In the Michigan-MSU thread, we discussed the possibility of having a three-way tie between OSU, MSU and Michigan...if OSU beats MSU and Michigan beats OSU (assuming there's no other losses by any of the three). UKMustangFan posted the tie-breakers for the Big 10, which are as follows:

 

1. The records of the three tied teams will be compared against each other.

 

2. The records of the three tied teams will be compared within their division.

 

3. The records of the three teams will be compared against the next highest placed teams in their division in order of finish (4, 5, 6, and 7).

 

4. The records of the three teams will be compared against all common conference opponents.

 

5. The highest ranked team in the first College Football Playoff poll following the completion of Big Ten regular season conference play shall be the representative in the Big Ten Championship Game, unless the two highest ranked tied teams are ranked within one spot of each other in the College Football Playoff poll. In this case, the head-to-head results of the top two ranked tied teams shall determine the representative in the Big Ten Championship Game.

 

6. The team with the best overall winning percentage [excluding exempted games] shall be the representative.

 

7. The representative will be chosen by random draw.

 

But, watching the MSU-Indiana game today, the announcer made an interesting point about #5. The College Football Playoff poll isn't released until Tuesday evenings. So, how in the world do you wait that long to find out who's playing on Saturday?!? Seems a bit unfair to whoever the rep is on the other side, too. How to you prepare for potentially 3 different opponents? Then there's ticket sales, and the logistics of travel/hotels/etc.

 

I can understand why you would want to have this feature as a potential tie-breaker...but, surely you can't limit a team to basically three days of preparation, can you?

I read the committee said they would not change the release date of the poll and the conference would have to deal with it. Kind of gives Iowa the advantage with their logistics.