Brojo wants 4x4 to decide conference title in a tie

I think the best way to break a tie, give the two teams a half point for every 9th place finish they had, if none, then go to 10th place. Some exceptional athletes work very hard and perform well to only get 9th and not feel like they contributed at all to their team, this situation(tie) could provide a way to have those athletes feel included in the team overall performance. If going off the 9th place finishers still results in a tie then go to the 10th place finishers on each team and so forth.

Ok, just for fun.

How about an SMR-DMR super-relay tiebreaker, replacing the SMR 400 leg with hurdles and putting it first.

8 runners. Long Hurdles-200-200-800-1200-400-800-1600. The leadoff hurdles leg will be handicapped to reflect the field events-- 400m MINUS the combined total of each team's best field event performance LJ + TJ + HJ + PV + Shot + Discus + Jav + Hammer. And, the last leg isn't a true 1600m; that leg will be a bit short or long as the runner must go thru 4 water jumps.

So: Handicapped Long Hurdles + 200 + 200 + 800 + 1200 + 400 + 800 + 4 Laps with Water Jumps.

C'mon. Tell me you wouldn't want to see that!

Rojo’s idea is bad. But not as bad a running another race.

The 9th place idea is interesting — but, I also don’t see why it can’t end in a tie.

That works just like HS XC using 6th. Alternatively, college XC uses head to head so they could score the tied teams in dual scoring to break tie. That actually would bring in people outside of top 8 also.

There are so many events in a meet which are very dissimilar from the rest that's it's not a team sport in any sense of the word. It's just individuals competing in various disciplines and the scores are added up. There's no event which should receive additional weight over the rest, and if there's a tie there's a tie. It's silly to try to break it.

What the heck is wrong with a tie? It's a beautiful thing when it happens. A surreal feeling can be part of it battling to even, showing respect, and going home. What's wrong with people these days? Being excessively disappointed over a tie is the same as being a sore loser.

Didn't read WTW, but are they suggesting another 4x4 or the highest placer in the 4x4?

What if one of the tying teams wasn't in the 4x4 or isn't a strong spring team at at, gets points through field and distance events?

I agree. If a competition over 15+ events ends in a tie, it means that the two programs, though likely constructed differently, are on the same level. That's seems to be a pretty cool accomplishment within a conference, division, etc. If everyone competed to the best of their abilities, what is there to be disappointed about? If two teams are equal, based on the agreed-upon rules of scoring, why would team deserve the victory over another?

Track is an individual sport. Who cares if the team score ends in a tie?

I agree with this 100%.

It wouldn't be unusual on a large T&F team to have sprinters or distance runners who don't know each other and who don't even know who some of their field eventers are, have never met them, and couldn't pick them out of a police line-up. Which is fair enough, because they're doing completely different sports.

Having a score for a track meet just seems so random. It's like, if you're scoring a dual T&F meet, and the two schools involved also happen to be having a soccer game or football game against each other that day, why not include that in the score too?

I disagree with having the 4 x 400 be used as a tiebreaker. If you must break a tie, then pick one representative from each team from a hat, and have them compete against each other in a free-throw-shooting contest.

This is pretty basic.

1) In all sports, if there is a tie, the team the scores the most in overtime wins, same thing here. Instead of overtime, it's just the last event.

2) If a field event is going on, you hold off on running the 4 x 400. I've always felt the 4 x 400 should be held anyways. You need to make it easy for fans to know who won the competition. Heading into the 4 x 400, announce on the PA the score and let people know what is at stake.

I respectfully disagree. The same point about sprinters, distance runners, and field eventers can be made about offenses, defenses, and special teams in football. Those units each have their own specialty and their own coaches, and they’re never on the football field during a game at the same time, yet at the end of the day they are one team with the shared goal of winning a team championship. Just as football goes to overtime when needed to crown a champion, there’s no reason track&field can’t find a way to crown one true champion.

I love the creativity of the super relay idea proposed in this thread. A duel like that for the championship would be so exciting! I think many people could also get behind the simpler and perhaps more practical solutions proposed in this thread such as using 9th place finishes or head to head scoring to break a tie. The only idea I don’t support is the brojo recommendation of arbitrarily privileging the 4x4 as a tiebreaker. Sounds like many of us agree that is *not* the way to go.

I would think most athletes and coaches on the teams in contention for a title would find it more meaningful to have just one team champion rather than co-champions.

Some teams did not participate in the 4x4 at conference meets. Or what if neither teams are top 8? You need another fall back.

And theoretically, a few studs or studettes could represent a team and do well enough to win or tie in a championship and not even fill out a 4x4.

cmon man. ties are awful for everyone. there's a reason stick-and-ball sports don't let games end in ties.

The win should be awarded to the team with the most 1st places. If still tied, it goes to the team with the most 2nd places, etc, etc.

Ties are un-American.

If still tied, the head coaches have to wrestle in the long jump pit.

[IF we cannot live with a tie…]

Then this is the most logical approach, with one minor exception. The 9th place finishers shouldn’t be ‘worth’ anything individually; rather, the team with more 9th (or 10th, 11th, etc.- “as far as you must go”) placers simply gets an additional 0.1 (or something) to officially bump them ahead as a whole.

You think that two conference championship quality teams won't run a 4 x 400 when they know the one that places highest in it, wins the meet. It doesn't matter if they are top 8. The team that finishes ahead of the other wins.