Through seven weeks of the 2015 season, 26 conference games are in the books.
And we’re down to just one unbeaten team following LSU’s victory against Florida and Texas A&M’s loss to Alabama in Week 7.
With the Tigers, who lead the SEC West, playing out of conference this weekend and SEC East leader Florida enjoying a bye week, Week 8 has become about the teams behind the leaders positioning themselves for a run at the championship in the second half of the season.
There are five conference games on the slate for Saturday, with LSU as the only team playing a nonconference opponent and Florida, Georgia and South Carolina on a bye.
Here are some things we can learn about the SEC championship picture from those games:
- Texas A&M at Ole Miss: Both of these teams entered October as unbeaten teams with eyes on SEC Championship runs. Ole Miss has since lost games to Florida and Memphis, while the Aggies suffered their first loss of the season last week against Alabama. So while the October schedule has worn some of the shine off both of these teams, they each hold just one conference loss and find themselves squarely in the middle of the discussion for the SEC West title. It should go without saying that the winner of this game has better positioned itself in this discussion, while the loser may find themselves as, at best, the fourth option to win the divisional race as November approaches. So in that regard, this could be the most important conference game of the weekend.
- Tennessee at Alabama: On the surface, this game is all about Alabama continuing to position itself to reclaim a share of the SEC West lead in the coming weeks. But there may actually be two sides to this as far as the SEC Championship picture is concerned. Alabama is one of three one-loss teams in the SEC West that trail unbeaten LSU. The Crimson Tide will follow this game against the Vols with a bye week to prepare for a Week 10 meeting with the Tigers, so a win here to set up that showdown is paramount for Alabama. After losing its first two conference games of the season, Tennessee seized an opportunity to reassert itself in the SEC East discussion with a victory against Georgia. Thanks to Florida’s loss against LSU and the possibility of another loss to Georgia next week, the Vols have a faint opportunity to get back into the discussion with a win at Alabama.
- Kentucky at Mississippi State: This inter-divisional game will slightly impact the race in both the SEC East and SEC West. Both the Wildcats and Bulldogs enter play with two conference losses, placing them on the fringe of the discussion for a trip to Atlanta. Simply put, the loser of this game can likely be ruled out of its divisional race. The winner, while in better shape from the victory, still has to be considered a longshot at this point.
- Auburn at Arkansas: Much in the way that Kentucky and Mississippi State are clinging to dear life in the conference championship picture, so to are Auburn and Arkansas. At 1-2, the Razorbacks and Tigers are tied with Mississippi State at the bottom of what is one of the toughest divisions in all of college football. Whoever wins this game evens their conference record, and generates some momentum to make a push for what is still very much a wide-open division. The loser, however, is likely out of the race.
- Missouri at Vanderbilt: I’m not saying this game is just for pride, because there is still plenty to be accomplished by both teams this season, but I am saying that this game will have a very minimal impact on the outcome of the SEC East race. The Tigers, who are the two-time defending division champions, are 1-3 in the league and don’t look to be in position to win out for what would be a very small chance that 5-3 gets them into some sort of tiebreaker for first place. At 0-3, Vanderbilt is more concerned about getting its first conference win under Derek Mason than where they are in the standings.
Nick Cole is a former print journalist with several years of experience covering the SEC. Born and raised in SEC country, he has taken in the game-day experience at all 14 stadiums.
