CARDINALS

Explaining U of L's ACC tournament tiebreakers

Jeff Greer

Louisville Courier Journal

Feb 23, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Louisville Cardinals head coach Rick Pitino reacts to a call by a referee in the first half of their game agains the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at McCamish Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

This post was updated after Notre Dame's 71-59 win at Louisville on Wednesday night.

There is no doubt about this: Louisville wants a double bye in next week's ACC tournament. Rick Pitino has said as much.

A double bye gives Louisville an extra day of practice and an extra day at home before the postseason.

So how can the Cardinals get a double bye? Well, first of all, they have to finish anywhere in the top four of the ACC standings. That means they wouldn't play in the ACC tournament until Thursday, while the other 10 teams participating in the tournament would play at least once before that day.

Here are the ACC's tiebreakers, per conference guidelines:

I. When two teams are tied in the standings, regular-season head-to-head results are used as the tiebreaker.

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II. If the two tied teams split their regular season games, the tie is broken by comparing each team's records against the team occupying the highest position in the standings, and then continuing down until one team gains an advantage.

III. If three or more teams are tied, the combined record of each team against the other two teams involved is used to break the tie. After this procedure, if two teams remain tied, procedure 2 is followed.

IV. If procedures 2 and/or 3 fail to establish an advantage, a coin flip to break the tie will be conducted by the commissioner after the final regular-season game before the conference tournament.

Here are the scenarios that can play out this week:

Louisville finishes fourth in the ACC, gets a double bye: How does this situation happen? Well, first of all, Notre Dame beat Louisville and North Carolina beat Georgia Tech, which drops the Cards and North Carolina into a tie for fourth. If one wins and the other loses, we can all go home and kiss our loved ones goodnight. If it's not that simple, well, that's where it gets a bit complicated.

If Louisville beats Virginia and North Carolina beats Duke, Louisville would have the tiebreaker with the win over Virginia.

If Louisville loses to Virginia and North Carolina loses at home vs. Duke on Saturday, the ACC would compare Louisville and North Carolina's winning percentages against the teams tied for (or alone in) sixth place. Right now, there are five teams in the hunt for sixth, and the great Card Game details how that could potentially shake out.

More from Card Game on Thursday: The tiebreaker Louisville could win if Louisville and North Carolina finish 11-7 is by having an equal winning percentage (2-1) as North Carolina against NC State and Miami -- tied for 6th place at 10-8 -- and a better winning percentage (2-1 vs. 1-1) against Syracuse and Pittsburgh -- tied for 8th place at 9-9.

Louisville would also prevail if Clemson joins the tie at 8th place with a 9-9 record.