NFL Tie-Breaking Plan Could Avoid Coin Flip

NEW YORK -- How do you break a tie for a division title or a playoff berth in the National Football League? With only Cleveland having clinched and 11 teams still in the running for five remaining division titles and two other playoff spots, that question becomes increasingly pertinent with two weeks of the regular season left. The only thing that won't be done to break a tie is play a game. But there are a number of methods ready to he employed, if necessary, including a new rating system that makes a coin flip remote. In the event of ties for a division title, these criteria will be used to determine a winner, in order:

1. Best won-lost percentage in head-to-head competition.
2. Best won-lost percentage in games within the division.
3. Best won-lost percentage in games within the conference.
4. Best point differential in head-to-head competition.
5. Best point rating -- offense and defense -- applied to division games only.
6. Best point rating applied to the full 14-game schedule.
7. Coin flip.

The rating system will be based on points scored and allowed with each team in the AFC and NFC rated from 1 to 13 on offense and defense. The team wih the fewest rating points is the winner. Once the division winners are determined, a wild card representative must be selected for the fourth playoff spot in each conference. That will be the second-place team in the conference with the best won-lost percentage. Included would be the team, if any, that had lost out in the battle for the division title through any of the tie-breaking methods. The first step would be to break any remaining ties among teams from the same division, employing the methods for determining a division titlist. The remaining ties then would he broken through the following steps, in order:

1. Best percentage in head-to-head competition, if applicable.
2. Best won-lost percentage in games within the conference.
3. Best point differential in head-to-head competition, if applicable.
4. Best point rating applied to conference games only.
5. Best point rating applied to the full 14-game schedule.
6. Coin Flip.

[source: ap]