'Capped scoring margin' and 'Random draw' highlight new SEC football tie-breaker rules

With 16 teams and an eight game SEC football schedule, tie-breakers stand to be quite important in determining what teams advance to the SEC Championship Game. The SEC took plenty of time to issue its new tie-breaker rules. The details provided don't answer every question about how the tie-breakers will be used.

2024 SEC Football Tie-Breaker Rules

In the event of a tie between teams competing for a place in the Conference championship game, the following procedures will be used in descending order until the tie is broken:

• Head-to-head competition among the tied teams
  

• Record versus all common Conference opponents among the tied teams
  

• Record against highest (best) placed common Conference opponent in the Conference standings, and proceeding through the Conference standings among the tied teams
  

• Cumulative Conference winning percentage of all Conference opponents among the tied teams
  

• Capped relative total scoring margin versus all Conference opponents among the tied teams
  

• Random draw of the tied teams

The first three tie-breakers should be sufficient to select participants in the SEC Championship Game. A guess is that 90%-plus of ties will be resolved through one of the first three tie-breakers.

In the odd circumstance when a final selection goes down to the fifth tie-breaker, there is some unknown. What is the 'cap' on the total scoring margin? It is not defined. Some number will be applied to avoid teams running up blowout scores against the weakest SEC teams. With a cap, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, and maybe a couple of other teams will get embarrassed in some games.

A guess is the chance a tie is broken through a random draw must be less than 1%. If such a bizarre instance were to occur, would it be reminiscent of the coin flip scene in the Friday Night Lights movie?

A little controversy over the tie-breakers at the end of the season might be a tipping point to nudge the SEC forward to a nine-game SEC schedule.