Only three teams left in the SEC championship hunt.
Greetings, BBN!
Last week, I wrote the following:
“Next week’s biggest game is, well, there’s not really the biggest game next week—it’ll be seeing if any of the top six blow it against a lesser foe. The last big showdown will be on Rivalry Week when Texas takes on Texas A&M in College Station in a highly, highly anticipated rivalry renewal that’ll, no matter what, impact the title game race.”
Well, almost everybody blew it against lesser foes! What a Saturday!
Ole Miss lost at Florida, Alabama fell at Oklahoma, and Texas A&M went down on the Auburn Plains in OT. Chaos ensued, and just like that, solved the league’s standings logjam problem.
Here’s the deal: if Texas beats Texas A&M, they play Georgia in the SEC championship. If Texas A&M beats Texas, they will play Georgia in the SEC championship. The winner faces Georgia. It’s that simple.
Tennessee, Ole Miss, Alabama, and all the rest are eliminated.
The stakes will be higher than ever for this rivalry renewal: the paths to the SEC Championship and the College Football Playoff are on the line. It’ll be as closely followed as The Game and the Iron Bowl. Here are the rest of the SEC standings entering Week 14, aka Rivalry Week:
SEC Football Standings Week 14
Notes:
- The Allstate Playoff Predictor currently has playoff paths for eight different SEC teams. Texas, Georgia, and Tennessee are the three we’ll likely end up with, but slim chances still exist for Texas A&M, South Carolina, Alabama, and Ole Miss. Of the four, only the Aggies I’d say control their destiny.
- Ole Miss currently has a 7% chance of being one of the 12 playoff teams after the Selection Show. I’m very curious to know how much higher that number would be right now if it didn’t include a home loss to a team that went 1-7 in the league, with that being their only win. Kentucky’s legacy on the 2024 season: They didn’t do much, but they did blow up Ole Miss’s playoff bid.
- Vanderbilt would really, really like to smash the Vols playoff dreams right before the finish line when the two square off in Nashville this Saturday. They’ve hung with the big boys in every challenge, and I’m sure they’ll give Tennessee everything they’ve got.
- If Auburn beats Alabama in the Iron Bowl, the SEC will have a whopping 14 bowl-eligible teams!