Wednesday, October 29, 1997
The Bruin identifies potential contenders, lost causes in lesson
on anticipating wins
FOOTBALL: Step-by-step guide breaks down Rose Bowl tiebreaking
procedures
By Brent Boyd
Daily Bruin Staff
It’s almost November, and in football-speak that means it’s time
to talk Rose Bowl races, upcoming schedules and of course those
tiebreaking procedures.
This year it seems more likely than not that the Pac-10’s Rose
Bowl representative will be decided by those ever-confusing
tiebreakers.
With less than a month remaining in the season, six teams still
remain eligible for a New Year’s Day trip to Pasadena. Of those,
two control their own destiny, two more need some help to get in,
and the other two have better odds of winning the lottery.
So here it is, the not-so-condensed version of the Rose Bowl
tiebreaking procedures:
If two teams are tied:
1. Head-to-head.
2. Non-conference record.
3. Longest span of years since last appearance in the Rose
Bowl.
If three or more are tied, the same procedure remains true,
except for a few exceptions.
In the "head-to-head" section, a team automatically qualifies if
they defeat every other tied team. Or, if a team has lost to every
other tied team, that team is disqualified.
If neither has happened, the three-step process continues.
However, once one team is eliminated, the process starts all
over again.
For instance, if Arizona State beats Washington State this
weekend, UCLA beats Washington in a couple weeks and Washington
State defeats Washington in the Apple Cup, all four teams could
finish with 7-1 conference records.
Step 1: No team defeated all the others, nor did anybody lose to
all the others, so on to the next step.
Step 2: WSU’s non-conference mark would be 3-0; all the others
would be 2-1.
So, Washington, ASU, and UCLA revert to step 1.
Again, nobody has gone undefeated or winless against the others,
and they have the same non-conference records, so the process goes
to step 3. Arizona State would be eliminated because they went to
the Rose Bowl most recently – last season.
Now, Washington, WSU and UCLA are left.
Step 1: UCLA beats Washington, WSU beats UCLA and WSU beats
Washington. Nothing accomplished. On to step 2.
Step 2: UCLA and Washington both are forced into a head-to-head
tiebreaker as a result of 2-1 records. Washington is
eliminated.
Now, for the bad news: only Washington State and the Bruins are
left. That means the Cougars would go to the Rose Bowl as a result
of their 37-34 opening-game victory over UCLA.
OK, you can breathe now.
For the record, Washington State holds basically every single
tiebreaker.
Assuming the Cougars defeat a weak Southwestern Louisiana squad
Nov. 8, WSU would have the only undefeated non-conference mark
among Pac-10 teams.
This is partly because of scheduling. While UCLA lost to
Tennessee, Washington was defeated by top-ranked Nebraska and ASU
was defeated by BYU; the Cougars were busy beating up on Illinois,
Boise State and Southwest Louisiana.
In addition, the Cougars haven’t made a Rose Bowl appearance
since 1931 – a longer absence than any other team in
contention.
The following is an analysis of how each team must fare and who
they play over the final month.
THE FRONTRUNNERS:
Washington State – @ASU, vs. Southwest Louisiana, vs. Stanford,
@Washington.
If the Cougars win out, the Rose Bowl berth is theirs, but the
road will not be easy.
Washington – vs. USC, vs. Oregon, @UCLA, vs. WSU.
See WSU.
THE CONTENDERS:
UCLA – @Stanford, vs. Washington, @USC.
Must win out and hope for two WSU conference losses.
Arizona State – vs. WSU, @Cal, vs. Oregon, vs. Arizona.
Must win out and hope Washington loses twice and UCLA loses
once.
THE LONGSHOTS:
Stanford – vs. UCLA, @USC, @WSU, vs. Cal.
Must win out and hope for an additional loss by WSU and ASU, and
two by Washington.
USC – @Washington, vs. Stanford, @OSU, vs. UCLA.
Must win out, and hope that WSU loses all three conference
games, ASU loses once and Washington loses an additional game.
THE ELIMINATED:
Oregon, Arizona, Oregon State and California are all eliminated
no matter what happens.