This weekend the “Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” will be interesting for more than one reason.
The annual tilt between Florida and Georgia on a neutral field in Jacksonville, Fla. is a rivalry that always garners national attention, but the outcome of this game could provoke a vote later in the season.
If UGA wins, the Bulldogs likely could win their final two Southeastern Conference games, both at home against Auburn and Kentucky, landing UGA in its second consecutive SEC championship game with a 7-1 SEC record. And even if they lost one of those games and were tied with Tennessee at 6-2, the Bulldogs would still go to Atlanta because they defeated the Volunteers 41-14 earlier this season.
However, a Florida win will really get people talking about the SEC’s seventh tie-breaker rule with a potential three-way tie between UGA, UT and UF all at 6-2 in the SEC.
UGA’s schedule doesn’t get any easier after the UF game, but both the Gators (5-3, 3-2 SEC) and Volunteers (5-2, 3-2 SEC) will feast on some of the SEC’s weaker teams. UF’s remaining SEC slate includes games against Vanderbilt and at South Carolina (with a combined 2-8 SEC record), while UT feasts on Mississippi State, Vandy and at Kentucky (2-11 combined SEC record).
If this scenario plays out, the SEC’s first six tiebreakers for the right to represent a division in the SEC championship game will be cancelled out for one reason or another. The seventh tiebreaker calls for a vote of the conference’s athletic directors whose institutions aren’t involved in the tie, including the SEC West representative.
I’ve got a few questions and comments about this tiebreaker.
First, let’s thank God that nobody from Florida will be allowed to vote. By the time those guys figure out how to vote we’ll already be kicking off the 2004 season. Just look at what they did in the 2000 presidential election.
Will Vandy be allowed to vote? The Commodores scrapped their athletic department earlier this season and don’t have an athletic director – so technically they can’t vote. But I say let them vote. They’ll never have a better opportunity to affect the SEC Championship game.
What logic will the rest of the SEC’s ADs use when they vote? My feeling is ADs in both divisions will vote for the team with the best chance of winning the game – UGA.
If LSU can run the table, the Tigers would benefit more from playing UGA because the Bulldogs are much better than UF or UT. Playing UGA would give the Tigers the best chance of making it to the national championship at the end of the season.
Voting might not be a good way to decide who gets to go to Atlanta, but LSU coach Nick Saban posed a great question to this subject at his Monday press luncheon. He asked if there was a better way.
If such a tie takes place in the Big XII, a drawing takes place to decide which team will play in its championship game.
In the Big Ten and Pac-10, the conferences decide which of the tied teams will participate in the Rose Bowl by eliminating the last team that represented the conference.
The Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference use some kind of algebraic formula when deciding who will represent their respective conferences in the Bowl Championship Series when a tie is unbreakable by other standards.
The algebraic method is probably the best since it is the most objective, even though I can’t really understand it. The SEC brings politics into play, and I don’t think that’s ever a good thing.
My Solution: Let’s make the head coaches of the schools involved in the tie arm wrestle for the right to play in Atlanta.