SEC Championship Game
SEC Championship Game | |
---|---|
Conference Football Championship | |
Sport | Football |
Conference | Southeastern Conference |
Current stadium | Georgia Dome |
Current location | Atlanta, Georgia |
Played | 1992-present |
Last contest | 2010 SEC Championship Game |
Current champion | Auburn Tigers |
Most championships | Florida Gators (7) |
TV partner(s) | CBS |
Official website | SECSports.com Football |
Sponsors | |
Dr Pepper (1992-present) | |
Host stadiums | |
Georgia Dome (1994-present) Legion Field (1992-1993) | |
Host locations | |
Atlanta, Georgia (1994-present) Birmingham, Alabama (1992-1993) |
The SEC Championship Game refers to the game determining the Southeastern Conference's football season champion. The championship game pits the SEC Western Division representative against the Eastern Division representative in a game held after the regular season has been completed. Thus far, nine of the twelve SEC members have played in the Championship. Only Ole Miss has failed to reach the game from the West. Kentucky and Vanderbilt have never represented the East. The Eastern division now holds the advantage in the game, 11–8.[1]
History
The SEC was the first conference in the NCAA to hold a football championship game made possible when the conference expanded in 1991 to twelve members with the addition of the University of Arkansas and the University of South Carolina. The format has since been adopted by other conferences to decide their football champion (the first being the Big 12 in 1996).
The first two SEC Championship games were held at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. However, since 1994, the game has been played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia.[2]
In 2009, Alabama and Florida met in the SEC Championship Game for the seventh time in the eighteen year history of the game, the record for the most times any two teams have faced each other in the Championship game (no other match up has been played in Championship game more than twice). Alabama has faced Florida in each of their seven SEC Championship game appearances. In addition, the 2009 game marked the second consecutive year that the number 1 (Florida) and number 2 (Alabama) ranked teams in the AP Poll met in the SEC Championship game. 2009 was the first time any conference championship game had featured two undefeated teams. Alabama won 32-13 and earned a berth in the 2010 BCS National Championship Game.
Results
Results from all SEC Championship games that have been played.[3] Rankings are from the AP Poll, winner in bold italics
Year | Eastern Division | Western Division | Venue | Attendance | MVP | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1992 | #12 Florida[4] | 21 | #2 Alabama | 28 | Legion Field Birmingham, Alabama |
83,091 | CB Antonio Langham, Alabama |
1993 | #9 Florida | 28 | #16 Alabama[5] | 13 | 76,345 | QB Terry Dean, Florida | |
1994 | #6 Florida | 24 | #3 Alabama | 23 | Georgia Dome Atlanta, Georgia |
74,751 | DT Ellis Johnson, Florida |
1995 | #2 Florida | 34 | #23 Arkansas | 3 | 71,325 | QB Danny Wuerffel, Florida | |
1996 | #4 Florida | 45 | #11 Alabama[6] | 30 | 74,132 | QB Danny Wuerffel, Florida | |
1997 | #3 Tennessee | 30 | #11 Auburn[7] | 29 | 74,896 | QB Peyton Manning, Tennessee | |
1998 | #1 Tennessee | 24 | #23 Mississippi State[8] | 14 | 74,795 | WR Peerless Price, Tennessee | |
1999 | #5 Florida | 7 | #7 Alabama | 34 | 71,500 | WR Freddie Milons, Alabama | |
2000 | #7 Florida | 28 | #18 Auburn | 6 | 73,427 | QB Rex Grossman, Florida | |
2001 | #2 Tennessee | 20 | #21 LSU[9] | 31 | 74,843 | QB Matt Mauck, LSU | |
2002 | #4 Georgia | 30 | #22 Arkansas[10] | 3 | 75,835 | QB David Greene, Georgia | |
2003 | #5 Georgia[11] | 13 | #3 LSU[12] | 34 | 74,913 | RB Justin Vincent, LSU | |
2004 | #15 Tennessee | 28 | #3 Auburn | 38 | 74,892 | QB Jason Campbell, Auburn | |
2005 | #13 Georgia | 34 | #3 LSU | 14 | 73,717 | QB D. J. Shockley, Georgia | |
2006 | #4 Florida | 38 | #8 Arkansas[13] | 28 | 73,374 | WR Percy Harvin, Florida | |
2007 | #14 Tennessee[14] | 14 | #5 LSU | 21 | 73,832 | QB Ryan Perrilloux, LSU | |
2008 | #2 Florida | 31 | #1 Alabama | 20 | 75,892 | QB Tim Tebow, Florida | |
2009 | #1 Florida | 13 | #2 Alabama | 32 | 75,514 | QB Greg McElroy, Alabama | |
2010 | #19 South Carolina | 17 | #1 Auburn | 56 | 75,802 | QB Cameron Newton, Auburn | |
Totals | 11 Wins | 479[1] | 8 Wins | 457[1] | 74,837 (avg)[15] |
Results by team
Appearances | School | Wins | Losses | Pct | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
10 | Florida | 7 | 3 | .700 | |
7 | Alabama | 3 | 4 | .428 | |
5 | Tennessee | 2 | 3 | .400 | |
4 | LSU | 3 | 1 | .750 | |
4 | Auburn | 2 | 2 | .500 | |
3 | Georgia | 2 | 1 | .667 | |
3 | Arkansas | 0 | 3 | .000 | |
1 | Mississippi State | 0 | 1 | .000 | |
1 | South Carolina | 0 | 1 | .000 | |
0 | Kentucky | 0 | 0 | N/A | |
0 | Ole Miss | 0 | 0 | N/A | |
0 | Vanderbilt | 0 | 0 | N/A |
Home/away designation
The team designated as the "home" team alternates between division champions; the designation goes to the Eastern champion in even-numbered years and the Western champion in odd-numbered years.
In 2009, the Western division champion, Alabama, was the home team. Because LSU has won the Western division in previous four consecutive seasons that the Western division champion was the "home team" and LSU traditionally wears white jerseys for home games, the SEC West champion wore white in nine consecutive SEC Championship Games (2000-2008). As of the 2009 contest, the designated home team is 11–7 overall in SEC championship games.[3]
Rematches
The SEC Championship game has featured a rematch of a regular season game a total of six times (1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2010). The team who won the regular season game is 5-1 in the rematches, the lone exception being in 2001 when LSU defeated Tennessee.
Selection criteria
Division standings are based on each team's overall conference record. Often, two or more teams tie for the best record in their division and each team is recognized as a divisional co-champion. However, tiebreakers are used to determine who will represent the division in the championship game.
Two-team tie-breaker procedure
- Head-to-head competition between the two tied teams.
- Records of the tied teams within the division.
- Head-to-head competition vs. the team within the division with the best overall record (divisional and non-divisional) Conference record and proceeding through the division. Multiple ties within the division will be broken from first to last.
- Overall record vs. all non-divisional opponents.
- Combined record vs. all common non-divisional teams.
- Record vs. common non-divisional team with the best overall Conference (divisional and non-divisional) record and proceeding through other common non-divisional teams based on their order of finish within their division.
- The tied team with the highest ranking in the Bowl Championship Series Standings following the last weekend of regular-season games shall be the divisional representative in the SEC Championship Game.
Three or more-team procedure
- (Once the tie has been reduced to two teams, go to the two-team tie-breaker format.)
- Combined head-to-head record among the tied teams.
- Record of the tied teams within the division.
- Head-to-head competition vs. the team within the division with the best overall (divisional and non-divisional) Conference record and proceeding through the division. Multiple ties within the division will be broken from first to last.
- Overall record vs. non-division teams.
- Combined record vs. all common non-divisional teams.
- Record vs. common non-divisional team with the best overall Conference (divisional and non-divisional) record and proceeding through other common non-divisional teams based on their order of finish within their division.
- The tied team with the highest ranking in the Bowl Championship Series Standings following the last weekend of regular-season games shall be the divisional representative in the SEC Championship Game, unless the second of the tied teams is ranked within five-or-fewer places of the highest ranked tied team. In this case, the head-to-head results of the top two ranked tied teams shall determine the representative in the SEC Championship Game.
Winner's bowl performance
The SEC champion plays in the Sugar Bowl unless they have been selected to play in the BCS Championship Game [16]. Eight winners of the SEC Championship Game have gone on to win the national title (outright or shared), including four consecutive titles from 2006-2009. Rankings are from the AP Poll.
Footnotes
- ^ a b c The SEC East Leads the series 11-8 and has outscored the SEC West 479-457.
- ^ http://www.secsports.com/index.php?change_well_id=9993&s
- ^ a b http://secsports.com/index.php?change_well_id=2&url_article_id=54
- ^ #12 Florida (8-3) won a tie-break for the SEC East in 1992 over #8 Georgia (9-2), by virtue of a head-to-head record of (1-0) 26-24.
- ^ #16 Alabama (8-2-1) finished second in the SEC West in 1993 but played in the SEC Championship Game since #4 Auburn (11-0), the first-place finisher in the SEC West, was prohibited from post-season play because of NCAA violations. Alabama was later forced to forfeit its eight victories and one tie during the regular season due when it was found cornerback Antonio Langham had received improper benefits from an agent prior to the season.
- ^ Alabama won the SEC West on a tie-breaker by defeating LSU (9-2) 26-0.
- ^ Auburn won the SEC West on a tie-breaker by defeating LSU (8-3) 31-28.
- ^ #23 Mississippi State (8-3) won a tie-break for the SEC West in 1998 over #11 Arkansas(9-2), 22-21.
- ^ LSU (SEC 5-3) won a tiebreaker for the SEC West by defeating Auburn that season 27-14.
- ^ #22 Arkansas (9-3) tied for second in the SEC West in 2002 but played in the SEC Championship Game since #14 Alabama (10-3), the first-place finisher in the SEC West, was prohibited from post-season play because of recruiting violations. Arkansas won a tie-break over #20 Auburn (8-4) and #25 LSU (8-4) by virtue of their wins over both teams.
- ^ #5 Georgia (10-2) won a tie-breaker for the SEC East over Florida and Tennessee (all 6-2 in conference play). The eventual tie-breaker was the BCS standings, as all higher tie-breakers could not break the tie. Georgia had defeated Tennessee, who had defeated Florida, while Florida had defeated Georgia.
- ^ #3 LSU (11-1) won a tie-breaker for the SEC West over Ole Miss to play in the conference championship game. Ole Miss and LSU were both 7-1 in conference play, however LSU won the head to head match.
- ^ Although #8 Arkansas (10-2) was the first-place finisher in the SEC West in 2006, they were the second-highest ranked team in the SEC West behind #4 LSU (10-2), which Arkansas had lost to the previous week. Arkansas went 7-1 in the conference, while LSU had a 6-2 mark.
- ^ Tennessee and Georgia finished the season as co-Divisional Champions at 6-2. Tennessee won the tie-breaker due to a 35-14 win over Georgia earlier in the season.
- ^ Average attendance from 1992 through 2009 games.
- ^ http://www.nokiasugarbowl.com
- ^ Since the creation of the Pac-10 in 1978, the Pac-10 champion has never played the SEC champion.
- ^ first year of the Bowl Alliance, which matched the two highest-ranked teams not in the Big Ten or Pac-10 in a national championship game. The Big Ten and Pac-10 champions were still contractually bound to the Rose Bowl, which was not part of the Bowl Alliance. This was also the first year since 1974 that the SEC champion did not play in the Sugar Bowl.
- ^ Nebraska shared the 1997 NCAA title with Michigan
- ^ first year of the BCS. The Fiesta Bowl was the national championship game. Under BCS rules, the SEC champion plays in the Sugar Bowl unless the Sugar Bowl hosts the national championship game or the SEC champion plays in the national championship game.
- ^ Alabama took the spot of ACC champion Florida State in the Orange Bowl, as the Seminoles were selected to play in the BCS national championship game in the Sugar Bowl.
- ^ the Sugar Bowl was the BCS national championship game for the 2003 season.
- ^ http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=maisel_ivan&id=1839834
- ^ http://media.www.mtsusidelines.com/media/storage/paper202/news/2004/01/14/Sports/Lsu-Usc.Split.National.Championship-580477.shtml
- ^ Auburn finished the season with a 13-0 record, but finished #2 behind one of two other undefeated teams that year, Southern California (13-0). The NCAA has vacated USC's 2004 wins and BCS Championship.
- ^ Game played at Georgia Dome in Atlanta after damage caused to the Louisiana Superdome by Hurricane Katrina.
- ^ at University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Arizona.
See also
Other Conference Championship Games
- ACC Championship Game
- Big Ten Championship Game (starting 2011 season)
- Pacific-12 Football Championship Game (starting 2011 season)
- Big 12 Championship Game (ending after 2010 season)
- MAC Championship Game
- Conference USA Championship Game