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The SEC girls’s hoops championship was shared within the 2024-25 season after two groups completed with an identical convention data. It pressured the league to make use of a controversial resolution in figuring out who’d get the No. 1 general seed in its postseason match.
Texas and South Carolina ended their basketball seasons with 15-1 marks in SEC play. Both sides handed the opposite its lone loss.
With win share and head-to-head outcomes equal, convention officers needed to transfer down their checklist of tiebreakers with the intention to determine seeding. It in the end got here right down to a coin flip.
The No. 1 seed within the SEC girls’s match will go to a coin toss ????
Commissioner Sankey will flip a coin throughout halftime of the Ole Miss/LSU recreation on SECN ???? pic.twitter.com/Ur10Myjeqa
— SEC Community (@SECNetwork) March 2, 2025
Gamecocks coach Daybreak Staley was important of that rule previous to her group’s season finale. She spoke on the potential of the 50/50 flip earlier this week, evaluating it to tiebreaker guidelines in different sports activities.
“I believe we should always’ve thought forward somewhat extra… That’s simply me although. I might say think about if it was soccer and it’s a coin flip, not for the who will get the ball first however who will get the primary seeding within the nationwide championship.
“Now, I’m not making an attempt to throw the commissioner below the bus by any means. It has been part of the tiebreakers since so long as I’ve been within the SEC, and that’s what it’s. It’s unlucky it’s coming right down to that.”
-Daybreak Staley
Soccer, in contrast to basketball, has a prolonged checklist of tiebreaker choices. Whereas a random draw can also be the ultimate resolution, there are six steps that precede that final step. Basketball has simply two buffers, making the coin flip final result more likely.
It’s value noting that this course of has been in apply Staley’s total South Carolina basketball tenure. Soccer modified its guidelines amid convention realignment because it moved away from the divisional construction.
Nonetheless, she wasn’t glad that seeding wouldn’t be decided on the ground. And she or he has some extent. Soccer, for instance, makes use of a “capped relative scoring margin” rule as a dedication. It nearly ensures that efficiency would be the deciding think about some kind or one other.
There’s no purpose the same statistic couldn’t be utilized in basketball. Staley thinks there ought to be.
In the long run, issues labored out for her squad. Commissioner Sankey’s coin flip landed on South Carolina. The Gamecocks would be the No. 1 seed within the SEC Event.
Gamecocks win the coin toss!@GamecockWBB would be the No. 1 seed within the SEC girls’s match ???? pic.twitter.com/ouJD6hkmVP
— SEC Community (@SECNetwork) March 2, 2025
With that being stated, this case would possibly power the league to reevaluate its tiebreaker guidelines for future seasons. Perhaps Daybreak Staley will probably be included in these talks.
