Tie-break Procedures. Ties for playoff qualification, playoff seeding, and conference winner (i.e., best overall regular season record in each conference) will be broken utilizing the criteria set forth in subsection a. below (in the case of ties involving two teams) and subsection b. below (in the case of ties involving more than two teams), and the guidelines set forth in subsection c. below. These procedures also will be used for ties involving the determination of the Player Draft order, the waiver claim preference order, and which teams will receive priority on Affiliate Players and Local Tryout Players.
For all ties other than ties for playoff qualification, playoff seeding, and conference winner, the League first will rank the teams that did not qualify for the previous season’s playoffs, in reverse order of record, and then the teams that qualified for the previous season’s playoffs, in reverse order of record. Expansion teams will be considered to have a record worse than a team that made the playoffs during the prior season and better than a team that did not make the playoffs during the prior season. If there is more than one expansion team, priority will be determined by the inverse of the initial round of the Expansion Draft. Any remaining ties will be broken using the tie-break procedures set forth below.
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Two Teams Tied. In the case of a tie involving only two teams, the following criteria will be utilized in the following order:
- Better winning percentage in games against each other.
- Better winning percentage against teams eligible for playoffs in own conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied for a playoff position).
- Better net result of total points scored less total points allowed against all opponents (“point differential”).
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More Than Two Teams Tied. In the case of a tie involving more than two teams, the following criteria will be utilized in the following order:
- Better winning percentage in all games among the tied teams (even if not all tied teams played each other during the regular season).
- Better winning percentage against teams eligible for playoffs in own conference (including teams that finished the regular season tied for a playoff position).
- Better net result of total points scored less total points allowed against all opponents (“point differential”).
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Guidelines for Applying Tie-break Criteria. The following guidelines shall be used when applying the above criteria to break ties:
- Conference ties that affect playoff seeding will be broken prior to multi-team, two conference, draft order or the waiver claim preference order ties but the outcome of such playoff-seeding tie-breaker will not impact the subsequent multi-team, draft order or the waiver claim preference order tiebreaker (e.g., with more than two teams tied, it is possible that a higher seeded playoff team involved in a multi-team, two conference draft order tie-breaker will also receive a higher draft selection).
- If a tie involves more than two teams, the tie-break criteria in subsection b. shall be applied in the order set forth therein until the first to occur of the following:
Each of the tied teams has a different winning percentage or point differential under the applicable tie-break criterion (a “complete” breaking of the tie). In this circumstance, the team with the best winning percentage or point differential under the criterion will be awarded the best playoff position (or the worst position with respect to the Player Draft, the waiver claim preference order, or Affiliate Player or Local Tryout Player priority), the team with the next-best winning percentage or point differential will be awarded the next-best position (or next-worst position), and so on, and no further application of the tie-break criteria will be required.
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One or more (but not all) of the tied teams has a different winning percentage or point differential under the applicable tie-break criterion (a “partial” breaking of the tie). In this circumstance: (x) any team(s) that performed better under the applicable criterion than any other team(s) will be awarded a higher playoff position (or a lower position with respect to the Player Draft, the waiver claim preference order, or Affiliate Player or Local Tryout Player priority) than such other team(s); and (y) teams that had equivalent performance under the applicable criterion will remain tied, and such remaining tie(s) will be broken by applying, from the beginning, the criteria in subsections a.(1)-(7) above (for any remaining tie involving only two teams) or subsections b.(1)-(7) above (for any remaining tie involving more than two teams) and the guidelines set forth in this subsection c.
- If application of the criteria in subsection a. or b. does not result in the breaking of a tie, the positions of the tied teams will be determined by a random drawing.
