The best team doesn’t always win.

Heck, sometimes the best team doesn’t even get the opportunity to win.

Here are the five best SEC teams that didn’t win the SEC championship.

No. 5 2015 Ole Miss

AP high rank: 3

Final AP rank: 10

SEC finish: 2nd in West.

Case for greatness: Since Nick Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa in 2007, exactly two SEC programs have beaten his Tide in consecutive seasons. LSU … and Ole Miss. You can poke holes in the Rebels’ 43-37 victory this season — Alabama committed five turnovers, Ole Miss scored two relatively flukey TDs, etc., — but what is indisputable is the fact that Ole Miss handed the national champions their only loss this season. That alone isn’t enough to earn a spot on the top 5. But that along with the fact they had the league’s most explosive offense, led by a record-breaking quarterback and likely first-round picks in Laremy Tunsil and Laquon Treadwell, gives the Rebels a solid argument against anyone else in the field.

Just missed the cut — 2012 Texas A&M: The Aggies, led by Heisman winner Johnny Manziel, also beat Alabama and routed Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl to finish the season ranked No. 5. Two SEC losses, both at home, to Florida and LSU and a relatively inferior defense compared with Ole Miss tilt the scale in the Rebels’ favor.

4. 1996 Tennessee

High AP rank: 2

Final AP rank: 9

SEC finish: 2nd in East.

Case for greatness: Tennessee, behind Heisman hopeful Peyton Manning, entered the season ranked No. 2 and stayed their entering a highly anticipated home showdown against Steve Spurrier and his Fun-‘N-‘Gun Gators. Manning threw four first-half interceptions, helping Florida jump to a 35-0 lead.

Manning dominated the second half, throwing four touchdown passes as the Vols crept within 35-29. The Volunteers’ furious comeback ended when they couldn’t recover an onside kick with 10 seconds left.

“I’ve had better days,” Manning told reporters afterward.

Manning’s college career was marked by his inability to beat Florida — which prompted the “can’t spell Citrus without UT” quip from Spurrier — but his Vols did beat the SEC West champion Alabama that season and won the next two SEC championships.

3. 1994 Alabama

High AP rank: No. 3

Final AP rank: No. 5

SEC finish: West champion.

Case for greatness: Other Tide teams have been more dominant — this one started 11-0 but won six of those games by 8 or fewer points. They outscored Georgia 10-0 in the fourth quarter, the final three on a field goal with a minute left, to pull out a dramatic 29-28 win in Athens. They drove 80 yards for the winning TD late in the fourth quarter to beat Tennessee. The trailed Mississippi State 25-15 in the fourth quarter, but rallied. Their good fortune ran out in the SEC Championship Game against Florida, when Danny Wuerffel drove the Gators 80 yards, hitting Chris Doering on a 2-yard TD for the game-winning points. Undaunted, the Tide recreated its winning formula in the Citrus Bowl, scoring the winning touchdown in the final minute to beat Ohio State 24-17 to finish 12-1.

2. 2012 Georgia

High AP rank: 3

Final AP rank: 5

SEC finish: East champion.

Case for greatness: Bulldogs coach Mark Richt won two SEC championships, but the squad that lost to Alabama in the SEC title game might have been his best team.

The Bulldogs led 21-10 in the third quarter and 28-25 early in the fourth before AJ McCarron hit Amari Cooper for a 45-yard TD pass with 3:15 left to put Alabama ahead to stay 32-28.

Aaron Murray drove the Bulldogs from their 15 to Alabama’s 5, but time expired.

“I’m going to tell you, I think it’s a crying shame Georgia doesn’t get to go to a BCS bowl game,” Nick Saban told reporters afterward. “They should get to go to a BCS bowl game. They played a tremendous game out there today. That was a great football game by both teams, and they could have won at the end just as soon as us. It came right down to the last play.”

1. 2011 Alabama

High AP rank: 1

Final AP rank: 1

SEC finish: 2nd in West.

Case for greatness: The Tide lost one game, in overtime no less, but it kept them out of the SEC Championship game. No matter. They made the most of their rematch against LSU in the BCS Championship Game, blanking the Tigers behind a defense every bit as dominant as the 2015 group that also won a national title.

In eight quarters plus an overtime that season, LSU managed just 321 total yards, zero touchdowns and three field goals.

How dominant was the Tide’s collective defensive effort? Consider what LSU did to everybody else that year.

In games against other ranked teams, LSU offense opened the season by scoring 40 against Oregon, put up 47 at West Virginia, 41 against Florida, 45 against Auburn, 41 against Arkansas and 42 against Georgia in the SEC title game.