Remember 2 years ago when Liberty, Coastal, and Stony Brook all finished with identical 5-1 conference records? And the deciding tiebreaker was points allowed in conference games which awarded Coastal the league’s first ever automatic playoff bid. You may remember they changed it, but what did the conference change it to?

“i. Composite records between the tying teams shall be evaluated to determine if one team has won more games against the other tying teams.
ii. In the event step “i” does not resolve the multiple ties or reduce the multiple tie to one tie, then a comparison of records of the tying teams against the next highest team shall be compared.
The process outlined in step “ii” shall continue through the last team, if necessary.
iii. Road wins in Conference games
iv. Home wins in Conference games
v. Point system based on complete schedule and wins using the latest available Sagarin rankings as indicated below:
Sagarin Ranking 1-50 (5 points for scheduling, 10 points for win = 15 max.)
Sagarin Ranking 51-100 (4 points for scheduling, 8 points for win = 12 max.)
Sagarin Ranking 101-150 (3 points for scheduling, 6 points for win = 9 max.)
Sagarin Ranking 151-200 (2 points for scheduling, 4 points for win = 6 max.)
Sagarin Ranking 201+ (1 point for scheduling, 2 points for win = 3 max.)

vi. Coin Toss.
If the multiple ties are reduced to a tie between two teams, the two-way tiebreaker formula shall be utlized.”
Basically the only way a 3-way tie happens again this year is if Coastal Carolina, Liberty, and Stony Brook all finish 5-1 just like they did in 2010. The only way conceivable this could happen is if Liberty loses to Coastal and turns around and beats Stony Brook. This would be the 3 teams’ conference results:
Coastal
vs SBU L
@ VMI W
vs Liberty  W
@ Gardner Webb W
@ Presbyterian W
vs CSU W
Liberty
vs  Gardner Webb W
@ Presbyterian W
@ Coastal L
vs CSU W
vs SBU W
@ VMI W
Stony Brook 
vs CSU W
@ Coastal W
vs Gardner Webb W
@ Presbyterian W
vs VMI W
@ Liberty L 

Based on these results Coastal would win the tiebreaker. The tiebreaker would not be broken until rule iii – road wins in conference games. Coastal would have 3, Liberty 2, Stony Brook 2. 

So, barring a strange turn of events, Liberty needs to win out to win the conference automatic playoff birth.