re: Hypothetical question. What happens with three undefeated in the sec?

I cant find the link, but I believe I heard back in the spring that it would be two highest ranked teams in the CFP (not AP).

Right, it will be the two highest ranked teams. Irony of course, the team ranked 3rd gets the best deal of the bunch.

That’s debatable.

1 team goes to SEC CG to win a championship & earn a 1st round bye

3rd team gets a bye week & then a home game in 1st round of playoffs

Either one still gets a bye & has to win 3 more games to win a natty.

The SEC hasn’t actually announced the tiebreakers yet, which is a little crazy to be honest. But I would guess it’ll look something like:

1) Number of head-to-head wins among tied teams

2) Record against common SEC opponents

3) Record against the common SEC opponent(s) with best record

4) Conference record of SEC opponents

5) Coin flip

Using CFP ranking as a final tiebreaker instead of a coin flip kind of makes sense, but I don’t think the timing will work. The SEC championship is a week after the final regular season game, and I don’t think the CFP rankings come out until that Tuesday. So you would be waiting until Tuesday to find out who goes to the championship on Saturday.

I would also think they try to leave non-conference opponents out of the equation if at all possible, since that adds another whole layer of potential subjectivity.

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Seems it would be better to play the SECCG and win it and earn a bye than to have to play a Rd of 16 game at the very end of exams. I's rather win the SEC.

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Agreed. By giving conference champs a first round bye, they've made those championship games actually mean something again.

Looks like you read my posts on this , because I've pointed it out too.

From what little I've seen, there's no hard-and-fast tiebreakers, which seem to leave it up to human/committee discussion. In other words, same way the playoff committee solved the Florida State/Texas/Alabama issue.

My guess is they will choose the most popular/profitable combination of teams, and then reverse-engineer some "tiebreakers" that allow it. Just like the playoff committee did.

Texas, Tennessee and LSU all undefeated... Texas gets into the championship. We can safely say that would be one of the teams, because it would bring more attention and viewers. Now, with all teams being 12-0, you probably can use strength of schedule; Texas will play Michigan OOC. That gives Texas a bump, and if so that puts LSU in as the other team (LSU plays USC and UCLA). I don't think Tennessee has an OOC schedule that compares, so you can eliminate the Vols that way.

What happens afterwards- I would expect the winner in Atlanta to be playoff #1 seed, as a 13-0 SEC team.
I would expect the team that didn't go to Atlanta would be the #5 seed, the highest non-conference champ. Tennessee in this scenario.

If you then project the seed bracket, that means Tennessee would get a home game against the #12 seed, say Liberty, or Boise etc. And get a comfortable home win. Then play #4 at a neutral site, I would suggest that will be Utah (Big 12 winner), which an undefeated SEC team would be favored to beat.
Then a semifinal matchup against #1, the SEC champ (LSU or Texas). So in theory, that is also the 'unofficial' 2nd SEC championship.

Which is just really crazy, if you think about it:
1 team has to play an undefeated SEC opponent in Atlanta, to get a trophy and "seed". (2 teams, actually)

1 team goes 12-0, then gets a home playoff game against a G5 team, followed by a neutral site game against the weakest P4 champ.

They project to play each other to go to the championship.

Who is rewarded with the easiest path?

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4) Paul Finebaum

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This legit made me laugh out loud.

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I also think that the SECCG's days are numbered.

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I disagree for two reasons.

1. Money. The SEC would be devaluing their TV contract by eliminating the SECCG.

2. Imagine having a 16-team league with no divisions and an 8-game (or even 9-game) season, and naming a conference champion without even playing a championship game. That would be pretty shitty. As bad as a 3-way tie would be for the top 2 spots, at least those teams still have to earn the actual conference title on the field.

So now the SEC championship has been trivialized as much as it has in baseball and basketball? How fun.