The SIAC championship game is less than two weeks away and there is plenty of interest as to who will be in the game.
The conference went away from the divisional format after the 2022 season. That format sent the top team from the eastern and western divisions to the title game. This year’s title game, which will be played in Atlanta, will be a matchup of the two teams with the best conference records.
Benedict College heads into the final game of the season against Allen (6-2) with a 9-0 overall record and a 7-0 conference record. The nationally-ranked squad is considered a shoe-in for the title game, but it needs to win to secure its spot without having to sweat.
Tuskegee and Fort Valley State are currently tied for second place in the conference at 6-1 in conference play. Tuskegee is set to travel to rival Miles College (5-2) while Fort Valley State will take on Albany State (5-2) in the Fountain City Classic. A win and a loss by either of them would pit them against Benedict College, if they beat Allen University. Wins and or losses by both plus a Benedict win starts to get into the tie-breakers.
The following are the tie-breakers, as supplied by the SIAC office.
Two Team Tiebreakers
- Head-to-head competition between the two tied teams.
- Win-percentage versus all common opponents.
- Head-to-Head results versus common opponents based upon their order of SIAC finish (overall conference win-percentage, with ties broken) and proceeding through other common opponents based upon their descending order of finish.
- Combined win-percentage of conference opponents.
- The tied team with the higher NCAA regional ranking following the conclusion of regular season games.
- The representative shall be chosen by a draw as administered by the Commissioner or Commissioner’s designee.
Three (or more) Team Tiebreakers
Three team (or more) tiebreaker procedure will first be used to identify one Championship Game representative. Once that team is determined, the tiebreaker procedures restart for the remaining tied teams if needed.
- Combined head-to-head win-percentage among the tied teams if all tied teams are common opponents.
- If all the tied teams are not common opponents, the tied team that defeated each of the other tied teams.
- Win-percentage versus all common opponents.
- Head-to-Head results versus common opponents based upon the final SIAC standings (overall conference win-percentage, with ties broken) in descending
order of finish. - Combined win-percentage of conference opponents.
- The tied team with the highest NCAA regional ranking following the conclusion of regular season games.
- The representative shall be chosen by a draw as administered by the Commissioner or Commissioner’s designee.
*Note: Conference games against otherwise post-season ineligible teams will always be counted in the league standings and in application of the tie-breaker policies.
**Note: Non-Conference games (including those between SIAC schools) may be used to determine head-to-head results among tied teams.