Copied from the Golf Standings thread -

With Akron's win and Miami's loss - Akron clinches the #1 seed in Cleveland.

Miami and Ohio have clinched tickets to Cleveland. Miami will be either the #2 or #3 seed. Ohio can still be anywhere from #2-#7.

Buffalo and NIU are the only team eliminated from Cleveland so far.

All MAC teams have 1 home and 1 away to finish the last week except for Toledo with 2 home games and EMU with 2 roadies.

Looks like we win one more and Kent and Toledo each lose one more, we clinch the 3.

Ideally though you'd want Kent and Toledo to go 1-1 down the stretch so that neither collapse and they stay in the 4/5 matchup.

Cheer for Western to beat Kent and Kent to beat EMU. Cheer for BG to beat Western. That keeps Western and EMU down, and prevents a chess scenario where it's actually better for us to lose at Toledo.

Two-way tie-breaker is:
1) head-to-head
2) winning pct versus ranked conference teams from top down
3) coin flip

Three or more-way tie-breaker is:
1) winning pct amongst tied teams
2) Two-way tie-breaker procedures


So right now if we tie Kent:
1) 1-1
2) Akron we're 1-1, Kent is 0-2 - we win tie-breaker

If we tie Toledo:
1) 0-1 - we lose tie-breaker (pending final regular season game), if we win that game
2) Akron we're 1-1, Toledo is 0-1 (pending Tuesday result)

Three-way tie w/ Kent & Toledo:
1) We're 1-2 pending Toledo game, Kent is 3-1, Toledo is 1-2 pending Ohio game
so Kent would get #3 and winner of Ohio-Toledo gets 4, loser gets 5.

It certainly seems we are playing in the 2nd or 4th game next Thursday. I can't believe Akron is playing the 11 AM Game after winning the Conference.

Just a personal peeve ...

I think tiebreakers should always be from the bottom up. I believe homecourt upsets vs. highly favored rival teams are far more common than not - which is not to denigrate them.

Still, losing to backend teams, home or on the road, should carry some sort of penalty. Yes, EMU is a bad matchup, but this is the MAC. Still should win those games, certainly not get swept.

While Akron-Miami wins show how good the Bobcats are. ... What does two EMU losses show?

This is not to pick on the Bobcats. The team closest to them (Kent) has lost to Ball State and Western. Reverse tiebreakers would hurt them as well.


BTW ... No 1 seed has always had that 11 am slot since the MAC took scheduling away from Gund Arena, which always had Akron and Kent play at night for attendance. Gives the No. 1 seed longer to recover.

Site above is broken for me - but I worked through all the possible scenarios with tie-breakers.

1) Ohio beats Toledo - we're guaranteed the #3 seed
a) Kent beats EMU and BG beats WMU - we play #6 Toledo
b) Kent beats EMU and WMU beats BG - we play #6 WMU
c) EMU beats Kent - we play #6 Toledo

2) Ohio loses to Toledo
a) Kent beats EMU - we get #5 and play #4 Toledo
b) EMU beats Kent - we get #6 and play #3 EMU


Most likely scenario is we play Toledo again, but sneaking that 3/6 WMU matchup would be completely ideal b/c our path would be WMU,Miami,Akron.


See tie-breaking scenarios below:
/////

Tie-breakers:
1) If we win, and Kent wins, we tie at 11-7 but we win tie-breaker due to beating Akron. If we win and Kent loses, we're alone in 3rd. So we get #3 regardless.

1a) We win, Kent wins. We get #3 and Kent gets #4 (see above). BG wins, that means Toledo, EMU and BG tie at 9-9.
Toledo, EMU and BG would all be 2-2 amongst each other.
Nobody beat Akron.
EMU gets #5 seed due to beating Miami.
Leaves Toledo and BG, and Toledo would get #6 due to beating #3 Ohio. BG would get #7.

1b) We win, Kent wins. We get #3, Kent gets #4 (see above). WMU wins, so Toledo, EMU and WMU tie at 9-9.
Toledo would get #5 due to going 2-1 against EMU/WMU.
WMU would get #6 due to going 1-1 against Toledo/EMU.
EMU would get #7 due to going 1-2 against Toledo/WMU.

1c) We win, Kent loses. We get #3 (see above). Kent and EMU tie at 10-8.
They would have each gone 1-1 against each other if EMU wins.
Neither of them beat Akron.
EMU would get #4 due to beating Miami, Kent would get #5.
Toledo would be tied with the BG-WMU winner at 9-9.
If it's BG, Toledo and BG split.
Neither team beat Akron.
Neither team beat Miami.
Toledo gets #6 due to beating #3 Ohio, and BG gets #7.
If it's WMU, Toledo gets #6 due to beating WMU and WMU gets #7.
Either way - Ohio gets #6 Toledo.

2a) If we lose, and Kent wins. Kent gets #3 alone. We would be tied with Toledo. Toledo would get #4 due to beating us twice and we'd get #5.

2b) If we lose and Kent loses. It creates a 4-way tie between Kent, Ohio, EMU and Toledo.
Kent and EMU would be 4-2 against common opponents.
Toledo would be 3-3 and Ohio would be 1-5.
So Toledo would be #5, Ohio would be #6.
Kent and EMU split against each other.
Neither beat Akron.
EMU would get #3 due to beating Miami. Kent would get #4.

Ball State is OUT.

A moment of silence for the Ball State Cardinals...okay.

So that means the path is Toledo then Akron, right?

OMG you have you have to see the go-ahead shot NIU just hit in double OT. CMU season might end on a pass that unintentionally went in the hole.

That and the 40 foot 3 that NIU banked in a few possessions earlier in 2OT. That's just gross.

While we collapsed to get on the wrong side of the bracket, Miami can’t be happy with getting EMU in round one.

From the Akron side, the road to the title game can't be much easier. Central Michigan at least would have been a bad opening matchup for the Zips.

After Akron BG ... all other games look to be relative toss-ups.