The final college football playoff bracket is out, and the SEC has their hands all over it, landing five of the top 12 slots. Each of the five teams that made the field will have very different paths towards their goal of a national championship, as some will have to play conference opponents multiple times, and others will go at it against the BIG Ten and ACC’s best.
SEC Teams in the College Football Playoff
The Lone Bye Week
The SEC Champion and No. 3-ranked Georgia Bulldogs, now 12-1 after their dominant victory over No. 9-ranked Alabama, are rewarded with a bye week in the CFP for the second year in a row and are the only team in the SEC to earn that right. The Bulldogs lost after having the bye week in the playoffs last year against Notre Dame, and now aim to correct their mistake from a season ago and maintain their momentum despite the extended break from real game reps.
Georgia will play the winner of the No. 6 vs. No. 11 matchup between Ole Miss and Tulane. A draw in the bracket that Bulldogs fans honestly couldn’t be happier about—they’ve already beaten Ole Miss once this season. While that game was a shootout and a stressful win for them, the defense has looked much better since then, and Ole Miss no longer has their head coach, Lane Kiffin. If Tulane pulls off a miracle and somehow beats Ole Miss, then the Bulldogs will have an even clearer path toward the semi-finals.
Three of the next four SEC teams will host in the first round
Ole Miss is ranked No. 6 despite losing their head coach to LSU. The bright side for Rebels fans is that they keep their play caller, Charlie Weis Jr., for the playoff run, before Weis Jr. joins Lane Kiffin in Baton Rouge. The Rebels haven’t let the distraction of their head coach affect them yet, finishing the year with an 11-1 record, with their only loss coming to Georgia on the road. Now Ole Miss arguably gets the best draw in the bracket, facing No. 11 Tulane.
This is the second meeting between the two teams this year, and in the first, it was all Rebels, as they crushed Tulane 45-10. The matchup made by the committee hasn’t sat too well with the audience because of the result of these two’s first matchup, but with Ole Miss more than likely to win again, it’ll set up what should be fireworks of a rematch with Georgia in the second round.
Sliding in at No. 7 is Texas A&M, which lost its last regular-season game to the Texas Longhorns, finishing 11-1 and just missing out on a berth in the SEC Championship game. Texas A&M will face No. 10 Miami, which narrowly and controversially made the playoffs and is the only ACC representative. A&M had been ranked No. 3 for weeks before their only loss to Texas, and now they are just one spot behind Ole Miss.
While a one-spot difference might seem small, A&M would see it differently, especially since they have to play a dangerous Miami Hurricanes team, not a Group of Five team ranked No. 20 that gets the No. 11 seed because it won its conference. Another unusual aspect for A&M is that their game is scheduled for an 11:00 AM local kickoff, which is somewhat shocking considering it feels like the biggest game of the Saturday slate compared to Oregon vs JMU and Ole Miss vs Tulane.
With a win, Texas A&M would head to the Cotton Bowl to play against the reigning National Champion and No. 2-ranked Ohio State.
Rounding out the SEC pool in the CFP is the No. 8 vs. No. 9 game, a rematch now in Norman, Oklahoma, as the Sooners aim to improve to 3-0 against Kalen DeBoer’s Alabama Crimson Tide. This is the best matchup of the first round hands down, and it’ll be under the Friday night lights as the only game on December 19th, with a kickoff time of 8 PM Eastern and 7 PM local.
 No. 9 Alabama is coming off what might be its worst performance of the season in the SEC title game against No. 3 Georgia. The tide fell short, losing 28-7, and is now 2-2 in their last four games. Meanwhile, Oklahoma has lived off its elite defense this season. In their last four games, the Sooner defense has forced nine turnovers, including three against Alabama in their low-scoring battle at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Both teams have struggled on offense as of late, and in a game where the under seems like a lock, turnovers and timely explosive plays will be huge factors in who comes out on top. The winner of the crimson battle will go on to the Rose Bowl, waiting for them is the newly crowned BIG Ten Champion and No. 1 team in the country, the Indiana Hoosiers.
The field is set, now is where the real fun begins in College Football, and there’s no doubt the SEC will leave their mark on this year’s tournament.
Main Image: Ray Carlin-Imagn Images
