SEC
A sourced guide to the SEC football championship tiebreaker, including multi-team elimination and restart rules, opponent winning percentage, and relative scoring margin.
College Football Conference Tiebreaker Rules
Conference championship tiebreakers look similar until the details decide who advances.
2026 season · Last reviewed
Conference guides
Big Ten
A sourced explanation of the Big Ten football championship tiebreaker, including first-place and second-place branches, multi-team reductions, and evidence limits for 2026.
Big 12
A sourced guide to the current Big 12 football championship tiebreaker: head-to-head, common opponents, schedule strength, eligible wins, SportSource, and restart rules.
ACC
A sourced explanation of the 2026 ACC football championship tiebreaker, including the alternate-schedule rule, two-team order, multi-team restarts, and unresolved external steps.
Pac-12
The newly published 2026 Pac-12 football tiebreaker explained: separate two-team and multi-team orders, CFP and SportSource criteria, seeding, and the non-standings flex game.
More Conferences coming soon
How conference tiebreakers work
Start with the teams tied in the conference standings. The conference checks each rule in order until it can choose a championship participant or determine seeding.
- A two-team tie can follow a different sequence than a tie involving three or more teams.
- The rules are applied from top to bottom. Once a step breaks the tie, the later steps are not used.
- In a multi-team tie, a conference may advance or remove one team and then restart the process for the teams still tied.
- If the remaining step requires an outside ranking, coin toss, or conference-administered draw, CFB APP shows the result as undecided until that official input is available.