Basketball
South Carolina and Texas look like two of the best teams in the country in women’s college basketball. Each are in the top five of the latest AP Poll, each have paths to secure No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, and both rank highly nationally in offensive and defensive metrics.
But the Gamecocks and Longhorns ended the regular season with identical records, 15-1, in Southeastern Conference play. South Carolina beat Texas in Columbia, then the Longhorns got revenge over the Gamecocks in Austin.
So, there was a tiebreaker protocol to follow in determining who would get the No. 1 overall seed in the SEC Tournament, which begins in Greenville, S.C., later this week. Some conferences have several steps and metrics to get through before they give way to chance and fate to determine the seeding. The ACC, for example, has five tie-breaking scenarios it uses for football. The Big Ten has a few parameters laid out for its basketball tournaments too.
Meanwhile, the SEC has just a two-step process in the event of a two-team tie atop the standings:
- Head-to-head results
- Win-loss record of the two teams versus the No. 1 seed (and proceeding through the No. 14 seed, if necessary)
That’s it. And because South Carolina and Texas didn’t lose any other SEC games, the conference immediately moved to its third option, which was:
- A coin flip.
Yes, really. Here’s how it played out on Sunday:
Predictably, South Carolina celebrated while Texas felt robbed. Specifically, Longhorns coach Vic Schaefer was miffed by SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey’s claim that he practiced the coin flip for two hours.
“So what was he practicing? Was he practicing for South Carolina to be heads up or Texas to be heads up?” Schaefer told the AP. “I mean, why do you have to practice for two hours? What are you trying to get accomplished?”
Using a coin flip to determine the No. 1 overall seed in a Power 4 conference tournament in 2025 feels lazy, at the very least. There are many qualifiers and statistics that could’ve been used to determine the outcome.
Here’s a few scenarios the SEC could’ve used to figure this thing out instead:
- Overall record (Texas wins)
- Margin of victory (South Carolina wins)
- Record against Quad 1 opponents (South Carolina wins)
- Winning percentage against the top 100 teams in the NET (Texas wins)
Instead of doing all that math though, Sankey and the SEC did what they do best: they made everyone pay attention. They turned a simple coin flip into a television spectacle. For a few minutes on Sunday, the SEC commanded consideration. Women’s basketball fans tweeted about the coin flip and talk radio hosts had rants about it.
Indeed, it just means more.
So, mission accomplished, Mr. Sankey.
But if you really want to drive up the ratings next time, don’t just settle for a coin flip. Give us a free throw contest or game of HORSE between the coaches of the two teams tied at the top. Let online sportbooks run betting lines on it.
Of course, the favorite would’ve been Dawn Staley.
Maybe the coin flip turned out how it was supposed to after all.
Read More Mitchell Northam