SEC Championship Game

SEC Football Championship Game
	Conference Football Championship
	SEC Championship Game Logo
Sport	Football
Conference	Southeastern Conference
Current stadium	Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Current location	Atlanta, Georgia
Played	1992–present
Last contest	2019
Current champion	LSU
Most championships	Alabama (8)
TV partner(s)	CBS
Official website	SECSports.com - Football
Sponsors
	Dr Pepper (1992–present)
Host stadiums
	Legion Field (1992–1993); Georgia Dome (1994–2016); Mercedes-Benz Stadium (2017–present)
Host locations
	Birmingham, Alabama (1992–1993); Atlanta, Georgia (1994–present)

The SEC Championship Game is an annual American football game that has determined the Southeastern Conference's season champion since 1992. The championship game pits the SEC West Division regular season champion against the East Division regular season champion. Since 2007, the game has typically been played on the first Saturday of December, and the game has been held in Atlanta since 1994, first at the Georgia Dome, and at Mercedes-Benz Stadium since 2017.

Ten of the fourteen current SEC members have played in the SEC Championship Game. Kentucky and Vanderbilt have yet to reach the game from the East, while Ole Miss and Texas A&M have yet to reach the game from the West. The overall series is led by the Western Division, 16–12.

While ten SEC members have played in the game, only six have won: Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee of the East Division, and Alabama, Auburn, and LSU of the West Division. Each of these teams has won the championship multiple times. LSU is the reigning SEC champion.

History

The SEC was the first NCAA conference in any division to hold a football championship game that was exempt from NCAA limits on regular-season contests. Such a game was made possible by two separate developments. The first came in 1987, when the NCAA membership approved a proposal sponsored by the Division II Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association that allowed any conference with 12 football members to split into divisions and stage a championship game between the divisional winners. The SEC took advantage of this rule by adding the University of Arkansas and the University of South Carolina in 1992, bringing the conference membership to 12, and splitting into two football divisions.[1] The format has since been adopted by other conferences to decide their football champion (the first being the Big 12 in 1996).

The first two SEC Championship Games were held at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. From 1994 until 2016 the game was played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.[2] With the Georgia Dome scheduled to be demolished after the 2016 season, the SEC chose to keep the title game in Atlanta at the Georgia Dome's replacement, Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The game will be played at the new stadium through at least 2027.[3]

– East Division

– West Division

– Championship Game site

In 2016, Alabama and Florida met in the SEC Championship Game for the ninth time in the first 25 years of the game; the record for the most times any two teams have faced each other in the championship game. At least one of those two teams has qualified for the game in 15 of 27 seasons. The only other matchup in the SEC Championship played more than twice is Georgia and LSU, who have met there four times (most recently in 2019). Alabama has faced Florida in nine of its 12 SEC Championship Game appearances. In addition, the 2009 game marked the second consecutive year that the No. 1 (Florida) and No. 2 (Alabama) ranked teams in the AP Poll met in the SEC Championship game. 2009 was the first time any conference championship game had featured two undefeated teams. Alabama won 32–13 and earned a berth in the 2010 BCS National Championship Game, which it went on to win as well.

Auburn and Missouri met in the 2013 SEC Championship Game (in Missouri's 2nd year in the SEC). Auburn won the game 59–42, breaking the previous record of 56 points for most points scored by a single team in the SEC Championship Game (previously set by Auburn in 2010).

In the final years of the Bowl Championship Series, the game was nicknamed the "national semifinal" for college football. The 2008, 2009, and 2012 games were essentially national semifinal games, as both participating teams were virtually guaranteed a berth in the BCS national championship game with a win. The 2013 game, the last held in the BCS era, was not thought of as such at the time of the game, but results of other games later that day meant that it effectively was such a semifinal.

Between 2006 and 2013 the winner of the SEC Championship Game went on to play in the BCS National Championship Game eight straight years, posting a 6–2 record in the game. Since 2014, the SEC Championship Game winner has gone on to appear in the College Football Playoff every season, posting a 5–1 record in the national semifinal and a 2–3 record in the national championship game.

Results

Results from all SEC Championship games that have been played.[4] Rankings are from the AP Poll released prior to matchup.

Year	East Division		West Division		Site	Attendance	TV Rating	MVP
1992	12 Florida Gators	21	2 Alabama Crimson Tide	28	Legion Field • Birmingham, AL	83,091	9.8	CB Antonio Langham, Alabama
1993	9 Florida Gators	28	16 Alabama Crimson Tide	13	Legion Field • Birmingham, AL	76,345		QB Terry Dean, Florida
1994	6 Florida Gators	24	3 Alabama Crimson Tide	23	Georgia Dome • Atlanta, GA	74,751	10.5	DT Ellis Johnson, Florida
1995	2 Florida Gators	34	23 Arkansas Razorbacks	3		71,325	7.2	QB Danny Wuerffel, Florida
1996	4 Florida Gators	45	11 Alabama Crimson Tide	30		74,132	7.0	QB Danny Wuerffel, Florida
1997	3 Tennessee Volunteers	30	11 Auburn Tigers	29		74,896		QB Peyton Manning, Tennessee
1998	1 Tennessee Volunteers	24	23 Mississippi State Bulldogs	14		74,795		WR Peerless Price, Tennessee
1999	5 Florida Gators	7	7 Alabama Crimson Tide	34		71,500		WR Freddie Milons, Alabama
2000	7 Florida Gators	28	18 Auburn Tigers	6		73,427		QB Rex Grossman, Florida
2001	2 Tennessee Volunteers	20	21 LSU Tigers	31		74,843	7.0	QB Matt Mauck, LSU
2002	4 Georgia Bulldogs	30	22 Arkansas Razorbacks	3		75,835	3.2	QB David Greene, Georgia
2003	5 Georgia Bulldogs	13	3 LSU Tigers	34		74,913	4.1	RB Justin Vincent, LSU
2004	15 Tennessee Volunteers	28	3 Auburn Tigers	38		74,892	4.8	QB Jason Campbell, Auburn
2005	13 Georgia Bulldogs	34	3 LSU Tigers	14		73,717	3.9	QB D. J. Shockley, Georgia
2006	4 Florida Gators	38	8 Arkansas Razorbacks	28		73,374	4.7	WR Percy Harvin, Florida
2007	15 Tennessee Volunteers	14	5 LSU Tigers	21		73,832	6.0	QB Ryan Perrilloux, LSU
2008	2 Florida Gators	31	1 Alabama Crimson Tide	20		75,892	10.4	QB Tim Tebow, Florida
2009	1 Florida Gators	13	2 Alabama Crimson Tide	32		75,514	11.8	QB Greg McElroy, Alabama
2010	19 South Carolina Gamecocks	17	1 Auburn Tigers	56		75,802	6.3	QB Cam Newton, Auburn
2011	12 Georgia Bulldogs	10	1 LSU Tigers	42		74,515	7.4	CB Tyrann Mathieu, LSU
2012	3 Georgia Bulldogs	28	2 Alabama Crimson Tide	32		75,624	10.0	RB Eddie Lacy, Alabama
2013	5 Missouri Tigers	42	3 Auburn Tigers	59		75,632	8.7	RB Tre Mason, Auburn
2014	14 Missouri Tigers	13	1 Alabama Crimson Tide	42		73,526	7.7	QB Blake Sims, Alabama
2015	18 Florida Gators	15	2 Alabama Crimson Tide	29		75,320	8.3[5]	RB Derrick Henry, Alabama
2016	15 Florida Gators	16	1 Alabama Crimson Tide	54		74,632	7.0	LB Reuben Foster, Alabama
2017	6 Georgia Bulldogs	28	4 Auburn Tigers	7	Mercedes-Benz Stadium • Atlanta, GA	76,532	8.4	LB Roquan Smith, Georgia
2018	4 Georgia Bulldogs	28	1 Alabama Crimson Tide	35		77,141	10.5[6]	RB Josh Jacobs, Alabama
2019	4 Georgia Bulldogs	10	1 LSU Tigers	37		74,150		QB Joe Burrow, LSU

SEC Championship Game Results by team

Appearances	School	Division	Wins	Losses	Win %	Year(s) Won	Year(s) Lost
12	[[Alabama Crimson Tide football\|Alabama]]	West	8	4	.667	1992, 1999, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018	1993, 1994, 1996, 2008
12	[[Florida Gators football\|Florida]]	East	7	5	.583	1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2006, 2008	1992, 1999, 2009, 2015, 2016
8	[[Georgia Bulldogs football\|Georgia]]	East	3	5	.375	2002, 2005, 2017	2003, 2011, 2012, 2018, 2019
6	[[LSU Tigers football\|LSU]]	West	5	1	.833	2001, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2019	2005
6	[[Auburn Tigers football\|Auburn]]	West	3	3	.500	2004, 2010, 2013	1997, 2000, 2017
5	[[Tennessee Volunteers football\|Tennessee]]	East	2	3	.400	1997, 1998	2001, 2004, 2007
3	[[Arkansas Razorbacks football\|Arkansas]]	West	0	3	.000		1995, 2002, 2006
2	[[Missouri Tigers football\|Missouri]]	East	0	2	.000		2013, 2014
1	[[Mississippi State Bulldogs football\|Mississippi State]]	West	0	1	.000		1998
1	[[South Carolina Gamecocks football\|South Carolina]]	East	0	1	.000		2010

Kentucky, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and Vanderbilt have yet to make an appearance in an SEC Championship Game.

Home/away designation

The team designated as the "home" team alternates between division champions. The designation goes to the East champion in even-numbered years and the West champion in odd-numbered years.

After the 2019 contest, the designated "home" team is 16–12 overall in SEC championship games.

In 2009, the West champion, Alabama, was the home team, ending a streak where the SEC West team had worn white jerseys in nine consecutive SEC Championship Games (2000–2008). This was because LSU had represented the West in the previous four seasons that the West Division champion was the "home" team, and LSU traditionally chooses to wear white jerseys for home games. Additionally, for the next three years (2010–2012), the East Division representative wore their home jerseys because in 2011, LSU again represented the West.[4]

Rematches

While SEC schools play every other member of their own division, they do not play every member of the opposite division; thus, the SEC Championship Game is not guaranteed to be a rematch of a regular season game. The SEC Championship game has featured a rematch of a regular season game a total of seven times (1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2010, 2017). The team which won the regular season game is 5–2 in the rematches, the exceptions being 2001 and 2017.

Common matchups

Matchups that have occurred more than once:

# of Times	Eastern Division	Western Division	Record	Years Played
9	Florida	Alabama	Alabama 5–4	1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2008, 2009, 2015, 2016
4	Georgia	LSU	LSU 3–1	2003, 2005, 2011, 2019
2	Georgia	Alabama	Alabama 2–0	2012, 2018
2	Florida	Arkansas	Florida 2–0	1995, 2006
2	Tennessee	Auburn	Tied 1–1	1997, 2004
2	Tennessee	LSU	LSU 2–0	2001, 2007

Selection criteria

Division standings are based on each team's overall conference record. The SEC Commissioner's Regulations requires each football team play all eight conference games in a season in order to be eligible to compete for a divisional title and play in the SEC Championship Game. Often, two or more teams tie for the best record in their division and each team is recognized as a divisional co-champion. However, tiebreakers are used to determine who will represent the division in the championship game.[7]

Two-team tie-breaker procedure

Head-to-head competition between the two tied teams.
Records of the tied teams within the division.
Records against the team within the division with the best overall (divisional and non-divisional) conference record and proceeding through the division. Multiple ties within the division will be broken from first to last.
Complete record vs. all non-divisional opponents.
Complete record vs. all common non-divisional teams if there be any.
Record vs. common non-divisional opponent (if there be any) with the best overall conference (divisional and non-divisional) record and proceeding through other common non-divisional teams based on their order of finish within their division.
Best cumulative conference winning percentage of non-divisional opponents
Coin flip of the tied teams

NOTE: Although all division rivals meet during the season and NCAA overtime is played, the SEC has provisions in case a game ends in a tie, which is possible under NCAA Rule 3-3-3 (c.2) and (d), Suspending the Game, and Commissioner's Regulations (including a tie game after the end of three periods, at the point the game is suspended in the fourth period, or end of regulation, or if one team had played their overtime period but the opponent had not played, when the game reaches the conference curfew of 1:30 a.m. local time), or if the two tied teams did not play an official game because of weather (including a game that ends before the end of three periods), which is possible because numerous conference teams have had games affected by hurricanes but also lightning. As such, SEC rules, written before overtime was implemented in regular season play, still contain the remaining procedures if those circumstances were to happen.[7]

Three or more-team procedure

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

Combined head-to-head record among the tied teams.
Record of the tied teams within the division.
Records against the team within the division with the best overall (divisional and non-divisional) Conference record and proceeding through the division. Multiple ties within the division will be broken from first to last.
Complete record vs. non-division teams.
Complete record vs. all common non-divisional teams.
Record vs. common non-divisional team with the best overall Conference (divisional and non-divisional) record and proceeding through other common non-divisional teams based on their order of finish within their division.
Best cumulative Conference winning percentage of non-divisional opponents (Note: If two teams' non-divisional opponents have the same cumulative record, then the two-team tiebreaker procedures apply. If four teams are tied, and three teams' non-divisional opponents have the same cumulative record, the three-team tiebreaker procedures will be used beginning with #1
Coin flip of the tied teams with the team with the odd result being the representative (Example: If there are two teams with tails and one team with heads, the team with heads is the representative)

Winner's bowl performance

Currently the SEC champion plays in the Sugar Bowl unless it has been selected to play in a College Football Playoff semifinal bowl, or if the Sugar Bowl is hosting a CFP semifinal and the SEC champion either does not qualify for the CFP or has a seeding that prevents it from appearing in the Sugar Bowl.[8] In the SEC Championship Game era, eleven winners of the game have gone on to win the national title (outright or shared), with thirteen SEC teams winning national titles overall, including seven consecutive titles from the 2006–2012 seasons. There are two occasions when the SEC champion advanced to the BCS or CFP but lost to another SEC team which won the national championship: In 2011 LSU won the SEC Championship Game and advanced to the BCS National Championship Game which they lost 21–0 to fellow SEC member Alabama, and in 2017 Georgia won the SEC Championship Game and advanced to the College Football Playoff, defeating Oklahoma in the semifinal and advancing to the CFP final game, which they lost 26–23 in overtime to SEC member Alabama.

Rankings are from the AP Poll at the time the game was played.

Season	SEC Champ	Result	Opponent	Opp. Conference	Bowl Game	National Champion
1992	No. 2 Alabama	W 34–13	No. 1 Miami	Big East	1993 Sugar Bowl[9]	Alabama
1993	No. 8 Florida	W 41–7	No. 3 West Virginia	Big East	1994 Sugar Bowl	Florida State
1994	No. 5 Florida	L 17–23	No. 7 Florida State	ACC	1995 Sugar Bowl	Nebraska
1995	No. 2 Florida	L 24–62	No. 1 Nebraska	Big 8	1996 Fiesta Bowl[9]	Nebraska
1996	No. 3 Florida	W 52–20	No. 1 Florida State	ACC	1997 Sugar Bowl	Florida
1997	No. 3 Tennessee	L 17–42	No. 2 Nebraska	Big 12	1998 Orange Bowl[9]	Nebraska, Michigan[10]
1998	No. 1 Tennessee	W 23–16	No. 2 Florida State	ACC	1999 Fiesta Bowl[11]	Tennessee
1999	No. 5 Alabama	L 34–35 ^OT	No. 8 Michigan	Big Ten	2000 Orange Bowl[12]	Florida State
2000	No. 7 Florida	L 20–37	No. 2 Miami	Big East	2001 Sugar Bowl	Oklahoma
2001	No. 12 LSU	W 47–34	No. 7 Illinois	Big Ten	2002 Sugar Bowl	Miami
2002	No. 4 Georgia	W 26–13	No. 16 Florida State	ACC	2003 Sugar Bowl	Ohio State
2003	No. 3 LSU	W 21–14	No. 2 Oklahoma	Big 12	2004 Sugar Bowl[11]	LSU, USC[13][14]
2004	No. 3 Auburn	W 16–13	No. 9 Virginia Tech	ACC	2005 Sugar Bowl	USC[15]
2005	No. 8 Georgia	L 35–38	No. 13 West Virginia	Big East	2006 Sugar Bowl	Texas
2006	No. 2 Florida	W 41–14	No. 1 Ohio State	Big Ten	2007 BCS Champ. Game[11]	Florida
2007	No. 2 LSU	W 38–24	No. 1 Ohio State	Big Ten	2008 BCS Champ. Game[11]	LSU
2008	No. 2 Florida	W 24–14	No. 1 Oklahoma	Big 12	2009 BCS Champ. Game[11]	Florida
2009	No. 1 Alabama	W 37–21	No. 2 Texas	Big 12	2010 BCS Champ. Game[11]	Alabama
2010	No. 1 Auburn	W 22–19	No. 2 Oregon	Pac-10	2011 BCS Champ. Game[11]	Auburn
2011	No. 1 LSU	L 0–21	No. 2 Alabama	SEC	2012 BCS Champ. Game[11]	Alabama
2012	No. 2 Alabama	W 42–14	No. 1 Notre Dame	Independent	2013 BCS Champ. Game[11]	Alabama
2013	No. 2 Auburn	L 31–34	No. 1 Florida State	ACC	2014 BCS Champ. Game[11]	Florida State
2014	No. 1 Alabama	L 35–42	No. 4 Ohio State	Big Ten	2015 Sugar Bowl (CFP Semifinal)	Ohio State
2015	No. 2 Alabama	W 38–0	No. 3 Michigan State	Big Ten	2015 Cotton Bowl (CFP Semifinal)	Alabama
2015	No. 2 Alabama	W 45–40	No. 1 Clemson	ACC	2016 CFP National Championship	Alabama
2016	No. 1 Alabama	W 24–7	No. 4 Washington	Pac-12	2016 Peach Bowl (CFP Semifinal)	Clemson
2016	No. 1 Alabama	L 31–35	No. 2 Clemson	ACC	2017 CFP National Championship	Clemson
2017	No. 3 Georgia	W 54–48	No. 2 Oklahoma	Big 12	2018 Rose Bowl (CFP Semifinal)	Alabama
2017	No. 3 Georgia	L 23–26 ^OT	No. 4 Alabama	SEC	2018 CFP National Championship	Alabama
2018	No. 1 Alabama	W 45–34	No. 4 Oklahoma	Big 12	2018 Orange Bowl (CFP Semifinal)	Clemson
2018	No. 1 Alabama	L 16–44	No. 2 Clemson	ACC	2019 CFP National Championship	Clemson
2019	No. 1 LSU	W 63–28	No. 4 Oklahoma	Big 12	2019 Peach Bowl (CFP Semifinal)	LSU
2019	No. 1 LSU	W 42–25	No. 3 Clemson	ACC	2020 CFP National Championship	LSU

Runner-up's bowl performance