STAGE SET FOR TITANTIC WEEK IN SEC
Monday 10/22/01
It is time to separate the contenders from the pretenders. In a great scheduling coincidence all of the SEC teams with less than 3 losses (except for Arkansas) are playing each other while all of the SEC teams with 3 losses or more are not (except for Vandy but they are playing Duke). Throw out Vandy/Duke and it is Florida/Georgia, Tennessee/South Carolina, LSU/Ole Miss and Auburn/Arkansas. It is almost a playoff type situation.
Now there are still a lot of games to play but the SEC title game participants will very likely come from one of these 8 teams. The losers from this weekend will be close to eliminated. There are always crazy things that could happen but this weekend should go along way toward determining who wins the East and West. Splitting the SEC into divisions has taken a lot of criticism over the years especially the years where the 2 best were in one division but at times like this it is awesome.
The Tennessee Vols come into this weekend on a high after beating Bama for the 7th time in a row. All they have to do most likely is beat South Carolina at home plus Kentucky and Vandy to setup a showdown with Florida for the SEC East title. Georgia could throw a wrench into things by beating Florida this weekend but the Vols would still have a shot as Georgia still has Auburn and Ole Miss to play. However a loss to the Gators would probably eliminate the Bulldogs.
Florida simply must win out to win the East. They get Georgia this week and play South Carolina and Tennessee later. The Gators still have to be looked at as the favorite. Other than the game at Auburn they have been the SEC’s most dominant team. Meanwhile South Carolina controls their destiny coming into this weekend. They play Tennessee and then Florida. They win those 2 games and they are in the title game if Georgia loses again but that is much easier said than done.
Meanwhile in the West, the loss to Tennessee this weekend pretty much eliminated Bama but they can still make a huge impact on the race as they play LSU and Auburn. The West contenders have boiled down to Auburn, LSU and Ole Miss. LSU’s demolition of Miss St proves they are ready to make a run. Rohan Davey to Josh Reed has become the deadliest passing combination in the West. Auburn stands as the only undefeated team in the West but danger lays ahead as they have road games at Arkansas, Georgia and LSU plus an always tough home game with Bama.
The good thing for Auburn is the loser of the LSU/Ole Miss game will virtually be eliminated. If Ole Miss loses they will lose any head-to-head tiebreakers with Auburn and LSU since they would have lost to both of them. If LSU loses they would have 3 losses in conference and more tough games to come. Meanwhile if Auburn loses it would obviously help LSU and Ole Miss the most but could even crack the door for Bama and Arkansas… Stay tuned this weekend.