Expanded Senior Slo-Pitch Association Playoff Tiebreaker Rules

Version: 19 September 2025

The principle is to apply the following rules in sequence to determine the highest ranked team in the group of teams that are tied. Once that team is determined and eliminated from the (sub)group of tied teams, go back to the top of the rules to find the next ranked team in the (sub)group that remains.

In the following, the term 'head-to-head series' is to be interpreted as the head-to-head game if there was only 1 playoff seeding round.

The team with the 'better record' / 'advantage' in a (sub)group is the team with the most points, assigning 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss in the playoff seeding rounds.
If there is a tie in points, it is the team with the better (highest) run differential (+/-), capped at a maximum of 7 runs per game, in the games involving those teams.
It is possible there is no winner of the head-to-head game/series; in that case, continue to the next step of the process when that is the deciding factor.

Tiebreaker Process:

1. If there is 1 team left in the (sub)group, that team is ranked next.

2. If there are 2 teams in the (sub)group, the winner of the head-to-head series is ranked higher; the other team gets the next available ranking (same as going back to step (1)).

3. If there are 2 teams tied, skip to step 5.
   [At this point at least 3 teams are tied.]
   If one team of the (sub)group has an advantage (i.e. a 'better record' as defined above) in the playoff seeding games between all teams in the (sub)group (e.g. a team has 4 points in a group of 3, 6 points in a group of 4), that team is ranked higher. If two teams have better advantage in the playoff seeding games between all teams in the (sub)group (e.g. 2 teams have 4 points for a group of 4), the winner of the head-to-head series between the teams with the better advantage is ranked higher, then go to step (1) with the remaining teams in the group; if head-to-head does not decide between those teams, continue on with only those teams.

4. If there are 2 teams tied, skip to step 5.
   [At this point, no team(s) have an advantage over the other teams.]
   The team with the best (highest) run differential (+/-), capped at a maximum of 7 runs per game, in playoff seeding games between all teams in the (sub)group is ranked higher; then go back to step (1) with the remaining team(s) in the (sub)group. If 2 teams are tied, the winner of the head-to-head series between those teams is ranked higher; then go back to step (1) with the remaining team(s) in the (sub)group.

5. [At this point there is a 2 or more way tie in run differential in the playoff seeding games involving the tied (sub)group.]
   The team with the best (highest) run differential (+/-), capped at a maximum of 7 runs per game, in all playoff seeding games is ranked higher; then go back to step (1) with the remaining team(s) in the (sub)group. If 2 teams are tied, the winner of the head-to-head series between those teams is ranked higher; then go back to step (1) with the remaining team(s) in the (sub)group.

6. The team with the higher standing in the regular season round robin games is ranked higher.

7. Flip a coin (if 2 teams are left) / draw lots (if 3 teams or more are left) to determine the higher ranked team. Then go back to step (1) with the remaining team(s) in the (sub)group.

The above rules are based on the original Playoff Round Tiebreaker rules from Bob Goddard in 2008:

• Playoff Round Tie-Breaker Format (Word DOC format) (Version: August 8, 2008)
• Playoff Round Tie-Breaker Format (HTML format) (Version: August 8, 2008)

• ESSA Playoff TieBreaker Rules (HTML format)
• ESSA Playoff TieBreaker Rules (2024) (HTML format)