David Ammenheuser

dammenheus@tennessean.com

Sit back and digest this, SEC football fans: Six teams could tie for first place in the SEC East.

Sound crazy?

Consider the current standings and the remaining conference games:

• Florida (4-2 SEC) has games remaining against South Carolina (Nov. 12) and at LSU (Nov. 19)

• Kentucky (4-3) has a game remaining at Tennessee (Nov. 12)

• Georgia (3-4) has a game remaining at Auburn (Nov. 12)

• South Carolina (3-4) has a game remaining at Florida (Nov. 12)

• Tennessee (2-3) has games remaining against Kentucky (Nov. 12), against Missouri (Nov. 19) and at Vanderbilt (Nov. 26)

• Vanderbilt (1-4) has games remaining at Missouri (Nov. 12), against Ole Miss (Nov. 19) and against Tennessee (Nov. 26)

For a six-way tie, this is how those games need to go:

• Florida loses to South Carolina and LSU

• Tennessee beats Kentucky and Missouri, but loses to Vanderbilt

• Georgia beat Auburn

• Vanderbilt beats Missouri, Ole Miss and Tennessee

If that scenario were to play out, all six teams would be 4-4 in SEC play. Granted, it's quite improbable. But, based on this wacky season, you gotta admit that it is possible.

So if that happens, which team advances to the SEC title game?

According to the SEC rules, the conference would use this tie-breaker (taken directly from SEC website):

Three-Team Tie (or more): If three teams (or more) are tied for a division title, the following procedure will be used in the following order: (Note: If one of the procedures results in one team being eliminated and two remaining, the two-team tiebreaker procedure as stated in No. 1 above will be used): A. Combined head to head record among the tied teams; B. Record of the tied teams within the division; C. Head to head competition against the team within the division with the best overall Conference record (divisional and non divisional) and proceeding through the division (multiple ties within the division will be broken from first to last and a tie for first place will be broken before a tie for fourth place); D. Overall Conference record against non divisional teams; E. Combined record against all common non divisional teams; F. Record against the common non divisional team with the best overall Conference record (divisional and non divisional) and proceeding through other common non divisional teams based on their order of finish within their division; and G. 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 2.A.)

Using those tiebreakers, who would advance to Atlanta to play the SEC West winner in the conference championship game on Dec. 3?

My calculations show it would be South Carolina. The Gamecocks, Florida and Tennessee would finish with 4-2 records within games played in the SEC East. And South Carolina would be 2-0 with wins over the Gators and Vols.

Again. It's all quite improbable. But, you gotta admit, it's interesting fodder for fans to banter.

Reach Dave Ammenheuser at 615-259-8352 and on Twitter @NashSportsEd.