In past years, when two teams finished with the same record and the same strength of schedule, their draft order would be determined by a coin toss at the Scouting Combine. That won’t be the case anymore.
On Tuesday the league’s owners voted on new tiebreaking procedures for draft order that will make it virtually impossible for a coin toss to be needed.
In most cases, the new rule won’t change the draft order: The top pick will still go to the team with the worst record, the second pick to the team with the next-worst record, and so on, with strength of schedule as the primary tiebreaker.
What has changed is that now there are many, many more tiebreakers after strength of schedule. If there’s still a tie after strength of schedule is applied, tiebreakers will move on to head-to-head, record in common games, strength of victory, combined ranking in points scored and points allowed, net points in all games, and finally net touchdowns in all games. Only if two teams are exactly tied in every single one of those tiebreakers -- something that is essentially impossible -- would there be a coin toss.
So coin tosses are done, and the draft order will now be determined by results on the field.
