BIRMINGHAM – The Southwestern Athletic Conference Council of Presidents and Chancellors today approved the coin flip procedure for the final step of the conference’s three-team tie breaker for football.
The procedure would be put in place only if Grambling State defeats Texas Southern Thursday, Nov. 20, and loses to Southern on Saturday, Nov. 29. If that occurs, Grambling State, Prairie View A&M and Southern would finish with identical 6-1 records in SWAC play. In following the three-team tie breaker procedure, none of the previous six steps would eliminate one team from the other two.
In the three-team coin flip, three coins (one from each school) would be flipped by a school representative simultaneously. The odd coin not matching the other two coins would be eliminated. If all three coins come up as the same designation, a second coin flip would take place and would repeat until one coin comes up different from the other two within that round.
The two schools with the same coin designation would then follow the steps for the two-team tie breaker (with the first step being head-to-head competition) to determine the Western Division representative for the 2008 SWAC Championship Game on Saturday, Dec. 13 in Birmingham.
If the coin flip is necessary to break the tie between the three teams, it would occur Sunday, Nov. 30 in New Orleans at a location to be announced.
WESTERN DIVISION TITLE SCENARIOS
Grambling State (8-2, 5-0) can win the division outright with:
- Victories over Texas Southern and Southern, giving the Tigers the best division record, OR
- A loss to Texas Southern and a win over Southern, which would give the Tigers the head-to-head tie breaker over both Prairie View A&M and Southern.
- A win over Texas Southern and a loss to Southern would force a three-team coin flip.
Grambling State is eliminated from division title contention with losses to both Texas Southern and Southern.
Prairie View A&M (9-1, 6-1) can win the division outright with:
- Grambling State losing its final two games to Texas Southern and Southern, which would give the Panthers the head-to-head tiebreaker over Southern.
- A Grambling State win over Texas Southern and a loss to Southern would force a three-team coin flip.
The Panthers are eliminated from division title contention if Grambling State wins its final two games over Texas Southern and Southern.
By virtue of being in conference title contention, the Panthers are not eligible for the FCS playoffs.
Southern (6-4, 5-1):
Can only win the division through a three-team coin flip.
The Jaguars must have Grambling State defeat Texas Southern AND Southern must defeat Grambling State to force the proposed three-team coin flip.
Southern is eliminated from division title contention with a loss to Grambling State.
A coin toss is very unfair for the team that has demostrated to win their games and the teams that were defeated by their opponents should be aligned by this. If Grambling beat Prairie View and Southern loss to Prairie View then the final game should come to a point system contest versus a coin toss. The two teams with rights for the championship game should only be Grambling and/or Prairie View with Southern eliminated. With this rule put into place, it seems to accomodate the good-o-boy system to give the others a chance when you know they are really out of the picture completely. We have complanined about the good-o-boy system for years and here we are bringing it back to accomodate personal interest. The coin toss is a great joke, which simply means if you lost a Western Conference game their should be a point system in place like other conferences do to make the compition fair.
If you read the article it states that the current system does not address this issue. I don’t think it is the good ol boys system, these are HBCU’s, I think for the sake of time and because the points system was not in place this is more fair, because a point system if in place at the beginnig of the year my affect play calling. So the point system is a great idea but not a quick fix…something that will take a little longer to impliment and get approved.
This is not the good ol boy system. You can’t use a system of team A beating team B, so team C should be eliminated because they lost to team B. If team C turns around and beats team A, then it’s a 3 way tie since they all have identical conference records, plain and simple.
all of you make statements,but have no real solutions to this,so let us stick with the swac.
The solution is the point system, here in Houston the point system is used for high football, with a major fround on coach’s face for a coin toss. Thd fround is because it is unfair to the players.
This is just wrong. No disrespect to PVU, but they had a very weak schedule compared to the other schools in the SWAC. We all know that SWAC stands for Southern Wins and Cheats; so Grambling should represent the West regardless of the outcome of the Classic, in which the odds are ALWAYS stacked against them due to consistent questionable officiating and home field advantage for Southern.
are u serious .. there’s more player from New Orleans that attend G.S.U. than S.U. ..Where do u suggest the game to be held in Ruston,LA..When G.S.U. was winning the Classic I did not hear anything about homefield advatange..The only advantage S.U. have is called a Head Coach Advatage…
What part of PV’s conferance schedule was weak?
Remember we’re talking about conferance games and not their non-conferance games. PV played the same West teams that GSU & SU played. All of them played Alabama State from the East and they all played 2 other East opponents.
Man, please a coin toss. The only way to settle this tie is the point system and it is very easy. Take the difference of the head to head scores and then add the sum.
Example:
GSU beat PV 40 to 16 the difference is 24
GSU loss to SU 14 to 24 the difference is 10
the sum is 24 + 10 = 34
SU loss to PV 23 to 24 the difference is 1
SU beat GSU 24 to 14 the difference is 10
The sum is 1 + 10 = 11
PV beat SU 24 to 23 the difference is 1
PV loss to GSU 16 to 40 the difference is 24
The sum is 1 + 24 = 25
This was just a hypothetical situation but GSU will win the Bayou Classic so this does not matter.
Exactly!!!!!! Won’t be no COIN FLIP
Well, looks like “ain’t gone be no coin flip.”
I TOLD YOU IT WOULD NOT BE A COIN FLIP. NOW GSU LETS FINISH WHAT WE STARTED LAST YEAR AND BRING IT HOME GRAMBLING BRING IT HOME. THE SWAC CHAMPIONSHIP SHOULD NEVER REST EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. J STATE YOUR ARE NEXT!!! WE OWE YOU.