It is - what's the context/scenario to which you are referring? In the above 4-way tie example, Maryland has the best head-to-head winning percentage of all the tied teams (.667), so they are #3, and Wisconsin has the worst winning percentage (.333), so they are #5. This is because they are separated from the group at the top and bottom.
Michigan and Purdue remain tied, and under B.1.b. below, they restart the tie-break process under A.
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Here are the tie-breaker rules:
Big Ten tiebreakers
Tiebreaker Procedures for Tournament Seeding
1. Teams shall be seeded No. 1 through No. 15 in the tournament bracket based on the final regular-season Conference standings.
2. A team's seed shall correspond to its regular-season finish (i.e., the champion shall be the No. 1 seed, the runner-up the No. 2 seed, etc.).
3. Teams that finished Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the regular season shall receive a "bye" through the first two rounds.
4. In case of a tie for any place finish in the regular-season standings, the following tie-breaking procedure shall be followed in order to seed teams in the tournament bracket:
A. Ties Involving Two Teams:
1. Results of head-to-head competition during the regular season.
2. Each team's record vs. the team occupying the highest position in the final regular-season standings (or in the case of a tie for the championship, the next highest position in the regular-season standings), continuing down through the standings until one team gains an advantage.
- a. When arriving at another pair of tied teams while comparing records, use each team's record against the collective tied teams as a group (prior to their own tiebreaking procedures), rather than the performance against the individual tied teams.
- b. When comparing records against a single team or a group of teams, the higher winning percentage shall prevail, even if the number of games played against the team or group are unequal (i.e., 2-0 is better than 3-1, but 2-0 is not better than 1-0 or 0-0).
3. Won-loss percentage of all Division I opponents.
4. Highest NET ranking of the teams. NET rankings that are released on the last Friday of the regular season will be utilized.
B. Ties Involving more than Two Teams:
1. Results of head-to-head competition during the regular season.
- a. When comparing records against the tied teams, teams will be seeded based on winning percentage head-to-head among the group, even if the number of games played against the team or group are unequal (i.e., 2-0 is better than 3-1, but 2-0 is not better than 1-0 or 0-0). If all teams among the group are separated based on winning percentage, all ties are broken. Ties shall be considered separated when a team(s) emerges from the top, middle or bottom of the group and is awarded a seed(s).
- b. Once a seed is awarded, all remaining tied teams shall restart the tiebreak process at the first criteria (e.g. if there is a four-team tie, one team is 4-0, another is 3-1 and the last two are 2-2 among the group, the two teams that are 2-2 move to step a (head-to-head) and the teams that are 4-0 and 3-1 assume the next two available highest seeds).
2. If the remaining teams are still tied, then each tied team's record shall be compared to the team occupying the highest position in the final regular-season standings, continuing down through the standings until one team gains an advantage.
- a. When arriving at another pair of tied teams while comparing records, use each team's record against the collective tied teams as a group (prior to their own tiebreaking procedures), rather than the performance against the individual tied teams.
- b. When comparing records against a single team or group of teams, the higher winning percentage shall prevail, even if the number of games played against the team or group are unequal (i.e., 2-0 is better than 3-1, but 2-0 is not better than 1-0 or 0-0).
3. Won-loss percentage of Division I opponents.
4. Highest NET ranking of the teams. NET rankings that are released on the last Friday of the regular season will be utilized.