re: Five-Way Tie: SEC West

One of two things happen depending on the interpretation of this statement:

quote:

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(Once the tie has been reduced to two teams, go to the two-team tie-breaker format.)

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Either:

1. You run through the tiebreaking procedures until one team has been eliminated, then run through them again until another team has been eliminated, etc. until you get to two teams, at which point the two-team tiebreaker is applied.

2. You run through the tiebreaking procedure once to eliminate all but two teams and then apply the two-team tiebreaker.

Under interpretation #1:
- Ole Miss is almost certainly eliminated, having Vanderbilt and Tennessee as the likely worst-finishing pair of cross-divisional opponents of the five tied teams.
- This creates a four-way tie among Mississippi State, Auburn, Alabama, and LSU.
- LSU and Auburn are 1-2 in this group and State and Alabama are 2-1, so it becomes a two-team tie between Alabama and State.
- Alabama has the tiebreaker over State due to head-to-head and represents the West in Atlanta.

Under interpretation #2:
- Auburn likely has the best cross-divisional opponents record, with the presumptive East champion in Georgia and a middle-of-the-pack team in South Carolina. LSU likely has the second-best record with a 2nd or 3rd in the East Kentucky team and a Florida team that, while not good, is likely to finish ahead of Tennessee and Vanderbilt.
- The tie becomes a 2-team tie between Auburn and LSU.
- Auburn has the tiebreaker over LSU due to head-to-head and represents the West in Atlanta.