SEC Football Week 13 Breakdown
As we’re traveling southwest through these fine United States, crossing over Memphis, Tennessee at the moment, everyone take a look to your left. You will see the best one loss team in the nation. The Tide, as they are known in these parts, regained new life just a few short days ago. Looking straight ahead, you will clearly see the best team and only undefeated team of any consequence left in the country. And to everyone’s right will be the first ever third best team in the nation by default. While these Razorbacks are talented and good, they have ventured up the nation’s standings week by week as teams ahead of them plummeted to their inconsequential bowl futures. I would like to welcome everyone to the heart of the college football universe, the SEC.
Friday November 25
1st ranked LSU vs. 3rd ranked Arkansas
Arkansas is good. Are they National Championship good though? Their one out-of-conference win of note, over Texas A&M, almost seems like a bad win at this point. They have traversed the BCS standings, continually winning week after week while their peers could not. There is something to be said about consistency and beating teams you should beat. Maybe the BCS has worked this season in that regard: by weeding out the undeserving leaving us with ones up to the task. And so here we are. The Razorbacks are number three in the nation, trailing only two other SEC behemoths in both the SEC West standings and the national polls.
This game could not possibly have anything bigger on the line. Not only will the game decide the SEC championship team coming from the West division but it will also, in all likelihood based on how things have played out, decide either one half or both halves of the National Championship game.
If LSU wins, they win the SEC West and will surely make the BCS title game with a win over Georgia. (If they go on to lose to Georgia, or if any SEC West team loses to Georgia in the SEC Championship, that will open up all kinds of scenarios that I do not have the schooling to be able to understand so we will suspend that possibility for the remainder of this game preview.)
If Arkansas wins, a three-way tie will develop where LSU, Alabama or the Razorbacks themselves will all have a chance at making both title games. How the winner is decided is actually quite interesting and veers towards contradicting previously understood BCS college football rules.
The SEC West champion is decided by the team finishing highest in the final BCS rankings…unless the next highest team in the BCS is within five spots of the first team. In that instance, the winner of the head to head matchup between those two specific schools would win the division. After that, as everyone knows, only two schools from the same conference can make a BCS bowl…unless those two schools are ranked first and second in the final standings and neither was conference champ. Got it?
So in all likelihood (and I hate to continually use that phrase but it seems apropos at this juncture), the winner is decided by who won the head to head matchup between the top two teams in the subsequent BCS rankings as I cannot imagine any of the three schools dropping below fifth in the nation. (Assuming Alabama beats Auburn,) if Arkansas wins and LSU drops to third in the BCS because of it, Alabama will win the division based on their previous victory over Arkansas. If Arkansas wins and somehow hops Alabama while LSU only drops to second, then the Razorbacks make it. If Arkansas wins, hops Alabama but sees LSU drop to third, then Arkansas is out of luck. Having no idea how this would play out, it almost seems like Arkansas needs to beat LSU but not by much, in order for voters to respond with the rankings they need.
Saturday November 26
2nd ranked Alabama vs. Auburn
Two prefaces for this game: A) Alabama is much better than Auburn and should win. B) This is the Iron Bowl and anything, literally anything, could happen.
Auburn will have a ton of extra fans this weekend. A takedown of the Crimson Tide is the only hope some teams have of making the National Championship. It remains to be seen whether this increase in popularity will make any kind of difference. Auburn is an above average team with some nice weapons. Alabama is a historically great defensive team with better weapons on offense than Auburn can tote. Yet, this is a rivalry game between two much hated, in-state rivals. When the matchup itself gets a nickname, fans know it means a little something extra.
If this being the Iron Bowl wasn’t enough, throw in the bottom line that an Alabama win most assuredly means they are National Championship bound and we have ourselves one heck of a Saturday tussle.
Other notable matchups:
18th ranked Georgia vs. 24th ranked Georgia Tech
Florida vs. Florida State
14th ranked South Carolina vs. 13th ranked Clemson
Rivalry weekend! Woohoo! Obviously, none of these games mean a thing for SEC conference standings. Georgia has clinched the SEC East and their highest hopes rest on winning the conference title game, which means a win or a loss versus Georgia Tech has no bearing on that. Florida is bowl eligible and cannot hope to improve their resume all that much with a win here against a struggling State team. South Carolina will be headed to a nice bowl with a loss, a better bowl with a win but nothing more.
That being said, these are rivalry games. You think Florida fans would rather they have won one or two more conference games this season or win THIS game? You think Georgia will be looking ahead to their SEC tilt? Think again. You know South Carolina would love nothing more than to throw a nail in Clemson’s coffin that will have them wallowing in bowl irrelevance if they can’t win the ACC the following week. Fans love rivalry games; players love rivalry games. Coaches probably do not while the week is going on but certainly love them if they come out victorious.
Games of no particular note or significance whatsoever:
Tennessee vs. Kentucky
Vanderbilt vs. Wake Forest
Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State
A couple remaining thoughts on the rest of these games: Bowl eligibility is on the line all around. This is of no interest to me, nor should it be to you unless you go to any of these schools, are employed at any of these schools or wagered money on any of these schools. And frankly, I would advise against doing two of those three things to begin with.
Week 13 Football Breakdown Page
