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Saturday’s SEC slate is widely referred to as Cupcake Week with multiple FCS and Group of 5 opponents on the schedule. There are, however, some league games with postseason implications.
Alabama vs. Arkansas gets the “SEC on CBS’ showcase treatment as the Crimson Tide looks to lock up the SEC West. While fans and pundits are already talking about Alabama vs. Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, UA still needs one more conference win to officially lock up the division title and punch its ticket to Atlanta.
The winner of Florida-Mizzou will secure bowl eligibility on Saturday. South Carolina is another 5-5 team needing a win to go bowling. Shane Beamer’s Gamecocks take on an Auburn squad that has already achieved bowl eligibility at 6-4 in Year 1 under Bryan Harsin.
ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI) predicts the winners of those games and the rest of the Week 12 slate:
- Georgia (99.9 percent chance to win) vs. Charleston Southern
- Texas A&M (99.5 percent) vs. Prairie View A&M
- Mississippi State (99.5 percent) vs. Tennessee State
- Kentucky (98.9 percent) vs. New Mexico State
- Alabama (92.6 percent) vs. Arkansas
- Florida (76.7 percent) at Missouri
- Auburn (76.1 percent) at South Carolina
- Ole Miss (98.4 percent) vs. Vanderbilt
- Tennessee (93.8 percent) vs. South Alabama
- LSU (97.2 percent) vs. UL-Monroe
Here’s how ESPN explains the FPI:
FPI is a predictive rating system designed to measure team strength and project performance going forward. The ultimate goal of FPI is not to rank teams 1 through 128; rather, it is to correctly predict games and season outcomes. If Vegas ever published the power rankings it uses to set its lines, they would likely look quite a lot like FPI.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
