By: Ryan Moreland (@ryanmoreland)
The top two are set, but the race for the last automatic bid is red hot. Before we get into our three-horse race for third, lets look at how teams make it into the playoffs.
How to Make the Playoffs
The top three teams from each conference will automatically earn a playoff spot. After that, there will be a league-wide vote on who the last four teams should be. If there is a tie within the top three teams, the following tiebreakers will be used (in order) to break the tie.
| Order | Tiebreaker |
| 1 | Conference Record |
| 2 | Head-to-Head |
| 3 | Record vs common conference opponents |
| 4 | Point differential vs common conference opponents |
| 5 | Record vs common overall opponents |
| 6 | Point differential vs common overall opponents |
| 7 | Overall record |
| 8 | Overall point differential |
SEC Standings
| Team | Overall Record | Conference Record |
| Auburn | 7-0 | 5-0 |
| LSU | 6-1 | 5-1 |
| Alabama | 5-2 | 3-2 |
| Georgia | 3-4 | 2-3 |
| Kentucky | 4-3 | 2-3 |
| Florida | 1-6 | 1-4 |
| Tennessee | 1-6 | 0-5 |
Auburn and LSU have the top two spots locked up. No matter what happens in Week Eight, they will keep their spots.
The third spot is wide open. Alabama is the only team that controls their destiny for this spot. If the Crimson Tide win, they punch their ticket. If they lose, they could be caught in a tie. The would lose a two-way tie to Kentucky and they would win a two-way tie with Georgia. If all three ended up tied, we would move to a point differential tiebreaker.
Georgia needs Alabama to lose and Kentucky to win. They can’t get an automatic bid if they tie Alabama by themselves. (However, a Kentucky loss would put them ahead of the Wildcats for the vote-in). The Bulldogs would need to be ahead of both in point differential to get in.
Kentucky will get in with a Alabama loss, Kentucky win, and Georgia loss. If Georgia wins, we head to the next tiebreaker.
| Team | Point Differential in Conference Games |
| Alabama | +64 |
| Georgia | -3 |
| Kentucky | -16 |
As you can see, Alabama has a significant advantage in point differential. However, they also have played Auburn yet, who has been the best team in the CFSL this season. If they get blown out in the Iron Bowl, they other two would have a real chance.
Florida and Tennessee are both eliminated from an automatic bid. They do have an outside chance a vote-in, however. They also have a chance to ruin their rivals as they play Georgia and Kentucky, respectively.
Good luck to all the SEC teams this week.
