Who's In The Driver's Seat?

With everything on the line heading into the final weekend of men’s soccer, many wonder what will happen, how do the tiebreaks work, who has the upper hand? Wonder no more.

The team sitting in the driver's seat is USC Aiken. The Pacers will be on the hunt for their first PBC Championship ever as they take on UNC Pembroke Saturday night in the most significant game of the weekend. Why significant? Because if the Pacers win, they assure themselves of at least a share of the regular-season championship and the #1 seed for the PBC Tournament. With seven teams competing, that means USCA would get a bye in the first round and, for the first time, host the semifinals and finals Nov. 2 and 4. The Pacers hold a tiebreak over Clayton State thanks to their 3-1 win over the Lakers on Sept. 22.

For Clayton State, the math is easy: win, and hope for a Pacer loss. The Lakers put themselves in contention with a dramatic 2-1 win at Lander on Saturday, foiling the Bearcats’ bid to be the top seed. Clayton State hosts Francis Marion on Saturday night.

As for Lander, the Bearcats have finished their conference schedule and have been eliminated from the race for top seed, although they can still claim a share of the championship.

Wait, what?

Let’s speculate for a moment and imagine that on Saturday Francis Marion beats Clayton State and UNC Pembroke beats USC Aiken. What then? We have four teams with 12 points, quad champions of the Peach Belt. All four will get trophies for that. But who’s number one?

Follow along: if all four teams are tied, a mini-conference is created and we compile a record of how they did against one another head-to-head. Under this scenario, Clayton State and Lander will both be 2-1 while USC Aiken and UNC Pembroke are 1-2. Therefore, we separate out USCA and UNCP (UNCP would be third) to the 3rd and 4th seed and go back to step one for Lander and Clayton State…which favors the Lakers with their win last Saturday.

What about further down the standings? UNC Pembroke cannot fall any further than fourth as they hold a tiebreak over North Georgia, so the Braves cannot fall any further than fourth and will host a first-round game. North Georgia is the fifth seed as they hold a tiebreak over Francis Marion, locking the Patriots into sixth and Georgia Southwestern into seventh (GSW cannot move ahead of FMU).

So that’s it. Easy, right? There will be a test later.