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Why Week 12 will be the best weekend of SEC football this season
By Ethan Levine
Published:
Buckle your seat belts and keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. The roller coaster that is the 2014 season has been as exciting as anticipated, but the real thrill ride is about to begin.
We’re mere days away from the start of Week 12 in the SEC, which promises to be the best weekend in the conference so far this season.
What makes this weekend so great?
Where do I even begin? Every game has postseason implications. Old rivalries will be renewed. Winning streaks and national rankings will be put on the line, and for some the success of the entire season hinges on this weekend’s outcomes.
Mississippi State and Alabama will play for a potential SEC West championship and a fast track to a berth in the College Football Playoff. Whether Mississippi State or Alabama wins could decide how many SEC teams crack the four-team playoff field, and Saturday’s winner will assert itself as the conference’s best hope for another national championship.
Auburn and Georgia will play in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, and both teams are still alive to reach a New Year’s Six bowl. If last year’s finish is any indication, this is going to be one hell of a game. Oh, and some guy named Todd Gurley is making his return as well.
Kentucky and Tennessee will play for bowl eligibility in Knoxville. Those teams also hate each other, sharing in one of the most heated regional rivalries in the SEC.
Missouri’s game with Texas A&M could make or break its SEC East title defense.
Florida and South Carolina will both wrap up their SEC schedules against one another with bowl implications on the line for both teams.
And LSU and Arkansas will renew their classic SEC West rivalry, as LSU aims to avenge its loss to Alabama while Arkansas hopes to finally finish off its first SEC win since 2012.
There isn’t one bad game or one uninteresting matchup in the bunch. The stakes are high and the margin for error is low. Week 12 will unquestionably be the best weekend of the year in the SEC.
But what about Week 6, when Ole Miss beat Alabama, Mississippi State won its second straight top 10 matchup against Texas A&M and Kentucky rallied from 14 down in the fourth quarter to beat South Carolina?
Yes, anonymous person who only speaks in italics, that was a great weekend of games. But the greatest spectacle that weekend took place on the set of College GameDay in Oxford, Miss. before any of those games kicked off. That weekend was defined by Katy Perry, an entertaining pop icon who turned a weekend of football into a national party.
Parties are fun, but they won’t be what determines the best weekend of the year in the best football conference in the land.
Mississippi State routed Texas A&M, and while it was a statement win for MSU it was far from a quality game. Likewise, Kentucky and South Carolina might both end the year with losing records, so it’s tough to find much significance in that game either.
The Ole Miss-Alabama game is one of the games of the year in college football, but there are a handful of games in Week 12 capable of creating the same kind of drama. In fact, this week’s games will have far more on the line than that game on Oct. 4.
Week 6 might have been the most fun weekend of the season (thanks to Ms. Perry) but it wasn’t the best.
Okay, fair enough. But what about Week 1, when A&M slobber-knocked South Carolina, LSU rallied to top Wisconsin, Todd Gurley returned a kickoff 100 yards against Clemson and Alabama escaped past West Virginia?
Well played, Mr. Italics. That was a damn good slate of games, especially before conference play was in full-swing. However, it’s not better than Week 12.
Week 1 is all about celebrating the return of college football. We know next to nothing about any team, and are simply grateful to have football back in our lives. The opening weekend of this season was a thrilling weekend of football, but it didn’t have the meaning Week 12 will have on the current season.
Fine, I think I’ve finally got you beat: what about Week 14 (coming Nov. 29)? That weekend is loaded with meaningful rivalry games! There’s the Egg Bowl, the Iron Bowl, South Carolina-Clemson, Georgia-Georgia Tech, Kentucky-Louisville and Florida-Florida State, to name a few. How can you beat that weekend?
The final weekend of the season is loaded with meaningful matchups, but most of those matchups fall short of the significance this week’s slate of games will have on the season.
South Carolina-Clemson is a great rivalry, but no one outside that state cares about that game. The same can be said in Kentucky and in Georgia. In-state rivalries are always fun showdowns, but every state has one and most states are so consumed with their own rivalry they pay little attention to other rivalry games across the nation.
If Alabama beats Mississippi State on Saturday, the Egg Bowl and the Iron Bowl should be the two biggest games of the weekend, aiding the argument Week 14 will be better than Week 12.
But if Mississippi State wins and clinches the West, those games in Week 14 will be for nothing but pride, just like the other rivalry games of the weekend. Alabama and Auburn would both have multiple losses keeping them out of playoff contention, and even if MSU lost to Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl it’d still get to play for an SEC championship.
And look, we’re already relying on a game in Week 12 to help determine the importance of Week 14. Have I finally made my point?
Every game in Week 12 is a quality showdown, every game has a number of fascinating story lines and every game is certain to send waves throughout the SEC heading into the final stretch of the season.
The weekend might not be as fun or as historic as other weekends this season, but in terms of quality and depth its the best weekend of the season. So again, keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle and enjoy the ride.
A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.
