The consensus after Georgia defeated No. 1 Texas this past Saturday was that the Bulldogs are now in the dirvers seat when it comes to winning an SEC Championship and National Championship. Now while that may be true for a National Championship still, Georgia still needs some help just to have a chance to play for an SEC Championship.
Undefeated SEC teams
With the SEC divisions now gone, the conference has moved on to having the two highest teams in the conference standings be the two representatives to play for an SEC title. And even after Georgia’s big win against Texas, they still are not one of the top two teams in the conference standings.
Texas A&M and LSU are undefeated at 4-0 and 3-0, respectively, and would both get a nod into the SEC championship game ahead of Georgia if they win their remaining SEC games. On the bright side for Georgia, these two sides play each other this weekend, so one will add a loss to their SEC record putting them in a tie with Georgia.
But that still unfortunately does not mean that Georgia is an automatic qualifier to make it to Atlanta.
Alternate Tiebreakers
The first tiebreaker when determining which teams make it to Atlanta to play for an SEC Championship title is head-to-head matchups. As you probably know already, Georgia does not play either Texas A&M or LSU, so what is the second tiebreaker?
The second tiebreaker looks at both team’s records against common opponents. This tiebreaker would break any tie with LSU (assuming Georgia wins out) because LSU plays Alabama who would be Georgia’s only loss. If LSU beats Alabama then they would hold this tiebreaker over UGA, but if they also lose to Alabama then we would have to move on to the third tiebreaker to break this tie.
Texas A&M on the other hand does not share the a common opponent to Georgia in this same sense, so now we would have to move on to the third tiebreaker. The third tiebreaker on the official SEC website states, “Record against highest (best) placed common Conference opponent in the Conference standings, and proceeding through the Conference standings among the tied teams.”
This tiebreaker is hard to project right now because it all depends on which conference opponent has the best record that both Georgia and Texas A&M/LSU face. Anything could happen if it comes down to this tiebreaker, so let’s hope it doesn’t get to this point.
What should Georgia fans cheer for?
At the end of the day, all Georgia needs to do is focus on themseleves. None of these tiebreakers matter if they lose another game, so as long as Georgia wins out then this should all take care of itself.
But looking beyond Georiga, UGA fans should hope that whoever loses the game between Texas A&M and LSU this weekend loses another SEC game by the end of the season. If that happens then Georgia will officially control their own destiny and not have to worry what any other team does.
With upwards of five SEC games left on the schedule for some though, it is very unlikely that Georgia misses out on the SEC Championship game if they win their final three SEC games. So as long as that happens, Kirby Smart and Georgia should have a chance to play for a championship in Atlanta.
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