The SEC West is shaping up to be a three-horse race. Alabama, Ole Miss and LSU all have a shot at the title entering November.
LSU and Alabama are set to face this week in a game that will have major divisional implications. A win for Alabama puts the Crimson Tide firmly in the driver’s seat and eliminates LSU from contention.
A win for LSU opens up a world of possibilities. That would put the Tigers in a three-way tie at the top of the division with Ole Miss and Alabama.
That would mean LSU beats Alabama, who beat Ole Miss, who beat LSU. If all three won out, there’d be a three-way tie at the top of the division.
With that round-robin, the head-to-head tiebreaks aren’t getting us anywhere. So, the tie-breaking procedures get more complicated.
The first step is take a look at the team’s record within the division. In this scenario, all three finish 5-1 against SEC West teams.
Next, we’d move to record against all common non-divisional teams. Again, nothing here, because the three don’t share any common non-divisional opponents.
Here’s where it starts to get interesting. It could come down to who faced the toughest schedule by looking at the best cumulative conference record of non-divisional opponents.
That works in LSU’s favor right now with the Tigers’ East opponents, Missouri and Florida, sitting at a combined 6-3 within the conference, better than the combined 5-5 cumulative record of both Ole Miss and Alabama’s opponents.
It’s unlikely to get to this point with LSU being an underdog at Alabama and Ole Miss still having to face Georgia, but it’s worth keeping an eye on.
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