SEC standings, tiebreakers to know as UGA football enters final conference game

ATHENS — For the last time this season, Georgia will play an SEC game.

The Bulldogs enter this weekend with a 6-1 record, already matching the number of conference wins they had a season ago. Georgia would go on to beat Texas in the SEC championship game, the team Georgia plays this weekend in a top-10 matchup.

“This team didn’t beat Texas,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “Texas hasn’t played this team of ours. So two completely different teams, in my opinion. So it has zero effect on them.”

Even if Georgia wins Saturday, the Bulldogs will not have clinched a berth to return to the SEC championship game for the eighth time in Smart’s 10 seasons.

Because of the current SEC standings and tiebreakers, Georgia could finish with a better SEC record than last season and not play in the conference championship.

Texas A&M and Alabama both control their own paths to Atlanta. They are the only two teams without a conference loss. They are also the only two SEC teams above Georgia in the College Football Playoff rankings.

Texas A&M ends its SEC slate with a home game against South Carolina and a road game at Texas. Alabama hosts Oklahoma this weekend and then concludes SEC play with a game at Auburn.

Alabama holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over Georgia thanks to its 24-21 victory in Athens earlier this season. In the event that Alabama loses just one of its final two SEC games and Georgia and Alabama are the only two one-loss teams, Alabama would go to Atlanta.

In the event of a three-plus team tiebreaker, conference opponent win percentage would be the determining factor, given the teams at the top of the conference have not all played each other.

This is where Ole Miss factors into the equation.

The Rebels, like Georgia, do not control their own path to Atlanta. Ole Miss needs Georgia to lose, given the Rebels lost the head-to-head matchup, and Georgia is projected to have a superior conference opponent winning percentage.

Ole Miss has games left against Florida and Mississippi State. Should the Rebels win both of those, they would finish with a 7-1 conference record.

If Georgia wants to go to Atlanta, it should want the Rebels to keep winning. Ole Miss opens the door for Georgia to go to the SEC championship in the event it is in a three-team tiebreaker with Alabama as the third team. The conference opponent winning percentages are very tight between Georgia and Alabama, with the winners of Missouri-Mississippi State and Kentucky-Vanderbilt swinging which team would go to Atlanta.

Should Texas A&M enter the cluster of teams with one loss, Georgia would have a significant edge in getting to Atlanta because of the projected conference opponent win percentage. In the event Texas A&M loses to Texas, Georgia would also have a better record against common opponents.

Texas is also a factor in the SEC championship race, but the Longhorns have a lot of work left. They are 4-1 in conference play but have games remaining against Georgia, Arkansas and Texas A&M. Even if Texas wins out, it would likely need an Ole Miss loss to get to Atlanta because of the various tiebreakers.

For Georgia to really think about its chances of getting to Atlanta for the SEC championship game against Texas, it must first take care of business this weekend. A loss would hinder not just its chances of getting to Atlanta for a fifth consecutive season but also its College Football Playoff hopes.

“Our guys are excited,” Smart said. “Got another big home game. We had a great slate of home games this year. It’ll be a night game and top-10 matchup.”