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Chris Low, ESPN Senior Writer
The SEC has announced its set of tiebreakers for the 2024 football season with the addition of Oklahoma and Texas and the elimination of divisions in the newly expanded 16-team league.
In the event of a tie between teams competing for a spot in the SEC championship game, the following procedures will be used in descending order until the tie is broken:
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A. Head-to-head competition between the tied teams.
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B. Record versus all common conference opponents among the tied teams.
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C. Record against highest (best) placed common opponent in the conference standings and proceeding through the standings among the tied teams.
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D. Cumulative conference winning percentage of all conference opponents among the tied teams.
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E. Capped relative scoring margin versus all conference opponents among the tied teams. Formula will include a cap of 42 points scored on offense and 48 points allowed on defense.
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F. Random draw of the tied teams.
If the regular-season standings determine a clear conference champion and two or more teams are tied for second place, the conference champion will be the home team in the SEC championship game and the tiebreaking procedures will be used to determine its opponent.
If a tiebreaking step produces standings with two teams tied for first place in the conference, both will qualify for the SEC championship game. To decide the seeding, both teams will progress through the two-team tiebreaking procedures until the tie is broken, which will determine home/away designation for the SEC championship. The game will be played on Dec. 7 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
In 1992, the SEC expanded from 10 to 12 teams with Arkansas and South Carolina joining the league and split into two divisions with the Eastern Division winner facing the Western Division winner for the league crown, creating college football’s first FBS conference championship game. The SEC continued with the division format to determine its conference championship game participants after Missouri and Texas A&M joined the league in 2012.
Current SEC teams have combined to win 14 of the past 19 national championships. Only six different schools have won SEC championships in football (Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee) since the start of the 1977 season.