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No. 1 Alabama smashed Mississippi State, 51-3, to reach 10-0 overall and 7-0 in the SEC. With only one league game left to go — the Iron Bowl against No. 9 Auburn — the Tide only needed one more win to clinch.
The Tigers were also the only team with a chance to keep the Tide out of the SEC Championship. At 5-1 in conference entering Saturday, Auburn could’ve won in Tuscaloosa and thus swiped the division title.
That was until Auburn lost at the home of its other major rival, Georgia, on Saturday, 13-7. The defending national champions now win the SEC West no matter what happens in the Iron Bowl. That’s a nice little gift to Nick Saban from his former defensive coordinator, Kirby Smart, who’s now the head coach at UGA.
And it gets even weirder:
So the DB (Maurice Smith) that Saban tried to block from going to Georgia had the Pick Six vs. Auburn that may clinch the division for Bama.
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) November 12, 2016
Anyway, I’ve updated the SEC West standings accordingly:
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In Saban’s decade at Alabama, the Tide have now won the SEC West outright six times, with four SEC titles so far.
Oh, and one of the years in which Bama didn’t win its division, it beat division champion LSU for the national title.
In Atlanta, the Tide will face a representative from one of the country’s worst Power 5 divisions. With a win there, Bama will become the only team to have made all three College Football Playoff fields. (It’s already the only team to make both.) I’m not even certain that Bama would have to win that game to make it in, but it’d be a good idea to do so.