Big 12 Conference Offers Addendum to Clarify Murky Tiebreaker Rule

Although there are still endless possibilities for the final standings, the league has cleared up one sticking point in its original tiebreaker procedure.

John E. Hoover | Nov 15, 2023

Big 12 Conference Offers Addendum to Clarify Murky Tiebreaker Rule /

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Oklahoma Sooners

As expected, the Big 12 exercised common sense on Wednesday to help clarify its postseason tiebreaker procedures.

Actually, the league amended its rules — established in August for its new 14-team configuration — and added wording to figure out who would emerge from a complicated three-way tiebreaker.

Every Big 12 team still has two conference games to play, so there are countless possible permutations to settle the leaguer standings. But in this case, the projected teams are Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Kansas State. OSU beat both OU and K-State, while the Sooners and Wildcats did not play this season.

Big 12 tiebreaker rule / Big 12 Conference

“In the event of a multiple-team tie, head-to-head wins takes precedence. If all the tied teams are not common opponents, the tied team that defeated each of the other tied teams earns the Championship berth,” the addendum reads.

In the previous version, posted on the Big 12’s official website in August, says “Head-to-head (best cumulative win percentage in games among the tied teams). If not, every tied team has played each other, go to step 2.”

Big 12 tiebreaker, August 2023 / Big12Sports.com

The poorly worded original version indicates that because OU and KSU did not play, OSU’s victory over them both is thrown out and the next tiebreaker would be invoked.

Now, with two games left in the season, that wording has been fixed.

“There have been no changes to any rules regarding Big 12 Football tiebreaker procedures, which were agreed upon prior to the season and went into effect August of 2023” the Big 12 statement reads.

Oklahoma (8-2 overall, 5-2 Big 12) finishes the regular season with a road game at BYU (5-5, 2-5) this Saturday, then closes the schedule on Friday, Nov. 24, with a home game against TCU.

First-place Texas (9-1, 6-1) visits Iowa State (6-4, 5-2) this week, while KState (7-3, 5-2) visits Kansas and Oklahoma State (7-3, 5-2) visits Houston.

Published Nov 15, 2023

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.