The SEC has announced its set of playoffs for the 2024 football season with the addition of Oklahoma and Texas and the elimination of divisions in the newly expanded 16-team league.
In the event of a tie between teams competing for a spot in the SEC Championship Game, the following procedures will be used in descending order until the tie is broken:
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A. Head-to-head competition between tied teams.
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B. Record against all common conference opponents between the tied teams.
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C. Record against the highest-ranked common opponent in the conference standings and advancing in the standings between tied teams.
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D. Cumulative conference winning percentage of all conference opponents among tied teams.
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E. Limited relative scoring margin against all conference opponents between tied teams. The formula shall include a limit of 42 points scored on offense and 48 points allowed on defense.
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F. Random draw of the tied teams.
If the regular season standings determine a clear conference champion and two or more teams are tied for second place, the conference champion will be the home team in the SEC Championship Game and tiebreaker procedures will be used to determine its opponent.
If a tie in the standings between two teams for first place in the conference results in a playoff process, both teams will qualify for the SEC Championship game. To decide seeding, both teams will go through the two-team playoff process until a tiebreaker is broken, which will determine the home/away designation for the SEC Championship. The game will be played on Dec. 7 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
In 1992, the SEC expanded from 10 to 12 teams with the addition of Arkansas and South Carolina, and split into two divisions, with the winner of the East Division facing the winner of the West Division for the league crown, creating college football's first FBS conference championship game. The SEC continued the division format to determine conference championship game participants after Missouri and Texas A&M joined in 2012.
Current SEC teams have collectively won 14 of the last 19 national championships. Only six different schools have won SEC championships in football (Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU and Tennessee) since the start of the 1977 season.
