It’s a year of change in both college football and the Southeastern Conference as the College Football Playoff expands from four to 12 teams and the SEC expands from 14 to 16 teams.
With the SEC expanding from 14 to 16 teams, the conference is getting rid of divisions with the two top teams by conference record meeting in the SEC Championship in Atlanta this December. Since not every team will play each other, the tiebreakers to decide who will play in the championship game become more important.
The SEC finally announced its tiebreakers on Wednesday and they go as follows.
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- Head-to-head competition among tied teams.
- Record versus common conference opponents.
- Record against highest ranked (by conference record) common opponent and proceeding down through the conference standings.
- Cumulative conference winning percentage of the SEC opponents of the tied teams.
- Capped relative total scoring margin versus all conference opponents among the tied teams.
- Random draw of tied teams.
While the SEC Championship remains important with the winner earning a first round bye in the College Football Playoffs, the expanded playoff diminishes its importance with the SEC expected to get a handful of teams in the playoffs.
Tennessee football enters the season with College Football Playoff aspirations as well as SEC Championship aspirations.
The league’s media picked Tennessee football to finish seventh place in the SEC this season behind Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Ole Miss, LSU and Missouri.
