SEC Football: What was the worst conference title game ever?

Last week we discussed the worst ACC title game that has ever been witnessed; now it’s SEC football’s turn.

The SEC might be the best college football conference known to man, but even it has slipped up a few times in regards to giving the fans a worthy title game matchup. This has been for a plethora of reasons, including but not limited to lackluster final scores, forgettable participants, and even the ranks of said participants.

The crown jewel of SEC championship mediocrity falls on the 2002 installment, for all of the aforementioned reasons and then some.

The affair set the top-tier Georgia Bulldogs up against the good (but not great) Arkansas Razorbacks. As one can surely imagine, the latter is not exactly the biggest SEC football brand that comes to mind when thinking of a title game talent; so that’s strike one.

As far as their ranking, the Razorbacks entered the contest ranked 22nd (their only time being ranked all season). This makes them the second-lowest ranked team to ever take part in the event to date. The Dawgs, on the other hand, were at least able to breach the top-four threshold.

Upon getting word of their contrasting placements on the college football hierarchy at the time, it should be quite obvious that the game itself failed to wow anyone outside of Athens.

To put it lightly, Arkansas never had a chance. With a final tally of 30-3 in Georgia’s favor, the Razorbacks’ first down count was more than doubled by the Bulldogs and they were lapped by over 200 total yards. Georgia starting quarterback David Greene threw for 237 yards, almost an exact hundred more than Arkansas’s measly 139 as a team.

Following the massacre, Georgia won their Sugar Bowl date over the Florida State Seminoles, yet it would have meant more had it held any national title implications. As for Arkansas, it would go on to suffer a convincing defeat to the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the even more meaningless Music City Bowl.

Forgettable, no competitiveness, and nothing memorable to come after it on either side; it all adds up to the 2002 SEC Championship Game being the worst one that college football fans have ever seen (for now).