Dawn Staley chimes in on SEC’s possible coin-flip tiebreaker for South Carolina-Texas
A coin toss between South Carolina and Texas to decide who gets the No. 1 seed in the SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament is becoming more likely by the minute.
So much so that the conference officially sent out official details Friday morning for the coin flip.
In the words of the SEC:
“In accordance with SEC Commissioner’s Regulations (as approved by conference membership) in the sport of women’s basketball related to tournament seeding in the event of a two-team tie, the Regulation states the following procedure will be used in the following order until the tie is broken:
Won-lost results of head-to-head competition between the teams.
Won-lost results of the two teams versus the highest seed (and proceeding through the lowest seed, if necessary).
Coin flip by the Commissioner.”
As of Friday, both South Carolina and Texas have a 14-1 record in the SEC. The teams split the season series against one another, taking out tiebreaker option one, and are both undefeated against the rest of the league, taking out tiebreaker option two.
Meaning, if South Carolina beats Kentucky and Texas beats Florida on Sunday, a coin flip will be the only way to break the tie.
When speaking to reporters Friday, Staley said it’s “unfortunate” the No. 1 seed for the SEC Tournament will likely come down to a coin flip.
“Imagine if it was football and it’s a coin flip, not for the who gets the ball first, (but) who gets the first seed in the national championship,” Staley said. “Now, I’m not trying to throw the commissioner under the bus by any means. It has been a part of the tiebreakers since as long as I’ve been in the SEC, and that’s what it is.
“It’s unfortunate it’s coming down to that. Hopefully we can take care of business.”
The Gamecocks won’t exactly be able to kick things into cruise control against Kentucky.
The Wildcats (22-5, 11-4 SEC) are the No. 15 team in the country and are coming off a 24-point win over No. 11 Tennessee on Thursday.
“We control our own destiny,” Staley said Wednesday. “And then, if we take care of business and Texas takes care of business, then our fate is in the coin toss.”
In a press release, the SEC said the coin flip, if needed, would be televised on SEC Network during halftime of the LSU-Ole Miss game that starts at 4 p.m. Sunday.
Here’s the rundown on the coin flip, from the conference
- “A coin flip will take place at the Conference office in Birmingham on Sunday, March 2nd.”
- “The coin used will have a South Carolina logo on one side and the University of Texas logo on the other.”
- “The coin will be tossed in the air by the Commissioner, caught and flipped over on the back of his hand. Whichever logo is face up will be declared the number 1 seed.”
- “The coin flip will be televised live from the SEC Office at halftime of the Ole Miss at LSU game broadcast on the SEC Network. Tipoff for that game is at 4:00 p.m. EST/3:00 p.m. CST.”
South Carolina and Texas will be named co-regular season SEC champions if they both win on Sunday, regardless of what happens with the coin flip.
Staley does not appear to be the biggest fan of the coin flip option, though.
“Right now we’re fighting, we’re fighting for our lives with the coin flip,” Staley said, seemingly tongue-in-cheek, on ESPN after Thursday’s win over Ole Miss.
During her Wednesday media availability, Staley said she believes the SEC “should have thought a little bit more ahead of this situation, knowing that we were bringing Texas and Oklahoma into the SEC.”
“That’s just me though,” she added.
At the end of the day, the still-hypothetical scenario in which a coin flip is needed to break a tie does have a silver lining for Staley and the Gamecocks.
“I look forward to the coin toss at this point, because that means we won [vs. Kentucky], right?” Staley joked. “So it is what it is. At this point, we’re just going to call up to the coin gods to see if they can, if we take care of business, that it flips over to the Gamecocks side.”
