"When one team has a tie in its record and another team doesn't, all of that other stuff goes out the window. It comes down to the basic comparison of overall records, and particularly each team's winning percentage. Let's say Dallas finishes the year with a 9-7-1 record: nine wins, seven losses, and one tie. That is a better record with a higher winning percentage (.559) than a 9-8 (.529) record. It's also a worse record than 10-7 (58.8), still keeping things simple."
"Cowboys fans can be forgiven if they're not sure how to feel about or understand the impact of a tie. They don't happen often: Dallas and Green Bay's is the only one so far this year and the first since 2022. From 2002 to 2014, there were only 12 total ties over 13 seasons. And for Dallas, amazingly, this was the first tie for the franchise since 1969."
"What's funny about ties is that, for as rare as they are and as inexperienced as we may be with them, they actually make things simpler. If you want complexity, go through the NFL's tiebreaking scenarios for things like division winners, playoff seeding, and draft order. Especially once you get into levels like common opponents and strength of schedule, things get really tedious and unappealingly mathy."
Ties are rare in the NFL and can have outsized effects on standings because they change winning percentage calculations. Dallas and Green Bay share the league's only tie so far this season, and the Cowboys' tie was the franchise's first since 1969. When one team has a tie and another does not, comparisons reduce to overall records and winning percentage rather than deeper tiebreakers. A 9-7-1 record (.559) ranks ahead of a 9-8 record (.529) but behind a 10-7 record (.588). The tie can lift Dallas above teams with the same number of wins, affecting playoff seeding and the conference race.
Read at Blogging The Boys
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