Randy Smith: SEC Race Is A Toss-Up

For months we've been hearing about the presidential election being a toss-up. Well, we can say the same thing about the SEC football race as well. The final unbeaten team in the league, Texas A&M was soundly thumped by South Carolina on Saturday night leaving a total of five league teams with a single loss. Georgia, A&M, Tennessee, Texas and LSU all have one loss, with four others having only two. Since we have just four weeks of the regular season remaining, it's easy to see what it's still a toss.

When the SEC expanded to 16 teams bringing in Texas and Oklahoma it was decided to do away with divisional play and the championship game would be between the top two teams in the league standings. It would be impossible to make a prediction on how that's going to come about because there are so many teams still very much alive. The good news is, these teams with just one loss will be playing one another in the coming weeks, eliminating most of those five. For instance, Tennessee still must play Georgia, Texas A&M still has to play Texas, LSU doesn't have a one loss team on its schedule but they have four tough conference games remaining including this week's SEC headliner against Alabama.

If I were a betting man, which I'm not, I would say the winner of the Tennessee-Georgia game would face the winner of Texas-Texas A&M contest in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta. But....there is a lot of football left and any of the other teams I've mentioned could sneak in. The overall balance in the SEC this fall is amazing. Who would have thought South Carolina would dismantle Texas A&M the way they did on Saturday? Plus, who would have thought Vanderbilt would be nationally ranked and owning wins over both Alabama and Auburn?

As far as Tennessee is concerned, no one is happy with the way they've been playing but they should be very happy with the wins. Perhaps....the Vols just haven't peaked yet and their best football is ahead of them. This is a special team and this could be a really special season. However, as we can easily see, there are a few other teams who are planning on a special season as well. Time will tell.