SLIAC Tie-Breaker Process

The following steps are used to break ties for Tournament seeding and qualification in the sports of baseball, basketball, soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball.  Starting with #1 and proceed through the steps until the tie is broken.  The tie-breaker process for multi-team ties will always return to head-to-head competition once a team has been eliminated (from the tournament or placed in a lower seed). In a multi-team tie the group's record against each other will be compared head-to-head to eliminate the first team (or assign the lowest seed). 

Only games counted as Conference competition shall be used in the tie-breaker process for steps 1-5.Only games counted as Conference competition shall be used in the tie-breaker process steps 1-5.

1.)  Head-to-head

2.)  Record vs. teams in descending order from first place

3.)  Quality of wins index head-to-head amongst tied teams

4.)  Quality of wins index, all conference contests

5.)  Fewest Conduct Fouls in conference contests

6.)  NCAA In-Region Strength of Schedule

7.)  Coin Toss

Application of Record vs. teams in descending order

• Tied teams’ record against other schools, starting with the team in first-place. Work through the standings in order until the tie is broken. If there are other ties in the standing (in addition to the one being broken), the combined record against tied teams will be compared. 
• In a two-team tie, team with more wins/higher winning percentage qualifies for the tournament or receives the higher seed.
• In a three or more team tie, the team with fewest wins/lowest winning percentage is eliminated from the tournament or receives lower seed. Remaining teams return to Step 1. 

Quality of Wins Index (for Steps 3 & 4)

Win on the road – 4 points

Win at home – 3 points

Loss on the road – 2 points

Loss at home – 1 point

Tie- Sum of road win and road loss, divide by two. Sum of home win and home loss, divide by two.

Points for tied contests are calculated by taking the points which would have been awarded with a win, adding the points which would have been awarded with a loss and dividing by two.

The quality-of-wins index is calculated by adding the total number of points and dividing by the number of games.

A neutral game is defined as being at a site where neither team practices or plays its regular home games and, as such, is awarded as if it were an away game.