When Alabama cornerback Antonio Langham jumped the route and picked off Florida quarterback Shane Matthews before his quick burst into the end zone, a new SEC tradition was born with an iconic ending.

That was in 1992, back when the game was staged outdoors, at Birmingham’s legendary Legion Field, and just weeks before Bill Clinton was sworn in as the new president.

How time flies.

On Saturday, amid the echoes, cheers and tears of about a quarter-century’s worth of SEC Championship Game snapshots, the 25th title game will be played, again inside at the Georgia Dome, between the same teams who started it all.

And for symmetrical purposes, we were oh so close to having Clinton’s wife be weeks from being sworn in as the first female president. That kind of history is on hold, but since Langham’s jaunt to glory, we have gotten a lasting championship memory every year since.

So ranking every SEC title game is the same inexact science that ranking each championship game MVP is. All the games are special in their own unique way. But we’re going to close our eyes, with the cheers indoors and outdoors buzzing in our ears from 1992 all the way to 2015, and give it a shot anyway:

24. 1999: Alabama 34, Florida 7 — There were plenty of Bama-UF classics among the eight title tilts already staged between the teams, but this wasn’t one of them. The Tide led 15-7 — the Gators hadn’t scored since the first quarter — before scoring 19 fourth-quarter points to run away and hide. Bama had four interceptions and didn’t allow UF to convert a third down the entire day. Great for lovers of the Tide’s usual suffocating defense. Bad for championship day theatrics and drama.

23. 2002: Georgia 30, Arkansas 3 — The Bulldogs scored on their first five possessions to take a 23-0 halftime lead, setting up 30 minutes of garbage time in the second half. Not much happened in the second half to keep the audience energized either.

22. 1995: Florida 34, Arkansas 3 — This was the first time Florida didn’t play Alabama for the crown, and the Gators missed their Crimson Tide championship day buddies while taking it out on the Razorbacks. Arkansas went up 3-0 but lost star running back Madre Hill on that first-quarter drive, and that was that. Danny Wuerffel captured the first of his two consecutive SEC title game MVP awards.

21. 2007: LSU 21, Tennessee 14 — Ryan Perrilloux stepped in for the injured Matt Flynn and kept the Tigers on course for an unlikely national title as a two-loss team. Jonathan Zenon’s 18-yard pick six with under 10 minutes left rescued the Tigers in a defensive battle under the dome.

20. 2003: LSU 34, Georgia 13 — Tigers running back Justin Vincent became the first freshman to earn MVP honors, rushing for 201 yards and two scores. That was memorable. Otherwise, the game didn’t have much, though LSU did go on to share the national title with USC.

19. 2005: Georgia 34, LSU 14 — Game MVP D.J. Shockley threw two TD passes to lead the Bulldogs to a fairly easy victory. It was Georgia’s second SEC title in four years, the closest Mark Richt and Co. got to a dynasty in Athens.

18. 2000: Florida 28, Auburn 6 — Rex Grossman (238 yards passing) and Earnest Graham (169 yards rushing) provided more than enough for the Gators to cruise, and the UF defense held SEC Player of the Year Rudi Johnson to 47 yards rushing.

17. 2014: Alabama 42, Missouri 13 — The Tigers got within 21-13 in the third quarter, but then the party was over in the fourth, as the top-ranked Tide scored 21 points to put Missouri away. Just too much Derrick Henry (141 yards rushing) and Amari Cooper (12 catches).

Dec 6, 2014; Atlanta, GA, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide running back Derrick Henry (27) celebrates with fans after defeating the Missouri Tigers 42-13 in the 2014 SEC Championship Game at the Georgia Dome. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Liles-USA TODAY Sports.

Credit: Kevin Liles-USA TODAY Sports

16. 2015: Alabama 29, Florida 15 — The Gators hung tough against mighty Bama despite being offensively challenged and despite not being able to handle Henry, who ran all day long for 189 yards on 44 carries. You knew this game had weird written all over it when Bama led 2-0 after the first quarter.

15. 2011: LSU 42, Georgia 10 — Sure, Tyrann Mathieu put on a defensive and special teams show that only “The Honey Badger” could produce, driving the Bulldogs crazy with his elusiveness. But Georgia fell apart after taking a 10-0 lead, as the Tigers outscored the Bulldogs 35-0 in the second half.

14. 1993: Florida 28, Alabama 13 — Florida avenged its loss to Bama in the inaugural game, with Terry Dean throwing for 256 yards and two touchdowns in the second and final SEC title game played at Legion Field in Birmingham. Bama’s David Palmer ran for more yards (93) than he threw for (90).

13. 2004: Auburn 38, Tennessee 28 — Jason Campbell’s 374 yards passing are still second all-time in SEC title game history, and he needed every one of those, plus his 57 yards rushing, to will the Tigers past a Vols team that just kept coming that day.

12. 2001: LSU 31, Tennessee 20 — Quarterback Matt Mauck stepped in for an injured Rohan Davey and led the Tigers to their first outright SEC title since 1986. A 17-7 deficit didn’t faze Mauck that day. He rushed for two touchdowns, including the one that put LSU ahead to stay.

11. 2006: Florida 38, Arkansas 28 — The eventual national champion Gators rallied in the second half to win their seventh SEC crown, scoring touchdowns on a muffed punt, a 67-yard run by freshman and game MVP Percy Harvin and a touchdown pass by wide receiver Andre Caldwell.

10. 1998: Tennessee 24, Mississippi State 14 — A month before their clutch connection in the national title game, Tee Martin and Peerless Price were clutch against the Bulldogs, rallying the Vols from a 14-10 fourth-quarter deficit.

9. 1996: Florida 45, Alabama 30 — Wuerffel won his third straight SEC title game and second consecutive MVP award with a heroic 401-yard, six-touchdown effort against another great Bama defense. This one would be higher up on the list if the game was a bit closer.

8. 2010: Auburn 56, South Carolina 17 — Yes, it was a blowout, but all anyone (including Gamecock fans) remembers from this one is the show that Cam Newton put on. Newton passed for 335 yards and four touchdowns, and ran for two scores in an electrifying MVP performance.

7. 2008: Florida 31, Alabama 20 — Tim Tebow continued to cement his legacy as an all-time great college quarterback, directing two fourth-quarter touchdown drives to rescue the eventual national champion Gators from a 20-17 deficit. He finished off the victory with a TD strike to Riley Cooper late in the fourth quarter.

photo by Tim Casey during the first half of the Gators' 26-3 win against the Miami Hurricanes on Saturday, September 6, 2008 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Fla.

Credit: Tim Casey, University of Florida

6. 2012: Alabama 32, Georgia 28 — Just when it looked like Alabama’s national title dreams had evaporated, A.J. McCarron fired a 45-yard touchdown pass to Cooper with 3:15 left to lift the Tide to victory. If that wasn’t enough, the Bulldogs drove inside Alabama’s 10-yard line in the final, frantic seconds, but the Tide made one last stand to secure the win in a game that featured six lead changes.

5. 1994: Florida 24, Alabama 23 — This was one of only two SEC title games to be decided by one point and one of only three to have a defensive player named MVP. It doesn’t hurt that it was the Gators and Tide playing for the crown for the third consecutive year to start the SEC’s championship game tradition.

Defensive lineman Ellis Johnson dominated in the trenches for UF and was named MVP, and Wuerffel started his astonishing run of three SEC title game wins in a row.

4. 2013: Auburn 59, Missouri 42 — It would be easy to rank this one high just because, well, Tre Mason rushed a jaw-dropping 46 times for 304 yards and four touchdowns. But this one sticks out because it featured the most combined points (101) in SEC title game history — by 26.

It also stands out because Auburn needed most of those 59 points and 300-plus yards by Mason to hold off Mizzou, which trailed 45-42 before Auburn put up 14 points in the fourth to finally put away the other, equally explosive Tigers. Auburn set SEC title game team records for rushing first downs (26), rushing attempts (74), rushing yards (545) and rushing touchdowns (7).

3. 1997: Tennessee 30, Auburn 29 — Peyton Manning had a hard time beating Florida during his legendary career in Knoxville. We all know this. But just like he did last year in winning the Super Bowl to end his record-breaking NFL career, Manning left Tennessee as an SEC champion with a stunning victory over the Tigers that featured a comeback from down 20-7 in the second quarter. Manning was the game MVP with 373 yards and four touchdowns, and the Vols’ defense came up large in the second half, holding Auburn to nine points, including zero in the fourth quarter.

2. 2009: Alabama 32, Florida 13 — This one is so high because it was a definite fork in the road in terms of SEC history. The Gators had won two of the previous three national titles, and many thought Tebow couldn’t and wouldn’t lose another college game. They were wrong.

Greg McElroy provided a steady hand at quarterback, and Tebow could only watch as the Crimson Tide made the SEC tide turn in the second half. Mark Ingram rushed for 113 yards and three touchdowns a week before winning the Heisman, and Alabama ran off with a stunning victory. A month later, Bama would bring home the first of four national titles in the Nick Saban era.

1. 1992: Alabama 28, Florida 21 — Just like putting Langham first in our SEC title game MVP rankings, the first game is still the best one. Not because we’re feeling nostalgic. But because it really was such a classic, fought to the end between the two standard bearers of the conference for the next quarter century. Fittingly, the game was played to a 21-21 standstill until Langham intercepted history, dashed into the end zone and pulled off what observers say today is the play that changed college football.

Bama prevailed, then blasted favored Miami a month later to win the national title and, well, the first SEC title game is always going to be hard to top. We’re still waiting.