One half of SEC championship game matchup set after wild Saturday

Georgia has clinched a spot in the SEC championship game after a chaotic Saturday that saw Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas A&M all lose to unranked teams.

The Bulldogs (9-2, 6-2 SEC) are in the title game for the fourth straight year and seventh time in eight years, SEC spokesman Chuck Dunlap confirmed via email to AL.com late Saturday. Other media outlets were reporting that the winner of next Saturday’s Texas-Texas A&M game would also be in, but Dunlap told AL.com that scenario is not yet confirmed.

Should Texas (10-1, 6-1) beat Texas A&M (8-3, 5-2) next Saturday night in College Station, the Longhorns would obviously clinch a spot in Atlanta. If the Aggies win, however, things would get more complicated.

A Texas A&M win over Texas and a Tennessee win over Vanderbilt would leave the Aggies, Longhorns and Volunteers all tied at 6-2 and bring the league’s byzantine tiebreaker system into play. One website that has become popular with college football fans and observers in recent weeks calculates that the Aggies — who lost 43-41 to Auburn in four overtimes on Saturday — would win a three-way tiebreaker for the second SEC championship game spot in that scenario, though again, that is unconfirmed.

We do know, however, that Alabama is out of SEC title contention after losing 24-3 at Oklahoma on Saturday. Ditto Ole Miss after falling 24-17 at Florida earlier in the day.

The 2024 SEC championship game kicks off at 3 p.m. on Dec. 7 at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, with television coverage on ABC.