Big Ten Reveals Tiebreaker Rules for 2024 Football Season

The Big Ten has released a six-step tiebreaker process to determine which teams play in the Big Ten Championship Game, if necessary.

The Big Ten Football Championship trophy / Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

Well, we had to wait until the first week of the Big Ten football season, but we have finally received information regarding the tiebreaker process. The conference released its six-step process for determining Big Ten Championship Game participants, if necessary.

The Big Ten expanded to 18 teams during the offseason and eliminated divisions, meaning the two teams with the best records at the end of the season will play for the Big Ten title at Lucas Oil Stadium. But what happens if two or more teams have the same record at the end of the season?

For months, we've wondered what the Big Ten's process would be for breaking ties. On Monday, the league released the step-by-step process for determining championship game participants.

Here's how the conference broke it down:

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.

The 2024 Big Ten Championship Game will be played on Saturday, Dec. 7 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind.

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