For the first time since the year before Antonio Langham picked off Shane Matthews and sent Alabama to the 1992 national title game to face Miami (1992 Alabama vs. Florida), the Southeastern Conference won’t have divisions.
No SEC West, no SEC East.
All roads still lead to the SEC Championship Game, though. And there’s 16 teams now, with the additions of Texas and Oklahoma.
So – what if there are ties at the top, since ‘Bama, Texas, and Ole Miss, in particular, don’t play each other? All of those, just for example, are in the preseason top 10 in both the Associated Press and coaches’ polls.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey promised at SEC Media Days in July that the league would release its list of tiebreakers prior to the season, and on Wednesday afternoon, the league made good on that promise.
Here they are, and it’s pretty much what you’d figure.
- Head-to-head competition among the tied teams
- Record versus all common Conference opponents among the tied teams
- Record against highest (best) placed common Conference opponent in the Conference standings, and proceeding through the Conference standings among the tied teams
- Cumulative Conference winning percentage of all Conference opponents among the tied teams
- Capped relative total scoring margin versus all Conference opponents among the tied teams
- Random draw of the tied teams
Obviously, head-to-head, or lack thereof, is the problem in the cases we pointed out. Ole Miss does play LSU and Georgia, but for the first time in decades, not Alabama, nor do the Rebels face newcomer Texas. Alabama does meet Georgia, LSU, Missouri and Tennessee all on the field, and even gets Oklahoma late in the season. But the Longhorns aren’t on their schedule, and neither are the Rebels.
The second tiebreaker is record vs. common opponents, for which the above scenario could also present a problem.
We very well could get down to the fourth tiebreaker: winning percentage, or even the fifth, which is scoring margin.
Could we see the return of the “running up the score” accusations?
