Remember all the confusion over the three-way tie in the Big Ten last year with Ohio State, Michigan State and Wisconsin? Who wins the tiebreaker? Who goes to the BCS?
Good news: now we can have that same confusion over who goes to the inaugural Big Ten championship. Some new rules have been put into place to help determine divisional races, even if they appear convoluted. Obviously, a two-way tie atop a division will be determined by head-to-head results, but below is the order in which a champion from a three-way tie will be determined. Or, at the very least, the order in which two teams can be separated from the third, in which case the head-to-head scenario applies.
-- Records of the teams
-- Records of the three tied teams compared within their division
-- Records of the teams against the next-highest teams within the division
-- Records against all common conference opponents
-- The team ranked highest in the BCS standings after the regular season gets the league championship game berth unless it is ranked within one spot of another tied team. In this case, the head-to-head result of the two teams would determine the division champion.
-- The team with the highest overall win percentage (outside of exempted games)
-- The division champion will be chosen by random draw.
Additionally, a Big Ten program who is banned from playing in a bowl game will not be allowed to participate in the Big Ten title, a la USC and the Pac-12.
