SEC Championship: Complete standings and tiebreakers heading into Week 10
The SEC could be in for a wild finish as we look towards November.
The conference is already setting itself up to get multiple bids in the College Football Playoff, but there's a major advantage for the team that makes it to Atlanta and wins the SEC Championship: A bye through the first-round of the playoff and, likely, a favorable matchup in the second round.
The top-four highest-ranked conference champions will get byes through the first round of the 12-team College Football Playoff. The SEC looks like it will either grab the No. 1 or No. 2 seed when it's all said and done, meaning that the conference champion will not only get a little more than an extra week to rest and prepare, but they'll also get a favorable matchup in terms of the seed they'll face in the quarterfinals.
So, who's in control of their own destiny to get to Atlanta? Here's a look at the complete SEC standings heading into Week 10 of the college football season.
Team | Conference Record |
|---|---|
Texas A&M | 5-0 |
Georgia | 4-1 |
Texas | 3-1 |
Tennessee | 3-1 |
LSU | 3-1 |
Alabama | 3-2 |
Arkansas | 3-2 |
Missouri | 2-2 |
Ole Miss | 2-2 |
Vanderbilt | 2-2 |
Florida | 2-2 |
South Carolina | 2-3 |
Oklahoma | 1-4 |
Auburn | 1-4 |
Kentucky | 1-5 |
Mississippi State | 0-5 |
There are a few crazy scenarios where one of the two-loss teams could somehow still make it to Atlanta, but the likelihood of that happening is so low, we're not going to focus on it for the time being.
Instead, it's most likely that your two contestants in the SEC Championship are from this group: Texas A&M, Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, and LSU.
Texas A&M controls its own destiny with a perfect 5-0 record, while many of the tiebreakers between those teams with one conference loss have yet to be determined. Georgia has the tiebreaker of Texas, and the Bulldogs will play Tennessee later this year, but LSU and Texas will not play any of the one-loss teams. However, Texas will play Texas A&M to close the year, so if the Longhorns won out and beat Texas A&M, they'd hold a tiebreaker over Texas A&M, but not Georgia if all the teams ended with one loss.
One crazy tiebreaker scenario to consider: LSU, Tennessee, and Texas win out. Texas A&M loses to Texas, but wins its other two games. Then, we'd be set up with a four-team tie all four of them holding a 7-1 record. Texas would have a head-to-head tiebreaker over Texas A&M, and Texas A&M already holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over LSU.
Who would get in? This would ultimately come down to the combined winning percentage of all conference opponents. Currently, that would likely have Texas A&M and LSU meet for a rematch.
However, it's important to note that there's no way to know how games in the month of November will play out and how that will affect conference winning percentage for opponents, but it's fun to consider that we may very well be staring down a three-way or four-way tie for the SEC Championship that is determined in one of the strangest ways possible.
Biggest games in the SEC during Week 10
- No. 19 Ole Miss at Arkansas (12 p.m. E.T. on ESPN)
- Florida at No. 2 Georgia (3:30 p.m. E.T. on ABC/ESPN+)
- No. 10 Texas A&M at South Carolina (7:30 p.m. E.T. on ABC/ESPN+)
- Kentucky at No. 7 Tennessee (7:45 p.m. E.T. on SEC Network)
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