Could SEC Championship Game Come Down to "Random Draw?"
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ATHENS - New Southeastern Conference, new rules.
For the first time since 1991, the SEC no longer has divisions. The additions of Texas and Oklahoma to the conference have moved things around a little bit. In a season where Kirby Smart and UGA Football have to face Texas, Alabama and Ole Miss on the road, a lot of things can happen, especially ties. It is very possible that more than one team finishes at or near the top with the same record.
The SEC put out a press release on how tiebreakers will work:
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“The Southeastern Conference on Wednesday announced new football tiebreaking procedures for the 2024 SEC Championship Game, the first football season since 1991 to be conducted without divisions.
In the event of a tie between teams competing for a place in the Conference championship game, the following procedures will be used in descending order until the tie is broken:
- A Head-to-head competition among the tied teams
- B Record versus all common Conference opponents among the tied teams
- C Record against highest (best) placed common Conference opponent in the Conference standings, and proceeding through the Conference standings among the tied teams
- D Cumulative Conference winning percentage of all Conference opponents among the tied teams
- E Capped relative total scoring margin versus all Conference opponents among the tied teams
- F Random draw of the tied teams
If the regular season standings determine a clear Conference champion and two or more teams are tied for second place, the Conference champion will be the home team in the Championship Game and the tiebreaking procedures will be used to determine its opponent.
If a tiebreaker step produces standings with two teams tied for first place in the Conference, both will qualify for the championship game. To decide the seeding of the two teams, both will progress through the two-team tiebreaker procedures until the tie is broken, which will determine home/away designation for the SEC Championship Game.
The 2024 SEC Championship Game will be held on Saturday, Dec. 7, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga.
The SEC Championship Game has been the most watched conference championship nationally for 15 of the past 16 seasons, including 12 in a row from 2008-2019. The only year it was not No. 1 was 2020 when the SEC did not have a traditional schedule due to the pandemic. The 2023 SEC Championship Game averaged 17.519 million viewers, +61% vs. 2021, and peaked with 22.350 million viewers. It was the most-watched Conference Championship Game on any network in five years.”
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