C-USA Western division champion race ramblings
I don't normally post about sports (especially after I just did so in my last post), but with the Houston win over Tulsa, C-USA West just got far more interesting.
The simplest results:
- If Houston beats UTEP and Rice, Houston wins the West. They're the only team in charge of their own destiny at this point.
- If Rice beats Marshall and Houston, and Tulsa loses one more (either against Tulane or Marshall), then Rice wins the West.
- If Tulsa beats Tulane and Marshall, and Houston loses to either UTEP or Rice, Tulsa wins.
The far more interesting situation: if Marshall beats both Rice and Tulsa, Rice beats Houston, Tulsa beats Tulane and Houston beats UTEP, we have a three way tie - each of the three teams would be 6-2 in C-USA.
The tie-breakers, according to the C-USA official rules:
1. Highest regular season winning percentage based on overall Conference USA play. (Tied: 6-2)
2. If tied, head to head between tied teams. (Tied: Rice over Houston, Houston over Tulsa, Tulsa over Rice)
3. If still tied, highest winning percentage within division. (Tied: 4-1 in C-USA West)
4. If still tied, compare records against divisional opponents in descending order of finish. (Tied: All three teams would have beaten UTEP, Tulane, and SMU)
5. If still tied, compare records with common cross-divisional opponents. (Tied: Same records - all three teams would have lost to Marshall, and won against their other two Eastern opponents)
6. If still tied, compare records against cross-divisional opponents in descending order of
finish. (Tied: Same reason as #5. At first this one didn't make sense, but then it started to make sense - say Houston and Rice both played ECU and Marshall and were tied in the first 5 tie-breakers. If Houston beat ECU and lost to Marshall, while Rice beat Marshall and lost to ECU, then if ECU ended the season in higher standing, Houston would win this tie breaker. This situation wouldn't come up this year, but I can only imagine that this algorithm might not converge if it was necessary to have an Eastern AND Western tie-breaker and so neither side had a team ranked "above" the other at this step.)
7. If still tied, team with highest BCS ranking. (Tied: With Tulsa off the rankings this week, none of the three teams are ranked. This whole situation presupposes that all three teams lose at least one more game - for the sake of argument, I'm going to assume none of the three teams will end the regular season ranked)
8. If still tied, the representative will be the team that has not participated in the championship game most recently. (Rice Wins! Tulsa went in 2007, and Houston went in 2006)
And don't get me started on the Eastern division - they might end up in a four-way tie.
The simplest results:
- If Houston beats UTEP and Rice, Houston wins the West. They're the only team in charge of their own destiny at this point.
- If Rice beats Marshall and Houston, and Tulsa loses one more (either against Tulane or Marshall), then Rice wins the West.
- If Tulsa beats Tulane and Marshall, and Houston loses to either UTEP or Rice, Tulsa wins.
The far more interesting situation: if Marshall beats both Rice and Tulsa, Rice beats Houston, Tulsa beats Tulane and Houston beats UTEP, we have a three way tie - each of the three teams would be 6-2 in C-USA.
The tie-breakers, according to the C-USA official rules:
1. Highest regular season winning percentage based on overall Conference USA play. (Tied: 6-2)
2. If tied, head to head between tied teams. (Tied: Rice over Houston, Houston over Tulsa, Tulsa over Rice)
3. If still tied, highest winning percentage within division. (Tied: 4-1 in C-USA West)
4. If still tied, compare records against divisional opponents in descending order of finish. (Tied: All three teams would have beaten UTEP, Tulane, and SMU)
5. If still tied, compare records with common cross-divisional opponents. (Tied: Same records - all three teams would have lost to Marshall, and won against their other two Eastern opponents)
6. If still tied, compare records against cross-divisional opponents in descending order of
finish. (Tied: Same reason as #5. At first this one didn't make sense, but then it started to make sense - say Houston and Rice both played ECU and Marshall and were tied in the first 5 tie-breakers. If Houston beat ECU and lost to Marshall, while Rice beat Marshall and lost to ECU, then if ECU ended the season in higher standing, Houston would win this tie breaker. This situation wouldn't come up this year, but I can only imagine that this algorithm might not converge if it was necessary to have an Eastern AND Western tie-breaker and so neither side had a team ranked "above" the other at this step.)
7. If still tied, team with highest BCS ranking. (Tied: With Tulsa off the rankings this week, none of the three teams are ranked. This whole situation presupposes that all three teams lose at least one more game - for the sake of argument, I'm going to assume none of the three teams will end the regular season ranked)
8. If still tied, the representative will be the team that has not participated in the championship game most recently. (Rice Wins! Tulsa went in 2007, and Houston went in 2006)
And don't get me started on the Eastern division - they might end up in a four-way tie.