added numerous schools to the conference. It recently announced the tiebreaker rules for the conference championship game.

Jul 23, 2024; Indianapolis, IN, USA; The National Championship trophy is displayed during the Big 10 football media day at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Goddin-USA TODAY Sports / Robert Goddin-USA TODAY Sports

The 2024-25 college football season has finally arrived, and there have been many changes to college football programs nationwide. Most schools have at least a few new faces from the transfer portal, and every program has new faces from the most recent recruiting class on its roster. However, as there have been many changes, specifically to college football programs, there have also been changes to multiple football conferences as of late. 

The Big Ten recently added four new teams to the conference: Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and USC. Along with adding new schools, the Big Ten has also abolished divisions, forcing the conference to develop new rules and regulations for the conference championship game. This year’s Discover Big Ten Championship game will be the first time the Big Ten’s conference championship is played between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the conference’s standings at the end of the season. The Big Ten recently announced changes in its conference championship tiebreaking regulations on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

According to the Big Ten: “if two teams are tied in the Big Ten standings (conference games only), the following steps will be taken until a determination is made.

1. The tied teams will be compared based on head-to-head matchups during the regular season.
2. The tied teams will be compared based on record against all common conference opponents.
3. The tied teams will be compared based on record against common opponents with the best conference record and proceeding through the common conference opponents based on their order of finish within the conference standings.
4. The tied teams will be compared based on the best cumulative conference winning percentage of all conference opponents.
5. The representative will be chosen based on the highest ranking by SportSource Analytics (team Rating Score metric) following the regular season.
6. The representative will be chosen by random draw among the tied teams conducted by the Commissioner or designee.”

Michigan State and Coach Jonathan Smith hope to one day play in the conference championship, which is not out of the question in the next few years if Coach Smith can successfully recruit the talent to East Lansing needed to climb the Big Ten ranks.

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