Jim Phillips jokes about ACC tiebreakers, abandoning division model
Revenue distribution and the revenue gap between the SEC and Big Ten conferences were two of the hottest topics at this week’s annual ACC meetings. But starting in 2023, the new and exciting ACC scheduling format will debut, doing away with divisions going forward.
A divisonless conference opens up the possibility of a tie occurring at the end of the season ahead of the conference championship game, and the ACC’s tiebreaker rules were released this week revealing how ties will be handled in the future. The rules are a little long and a little complicated, which ACC commissioner Jim Phillips joked about during spring meetings.
“You’ve got the tie-breaking missive there and we will add the rock, paper, scissors at the very end, so that’s a must,” Phillips said.
Potential ACC title game participants won’t be playing rock, paper, scissors to determine their future, but win percentage and other analytics could play a factor in future tiebreakers.
Phillips expressed excitement about the scrapping divisions in the conference, explaining some of its short-term and long-term benefits within the new college football landscape.
“I’m incredibly excited about the collapsing of the divisions and us having a chance to get our very two best teams into the ACC Championship and then into the College Football Playoff,” Phillips explained. “And then as we have an expanded College Football Playoff it really does give us a chance to have multiple teams by structuring it that way.”
The ACC is adopting a 3-5-5 scheduling format starting in 2023, with teams playing three permanent rivalry opponents annually and rotating amongst the other 10 opponents every other season. This new schedule allows for any four-year student-athlete in the ACC to get a taste of every single gameday environment the conference has to offer moving forward.
“As importantly, I’m fired up for our student-athletes that over the course of a four-year span that they’re going to travel and play every school in our conference home and away. We’ve just gone too long with certain games not being played six years, eight years and so I think those things are certainly benefits,” Phillips said.
Check out the ACC’s aforementioned tiebreaker rules below.
Two-Team Tie
Head-to-head competition between the two tied teams.Win percentage versus all common opponents.Win percentage versus common opponents based upon their order of finish (overall conference win percentage, with ties broken) and proceeding through other common opponents based upon their order of finish.Combined win percentage of conference opponents.The tied team with the higher ranking by the Team Rating Score metric provided by SportSource Analytics following the conclusion of regular season games.The representative shall be chosen by a draw as administered by the Commissioner or Commissioner’s designee.
Three (or More) Team Tie
Three team (or more) tiebreaker procedure will first be used to identify one Championship Game representative. Once that team is determined, the tiebreaker procedures restart for the remaining tied teams.
Combined head-to-head win percentage among the tied teams if all tied teams are common opponents.If all the tied teams are not common opponents, the tied team that defeated each of the other tied teams.Win percentage versus all common opponents.Win percentage versus common opponents based on their order of finish (overall conference win percentage, with ties broken) and proceeding through other common opponents based upon their order of finish.Combined win percentage of conference opponents.The tied team with the higher ranking by the Team Rating Score metric provided by SportSource Analytics following the conclusion of regular season games.The representative shall be chosen by a draw as administered by the Commissioner or Commissioner’s designee.
Note: Conference games against otherwise post-season ineligible teams will always be counted in the league standings and in application of the tiebreaker procedures.
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