SEC Championship game scenarios for Week 12: What happens if Georgia beats Tennessee?

Georgia was given a lifeline when the College Football Playoff committee felt an 18-point road loss wasn’t enough to push the Bulldogs down in the rankings. Sure dropping nine ranks sounds like a lot for a loss, but when the Bulldogs are a win away from getting right back into the playoff, it doesn’t seem like much of a punishment for a two-loss team with a late-season loss.

It also means this week’s game between Georgia and Tennessee has a whole lot of implications for the next CFP rankings. Tennessee has one loss and if they lost, it could create a whole lot of chaos even the CFP committee doesn’t want to deal with. 

That said, it would also give the committee what they wanted which is more reason to consider more SEC teams. How do you justify which team gets left out if there are four, two-loss teams in contention? 

Let’s take a look at how crazy things could get in the SEC if Tennessee loses to Georgia and what it means for the SEC title game and College Football Playoff. 

What does the SEC championship game look like if Georgia beats Tennessee?

Right now, Tennessee, Texas and Texas A&M all have one loss in conference play. With a Tennessee loss, that would mean the two Texas schools would be atop the conference. But with them playing each other in the final regular season game of the season, that could throw everything in a tizzy; more on that later though. 

If Georgia beats Tennessee, assuming LSU and Missouri win, there would be six teams with two losses. Georgia would have the head-to-head win over Tennessee, Ole Miss and Alabama would have the head-to-head wins over Georgia, Alabama would also have the win over LSU and Tennessee would have the win over Alabama. 

The tiebreakers to unravel all of that is as confusing as it sounds. The SEC website spells out those tiebreaker rules. With a loss to Georgia, according to a Tuscaloosa News article, the Vols could get in if they beat Vanderbilt. 

Even with Georgia beating Tennessee, with losses to Alabama and Ole Miss, it’s not likely they get into the title game. That’s largely because the winner of Texas and Texas A&M will have one of the spots in the SEC title game, with the other going to one of the two-loss teams. 

And if Texas loses, it becomes even more complicated. 

What the SEC championship game looks like if Texas loses to Texas A&M

Assuming both Texas and the Aggies win out ahead of their season finale matchup, the winner of that game would earn their spot in the SEC championship game. If Texas A&M beats Texas, the Aggies would be the top team in the conference and the tiebreaker rules would create a whole lot of chaos. 

Long story short, there’s a whole lot of scenarios that could affect who would land in the SEC championship game. The more ties there are between two-loss teams, the more complicated it becomes to decide who gets in.