Two teams (George Fox and UMass Boston) tied for the DIII track title last weekend - what's the best way to break a tie?

We had four teams tie for 1st at the 4A Washington State Meet. All teams had a 4x4 in the final.

Tie break similar to cross country . I’d say whoever has the highest finish by an individual or relay . If it is tied after that highest 2nd finish and on down until a winner results .

Maybe go with the team that had the highest placing individuals?

The team with the most amount of scorers, so it can represent a more rounded team then just one person scoring 80% of the points.

Extend the meet 2 days

Make all the qualifiers from both teams do a decathlon

Highest avg. score wins!

At a conference meet, I'd say the 4x4 breaks ties. But at nationals, not sure if there is a fair way to do it.

The two teams get onto the high jump landing pad. The team with a person left on the mat wins.

Hounddogharrier wrote:

Tie break similar to cross country . I’d say whoever has the highest finish by an individual or relay . If it is tied after that highest 2nd finish and on down until a winner results .

IIRC the tie break rule in NCAA XC is pretty bad.

I see nothing wrong with a tie in this case since there is not a great way to break it.

I remember ties in football and even that it happened in state championship games--there was no rule on how to break a tie in those days which seems pretty weird considering ties were not that unusual.

Assuming that only the top 8 score:

Add a point for any 9th place finishers in every event on each team. If still a tie, then add a point for any 10th place finishers... etc.

Obviously rock-paper-scissors

+1

Most 1st place finishers.

If tied, go to most 2nd place finishers.

If tied through that, most 3rd place finishers.

Etc, etc, etc

yhrebray wrote:

Most 1st place finishers.

If tied, go to most 2nd place finishers.

If tied through that, most 3rd place finishers.

Etc, etc, etc

Not bad.

Do you honestly think at the DIII level, that ties or undisputed winners is going to improve or lower the profile of track?

Not every track team is built around sprinting. If one team is built around sprinters and another is built around distance runners or field events. The 4x400 would be an unfair way to determine a winner.

I think it should judged by the number of 1st place finishes and if there is a tie go down to 2nd place finishers and so on and so forth. If it's still even after all that, maybe use a point scoring table for all the marks and then add up all the points from everyone that competed in a final and whoever has the most wins.

Have the coaches race a 400!

Either most 1st places (if still tied then 2nd, etc, as above),

Or most total number of scorers with relays counting as 1.

Or look at 9th place finishes, though most finals don't have 9 entries, you would have to look back to the heats which would be a major PITA.

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But generally, which of the following teams should be champion?

Team A: 4 athletes, each gets 2 first places, 80 total points

Team B: 10 athletes, each gets a 2nd place, 80 total points.

Figure out which one you think should be champion, then pick a tie break that fits.

Just add up all the times of the running events. Lowest time wins.

This is how Nordic ski ties are broken in MN high school meets.

Disadvantageous to field event heavy schools, so it could be altered.

Or

Have all the events enter into a decathlon point cacluator. Highest points win.

stateroftheoblivious wrote:

Either most 1st places (if still tied then 2nd, etc, as above),

Or most total number of scorers with relays counting as 1.

Or look at 9th place finishes, though most finals don't have 9 entries, you would have to look back to the heats which would be a major PITA.

-------------------------------------------------

But generally, which of the following teams should be champion?

Team A: 4 athletes, each gets 2 first places, 80 total points

Team B: 10 athletes, each gets a 2nd place, 80 total points.

Figure out which one you think should be champion, then pick a tie break that fits.

I think it should be team B. Tiebreak should be whichever team has more people score.

The way scoring works in track, a team with a few stars on it but not a full team could get blown out at its conference meet and then win Nationals. Also, just one stud athlete could win a team title all by themselves. That's what happened at indoor D3's, when Wadeline Jonathas won four individual events, and her 40 individual points would have won the team title (thankfully, one of her teammates scored in LJ so Wadeline didn't have to stand on the TEAM podium all by herself). Since it's a tiebreaker to decide a team champion, it should reflect who has the more complete team.