Southern Miss is on the losing end of C-USA’s late changes to tie-breaking rules
A significant change in the tie-breaking process to determine the Conference USA West champion has caused quite the stir among Southern Miss football fans.
In a Sunday release to media, the conference laid out the tie-breaker that will decide the West in the event that Southern Miss, UAB and Louisiana Tech finish in a three-way tie atop the division. The three teams each have a 5-2 mark in conference play headed into final weekend of the regular season.
The Sunday release from the conference explained:
“If Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss and UAB each win their final regular season game and finish 6-2, the tie would not be broken through the first seven tie-breakers and it would go down to tie-breaker No. 8: ‘If still tied, the representative will be the team that has not participated in the championship game most recently.’ Southern Miss (2015) would win that tie-breaker ahead of LA Tech (2016) and UAB (2018).”
The Sun Herald reached out to Russ Anderson, who is C-USA’s assistant commissioner for football and baseball operations, at 1:34 p.m. on Monday to make sure that the tie-breaker No. 8 would also apply in the event that USM, UAB and Louisiana Tech all lost on Sunday and finished in a three-way tie.
He responded less than 30 minutes later, “Three-way 5-3 tie is the same as the three-way 6-2 tie.”
On Tuesday morning, a look at the Conference USA web site reveals that the tie-breaker to decide the West has been changed.
The release on the C-USA web site that explains the tie-breaker scenarios now says that, “If Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss and UAB each win their final regular season game and finish 6-2, the tie would not be broken through the first seven tie-breakers and it would go down to average computer ranking (Anderson and Hester, Billingsley, Colley Matrix, Massey, Sagarin and Wolfe), with the highest ranked team earning a spot in the Championship.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Anderson released a statement in response to the controversy surrounding the rules change.
“On Monday, our Athletics Directors clarified the ‘Two-team or multiple team tie for divisional champion’ by adding ‘Highest average computer ranking’ following ‘Highest CFP Ranking.’
“This mirrors the policy to determine the host and enforces the intent that the competitive results determine the outcome.”
In other words, the athletic directors decided to clarify tie-breaker No. 7, which used the College Football Playoff rankings to decide the division champion. This essentially takes the No. 8 tie-breaker off the table.
USM athletic director Jeremy McClain acknowledged on Tuesday night that he did not agree with the move.
“I was made aware of concerns regarding the C-USA division tie-breaker on Monday,” he said in a statement. “While the adjustments are well intentioned and reasonable, I expressed serious concerns over the timing of the changes on our conference call, and we were outvoted by the league’s membership. Our focus is now on moving forward and supporting our football student-athletes in a big game on Saturday.”
While USM was in a favorable position to advance to the Dec. 7 C-USA title game under the previous tie-breaker, the one now described on the C-USA web site would put USM at a disadvantage. The Golden Eagles are ranked ahead of both UAB and La. Tech in only one of the ratings (Sagarin) which would be used in the tie-breaker.
Anderson and Hester
73. Louisiana Tech
75. Southern Miss
80. UAB
Colley Matrix
62. Louisiana Tech
64. Southern Miss
71. UAB
Massey
70. Louisiana Tech
72. Southern Miss
81. UAB
Sagarin
87. Southern Miss
94. Louisiana Tech
106. UAB
Wolfe
59. Louisiana Tech
72. Southern Miss
74. UAB
USM, which is 7-4 overall, can still advance to the Dec. 7 C-USA title game if it wins Saturday at Florida Atlantic and Louisiana Tech falls to Texas-San Antonio that same day. Louisiana Tech holds the head-to-head advantage over USM due to a 45-30 win over the Golden Eagles earlier this season. USM holds the head-to-head advantage over UAB thanks to a 37-2 win over the Blazers.
Saturday’s USM-FAU game kicks off at 2:30 p.m. and will be shown on NFL Network.
This story was originally published November 26, 2019 at 10:25 AM.
