Sports
Breaking down potential seeding scenarios for Ohio in the MAC tournament
By: Grant Kiefer
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — The month of March brings chaos year in and year out. With the way the MAC scheduled its matchups on the final day of the regular season, chaos is expected to ensue Friday night. Ohio, Kent State, Eastern Michigan, and Toledo hold the 3-6 seeds, respectively, and all four teams play each other on Friday. Here’s how Ohio can get each seed in the MAC tournament next week in Cleveland.
3 seed
Akron has already clinched the first seed in Cleveland, while Miami (OH) has the second seed locked up as well. Third is as high as Ohio can go, and the path there is quite simple–just win. If Ohio beats Toledo on Friday night, the Bobcats have the third seed on lock. Even if Kent State wins, the Bobcats hold the tiebreaker by virtue of the best record against a common opponent, which is Akron. The way it works is by comparing records against the best team in the conference by record, and going down until a team has an advantage. Ohio would have the tiebreaker over Kent State here because it beat Akron, and happens to be the only team to beat the Zips this season in MAC play. Ohio would play Toledo in the quarterfinals no matter what due to tiebreaker scenarios for the Rockets, regardless of who wins the Eastern Michigan vs. Kent State game.
4 seed
There is no possible way for Ohio to get the fourth seed due to the way the tiebreaker scenarios have played out.
5 seed
Ohio could still end up on this side of the bracket, however, and play the fourth seed. If Ohio falls to Toledo on Friday night, it will have either the fifth or sixth seed. The path to getting the fifth spot is if Kent State beats Eastern Michigan, as Ohio will still be a full game ahead of EMU in the standings. Toledo would have the same record as Ohio in this scenario and hold the tiebreaker due to head-to-head results. Ohio would end up playing Toledo in the first round during this scenario as well.
6 seed
This is where things would get crazy with a four-way tie. If Ohio loses to Toledo and Eastern Michigan beats Kent State, all four teams will be 10-8 in conference play. If there’s a tie between more than two teams, the way of sorting them is by best record against the teams that are in the tiebreaker. Kent State would have a 4-2 record against Ohio, Toledo, and Eastern Michigan, taking the third seed. Toledo and Eastern Michigan would be tied at 3-3 each, which means the next step is head-to-head record. The teams split with each other, so now it’s common opponent records going down the standings. Both teams lost to Akron, which means comparing records against Miami (OH). Eastern Michigan beat the RedHawks while Toledo didn’t, giving EMU the advantage. The Bobcats would be the lowest of this group, with a 1-5 record against the other three teams. Ohio would play Kent State in the quarterfinals in this scenario. While the seed isn’t ideal, the Bobcats would avoid Akron until a potential championship matchup.
Ohio plays Toledo at 7 p.m. on ESPN+ Friday night, with next week’s MAC tournament slated to begin on Thursday, March 13.