Coin flip to decide SEC Tournament's top seed after South Carolina, Texas wins
After the regular season ended in a tie between No. 1 Texas and No. 6 South Carolina for the SEC women's basketball champion, the No. 1 overall seed for the SEC Tournament will be determined by a coin toss.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey will perform the coin toss — with a custom-made coin that features the logos for both schools — during halftime of the LSU-Ole Miss game Sunday.
The three tiebreaker scenarios to determine the SEC's No. 1 seed are:
Both teams ended the regular season at 15-1 in the SEC, with their sole losses coming to one another. Texas lost to South Carolina in the teams' first meeting — a 17-point defeat in Columbia in mid-January. The Longhorns returned the favor when the Gamecocks visited Austin in February, earning a four-point win that ended South Carolina's 57-game SEC regular-season win streak.
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The 2025 SEC Tournament begins March 5 in Greenville, S.C., and both the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds receive first- and second-round byes and won't play until March 7. The No. 1 seed plays six hours earlier than the No. 2 seed in that quarterfinal round.
The SEC isn't alone in using a coin toss to determine seeding. The NFL has a coin toss as a part of its tiebreaker procedure for divisional ties ahead of the NFL playoffs, but it's the 12th option. Before the NFL gets to the coin toss, it considers head-to-head, best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the division, best won-lost-tied percentage in common games, best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference as well as seven other criteria.
The NBA has lengthy tiebreaker criteria, as well, if the two tied teams have been equal in head-to-head results, including winning percentages within the division, conference, playoff-qualifying teams and statistical facets (point differential). The WNBA also outlines several criteria for a tiebreak situation when the head-to-head result is the same, including winning percentage against .500-plus teams, point differential in head-to-head games and point differential (net) against all opponents.
(Photo of Dawn Staley: Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images)
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