Three SEC teams – Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina – have made it to the Sweet 16 in this year’s NCAA Tournament. For fans of the 11 other SEC basketball programs, they might be looking to pull for a Cinderella. The worst seed remaining is Xavier (11), which takes on No. 2-seed Arizona on Thursday night.

On the hardwood, Cinderella’s are underdogs who get hot at the right time. Think George Mason in 2006, the Patriots’ surprising Final Four run ended by eventual champion Florida. The concept doesn’t translate fully to the gridiron, but the SEC Championship has seen it share of underdogs win and teams get hot at the end of regular season and carry that momentum into postseason.

Here are the five biggest Cinderellas to win the SEC football championship, and one team that could have danced its way to postseason glory:

1. 2001 LSU Tigers

The biggest upset in the history of the SEC Championship Game belongs to a Nick Saban squad. Tennessee entered the title game No. 2 in the nation, fresh off a win over Florida in a game rescheduled due to 9/11, which ended up deciding the SEC East in the final week of the regular season. The Volunteers were in line to play for a national championship, but the Tigers had other ideas. No. 21 LSU won 31-20, with QB Matt Mauck voted the game’s MVP.

Saban’s Tigers were out of the national championship picture with three losses, but they finished with four consecutive wins over ranked opponents (No. 24 Arkansas, No. 25 Auburn, No. 2 Tennessee and No. 7 Illinois). If there was a Big Dance in college football, LSU might have won it all.

2. 2013 Auburn Tigers

Auburn came close to having a fairy-tale season for the ages in 2013. The Tigers were unranked during the first half of the year, starting 5-1. After a 62-3 thumping of Western Carolina, the Tigers appeared at No. 24 heading into a road showdown with No. 7 Texas A&M. The 45-41 upset of Johnny Manziel and the Aggies suddenly made the Tigers a real contender in the West, and Gus Malzahn’s squad made the most of that opportunity.

Between The Prayer at Jordan-Hare and the Kick Six, it seemed like the football gods were making sure that Auburn did not lose a second game. AU powered past Missouri 59-42 for an SEC title, but its luck finally ran out in Pasadena, Calif., against FSU in the final BCS Championship Game.

3. 1999 Alabama Crimson Tide

These days, it’s hard to imagine Alabama as any kind of underdog or Cinderella. Under Mike DuBose, however, Alabama began the 1999 season ranked No. 20 and fell out of the top 25 in September after a loss to Louisiana Tech. The Tide bounced back from the non-conference loss in a big way, taking down No. 14 Arkansas, No. 3 Florida and No. 22 Ole Miss in consecutive weeks.

By time Alabama and Florida met again in Atlanta, the Tide were up to No. 7. The Gators were 7-point favorites, but the Tide made fools of the oddsmakers with a 34-7 thumping for the conference championship.

4. 2005 Georgia Bulldogs

The lowest-ranked SEC East team to win the SEC Championship Game was Mark Richt’s ’05 squad, ranked No. 13 with a 9-2 record heading into a showdown with LSU. The Bulldogs handed the Tigers their second loss of the season, which might read like UGA spoiled a championship season for LSU, but this was the BCS era and before the SEC’s streak of seven national titles.

While the SEC community would have been ready to lobby for the Bayou Bengals, in actuality it’s doubtful that the Tigers were playing for anything more than a conference championship. The BCS had 10-1 LSU at No. 4 heading into the game, behind USC, Texas and Penn State. Les Miles’ first year in Baton Rouge ended with a 40-3 blowout of No. 9 Miami in the Peach Bowl.

5. 2010 Auburn Tigers

It might seem crazy to dub the Cam Newton-led Tigers, an unstoppable offense, a Cinderella story, but consider this: Auburn received only 10 first-place votes to win the SEC West out of 177 at SEC Media Days 2010. The Tigers came in third behind Alabama and Arkansas to win the division. The national media was even less sure, as Auburn checked in at No. 22 in the Associate Press’ preseason poll for 2010, behind No. 1 Alabama, No. 4 Florida, No. 17 Arkansas and No. 21 LSU.

The media underestimated the impact of Newton in Malzahn’s offense (then just the play-caller for head coach Gene Chizik) as the Tigers marched to an SEC championship and a national title. Saturday Down South recently made the case for why Newton’s year on the Plains is the best season ever by an SEC quarterback.

The non-champ that could have danced to glory

In the spirit of March Madness, let’s take a second to recognize an SEC team that likely would have benefitted from a tournament format, and potentially made things interesting. The 2001 LSU squad isn’t the only SEC team to put it together in the second half of the season. If there was ever a non-SEC Champion that made fans want a college football Big Dance, it would be the 2014 Arkansas Razorbacks.

Bret Bielema’s squad went 6-6 in the ’14 regular season, but if there were a tournament, the Hogs would have been a potentially dangerous lower seed. Arkansas turned heads in November with back-to-back shutout victories over No. 8 LSU (17-0) and No. 20 Ole Miss (30-0). One prominent oddsmaker said that the Razorbacks would have hypothetically gave defending national champion FSU all it could handle.

After the Arkansas-FSU line was floated, the Hogs fell to No. 17 Missouri 21-14, the SEC East champions. The Razorbacks bounced back with an impressive 31-7 win over Texas in the Texas Bowl. Even with the loss to Mizzou, the feeling in late 2014 was that no one wanted to play the Hogs.