Mythical playoffs are all the rage these days. Everyone loves speculating over 8 or 16 team end-of-year playoffs to determine the NCAA football champion. At SECFans.com, we like playoffs too. What better way to fill the downtime of the off-season than to speculate over a dream backyard brawl of former SEC Championship game winners? That's right, over the next few days we are going to see what could happen if these SEC champs went toe-to-toe.
Here's some details. We seeded from #1-4, giving preference to final record, ranking, and strength of schedule. The 4 undefeated champions naturally got the four available #1 seeds. Next, we seeded the #4's. Before the #4's were seeded, however, we had to bring the field down to 16 (there have been 17 SEC winners of SEC Championship games). Sorry LSU fans, the '01 squad just didn’t make the cut. There have been multiple 3 loss SEC Champions since 1992, and one had to go. Unfortunately for '01 LSU, their strength of schedule ranking was 23rd that year. '99 Alabama and '00 Florida both had the #1 ranked SOS in their respective seasons. '05 Georgia's strength of schedule was ranked 15th.
It may seem a little harsh to have '02 UGA, a 13-1 squad, coming in as a 3 seed. Since '03 LSU and '08 Florida both won national championships, the battle for the last 2 seed came down to the aforementioned Bulldogs and the '95 Gators. The Gators will be remembered because they were crushed by Tommie Frazier’s Cornhuskers in the Fiesta Bowl (for the championship), but they were offered literally no other resistance by any other foes on their schedule. And let’s face it, that '95 ‘Huskers squad was one of the best teams to ever take the field. Florida finished ranked 2nd in the nation while the '02 Georgia squad managed a 3rd place finish.
Enough with the details, let’s get on with it! Be sure to check back for new games as we play out the most significant mythical SEC tournament to date! You can also keep up with the action via the bracket below!
Up To Date Bracket (It's a spoiler if you haven't read the stories.)
Championship Game:
92 Alabama vs 96 Florida (To be posted 7/28)
Round 3 -
Group One:
Game Thirteen: 92 Alabama vs 98 Tennessee
Group Two:
Game Fourteen: 96 Florida vs 04 Auburn
Round 2 -
Group One:
Game Nine: 98 Tennessee vs 06 Florida
Game Ten: 92 Alabama vs 03 LSU
Group Two:
Game Eleven: 96 Florida vs 95 Florida
Game Twelve: 04 Auburn vs 08 Florida
Round 1 -
Group One:
Game One: 03 LSU vs 93 Florida
Game Two: 06 Florida vs 97 Tennessee
Game Three: 92 Alabama vs 05 Georgia
Game Four: 98 Tennessee vs 00 Florida
Group Two:
Game Five: 08 Florida vs 02 Georgia
Game Six: 04 Auburn vs 94 Florida
Game Seven: 96 Florida vs 99 Alabama
Game Eight: 95 Florida vs 07 LSU
The rest of the games to be determined after round one of the playoffs.