The College Football Playoff race is still wide open as November approaches, and the SEC remains the conference that could scramble the bracket the most. ESPN’s Football Power Index currently gives eight SEC teams at least a 16.9% shot to make the CFP, which tells you just how crowded this picture still is.
On Wednesday morning, Joel Klatt tried to sort through the mess and settled on four SEC teams making his 12-team field: No. 2 Georgia, No.
7 Texas, No. 8 Ole Miss and No.
11 LSU.
Klatt had Georgia winning the SEC, then turned to Texas as an at-large team. “We get into some of these at-large teams, I think Texas gets an at-large spot,” Klatt began after anointing Georgia the SEC Champions.
“I can see Texas actually being a 10-2 team. And if they’re 10-2… they would probably be the seven seed and hosting a first-round game.”
He slotted Ole Miss in at No. 8 as the “SEC Championship game loser,” but placed the Rebels behind Texas because of their head-to-head loss. LSU finished out his SEC quartet, with Klatt projecting the Tigers to land at 9-3.
“I do think a 9-3 team gets in this thing,” Klatt said. “Look for [LSU] to get a couple big wins late in the season as they begin to play better.”
Not everyone in the SEC made the cut in Klatt’s projection. Alabama was one of the biggest omissions, even though the Crimson Tide have FPI’s second-highest playoff odds in the conference at 62.9%, behind only Georgia.
Kentucky also missed out, despite sitting fourth among SEC teams in CFP odds at 52.1%. The Wildcats still have Tennessee, Florida and Missouri ahead before closing with in-state rival Louisville.
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