Big Ten announces new tiebreak procedures in football

OFFICIAL TIE-BREAKING PROCEDURES

ROSEMONT, Ill. (August 26, 2024) – The Big Ten Conference on Monday announced new tiebreaker procedures for the 2024 Discover Big Ten Championship Game, the first game in Big Ten history to pit the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the conference standings against each other.

If two teams are tied in the Big Ten standings (conference games only), the following steps will be taken until a decision is made (abbreviated version below, full version listed here):

1. The teams with the same points are compared based on their direct encounters during the regular season.
2. The tied teams are compared based on their record against all common conference opponents.
3. The tied teams are compared based on their record against common opponents with the best conference record and then go through the common conference opponents according to their placement in the conference standings.
4. The tied teams are compared based on the best cumulative win percentage of all conference opponents.
5. The representative will be selected based on the highest ranking by SportSource Analytics (Team Rating Score metric) after the regular season.
6. The representative will be chosen at random from among the tied teams, conducted by the Commissioner or a designee.

For more information, including the procedure for when three or more teams are tied on points, click here.

The 2024 Discover Big Ten Championship Game will be held on Saturday, December 7, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis and will be broadcast for the first time on CBS. The winner will represent the conference as an Automatic Qualifier (AQ) for the College Football Playoff.

The Big Ten football season begins this weekend with all 18 teams in action, beginning with three games on Thursday night, two on Friday, 12 on Saturday and one on Sunday. The 2024 season will be the first to feature a full schedule of Big Ten games on three broadcast networks (CBS, FOX, NBC), supported by exclusive cable and streaming coverage throughout the season on Big Ten Network, FS1 and Peacock.