Many SEC football championship games would have featured Gators, Vols

No matter the conference, division formats have not always yielded the top two teams playing in a championship game. There is no better example than the SEC. Alabama won national titles in 2011 and 2017 without having made the trip to Atlanta to play for conference supremacy.

Effective 2024 when the SEC’s membership increases to 16 with the addition of Oklahoma and Texas, the division format that has been in play since 1992 will go away. Like other conferences that scrapped divisional alignment, the top two teams at the end of the regular season will meet in the championship game.

For the fun of it, here is a look at the years the SEC would have had different matchups in the championship game in a division-less league. In the first 10 seasons (1992-2001) of the division/championship game format, East rivals Florida and Tennessee would have met six times.

(Regular season conference records are in paren.)

1993 Championship Game: Florida (7-1) defeated Alabama (5-2-1) / Top Two Teams: Florida and Tennessee (6-1-1)

With Auburn (8-0 and undefeated overall) ineligible to play in the championship game thanks to NCAA sanctions that included a postseason ban, it was second-place Alabama that went against Florida for the championship at Legion Field. Meanwhile, Phillip Fulmer’s first full season on the Tennessee sideline resulted in a 10-1 mark with the only loss (41-34) to Steve Spurrier’s Gators.

1995 Championship Game: Florida (8-0) defeated Arkansas (6-2) / Top Two Teams: Florida and Tennessee (7-1)

The Vols’ lone loss during an 11-1 season was a 62-37 pasting in Gainesville. Tennessee then defeated Ohio State in the Citrus Bowl and finished No. 3 in the AP….After blowing out (34-3) the Razorbacks for the conference title, Spurrier’s Gators lost a national championship matchup against Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl to finish 12-1 and No. 2.

1996 Championship Game: Florida (8-0) defeated Alabama (6-2) / Top Two Teams: Florida and Tennessee (7-1)

As with the two instances noted above, it was Spurrier’s Gators that saddled Fulmer’s Vols with their only conference loss. UF held on, 35-29 in Knoxville, after leading 35-0. As it turned out, Florida had a rematch in the national championship. Four weeks after losing (24-21) to rival Florida State in a matchup of undefeated teams, the Gators had a huge second half in a 52-20 win over the Seminoles to win their first national title.

1997 Championship Game: Tennessee (7-1) defeated Auburn (6-2) / Top Two Teams: Tennessee and Florida (6-2)

In determining Tennessee’s opponent, it would have come down to which two-loss team — Auburn, LSU, Florida or Georgia — made the cut. While Florida lost to Georgia and LSU, Spurrier’s team defeated Tennessee and Auburn and finished the regular season as the second-highest ranked conference team at No. 6. The Gators handed the Vols their only regular-season defeat, 33-20, in Gainesville.

1998 Championship Game: Tennessee (8-0) defeated Mississippi State (6-2) / Top Two Teams: Tennessee and Florida (7-1)

Yet another Gators/Vols championship tilt would have been in order. In the regular season meeting between the teams in Knoxville, Jeff Hall’s 41-yard field goal in overtime lifted Tennessee to a 20-17 win. Hall’s winning boot was followed by a 32-yard miss off the foot of the Gators’ Collins Cooper. The win snapped the Vols’ five-game losing streak against UF. The best was yet to come, though, as Fulmer’s squad ran the table and beat Florida State in the Fiesta Bowl to win the first BCS championship.

2001 Championship Game: LSU (5-3) defeated Tennessee (7-1) / Top Two Teams: Tennessee and Florida (6-2)

The horrific events of 9/11 resulted in rescheduling the game between the Vols and Gators in Gainesville from September 15 to December 1. The Gators failed to convert a two-point conversion following a late fourth-quarter touchdown and Tennessee had its first win (34-32) in the Swamp since 1971. That proved to be the difference in the Vols winning the East…..Nick Saban’s Tigers, who lost to Tennessee and Florida in the regular season, followed their conference championship rematch victory over the Vols by beating No. 7 Illinois in the Sugar Bowl to finish 10-3.

2002 Championship Game: Georgia (7-1) defeated Arkansas (5-3) / Top Two Teams: Georgia and Florida (6-2)

A postseason ban resulting from NCAA infractions prevented Alabama (6-2), which had the best record in the West, from playing Georgia in the championship game. Had the top two eligible teams met, it would have been the Dawgs and Gators. The Gators won the cocktail party (20-13) for the 12^th time in 13 years and ruined the Bulldogs’ perfect season in the process. In fact, that would be only loss for Mark Richt’s team which finished 13-1 with a No. 3 ranking.

2003 Championship Game: LSU (7-1) defeated Georgia (6-2) / Top Two Teams: LSU and Ole Miss (7-1)

This season would have been the first in which West Division teams met in the SEC championship game. A week before Thanksgiving, LSU defeated the Rebels (17-14) in the first of what would have been two meetings. Instead, the Bengal Tigers handily defeated Georgia (34-13) for the conference title and bested Oklahoma to cap a 13-1 and BCS national championship season. (USC was No. 1 in the AP.) LSU’s lone defeat was Week 6 against visiting Florida. Meanwhile, Ole Miss defeated Oklahoma State in the Cotton Bowl to finish 10-3.

2005 Championship Game: Georgia (6-2) defeated LSU (7-1) / Top Two Teams: LSU and Auburn (7-1)

In an October meeting between Auburn and LSU in Baton Rouge, Chris Jackson’s 44-yard field with 1:40 remaining in the fourth quarter tied the game. Jackson then drilled a 30-yard field goal in overtime to for the difference in LSU’s 20-17 win. Auburn’s John Vaughn missed a 39-yarder in OT, his fifth misfire of the game. A rematch between the Tigers would have taken place in Atlanta six weeks later…..Auburn responded to the tough loss by winning its final four conference matchups, including consecutive weeks against No. 9 Georgia and No. 8 Alabama….UGA went 10-3 with the losses by a combined eight points, including 38-35 to West Virginia in the Sugar Bowl, a game the Bulldogs trailed 28-0 in the second quarter.

2010 Championship Game: Auburn (8-0) defeated South Carolina (5-3) / Top Two Teams: Auburn and Arkansas (6-2)

A perfect (14-0) national championship season for Auburn in Gene Chizik’s second season on the Plains included a 65-43 win over Bobby Petrino’s Hogs, whose only other conference loss was to then-No. 1 Alabama three weeks earlier. The 10-win Razorbacks lost to Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl….The Gamecocks were the only team in the East to finish above .500 in conference play and went 9-5 overall.

2011 Championship Game: LSU (8-0) defeated Georgia (7-1) / Top Two Teams: LSU and Alabama (7-1)

Drew Allerman’s 25-yard field goal in overtime, which followed Cade Foster’s 52-yard miss, lifted LSU to a 9-6 win over the Crimson Tide in the regular season. That was the difference in the Tigers winning the West and meeting, and thumping (42-10), Georgia in the conference championship game. Of course, LSU and Alabama met for the national championship with the latter prevailing, 21-0. Could they have met three times?…Georgia, which went 10-4, opened conference play by losing to unranked and visiting South Carolina before rattling off seven straight conference wins.

2013 Championship Game: Auburn (7-1) defeated Missouri (7-1) / Top Two Teams: Auburn and Alabama (7-1)

The last BCS poll of the regular season had Auburn, Alabama and Missouri at Nos. 3, 4 and 5, respectively. That would have meant a rematch between Auburn and Alabama one week after Chris Davis’ heroics as time expired in the Iron Bowl against the then-No. 1 and unbeaten Crimson Tide….After being outslugged by Auburn in the championship game, 59-42, Mizzou defeated Oklahoma State in the Cotton Bowl to finish 12-2 and No. 5 AP. The lone regular season loss in conference play for Gary Pinkel’s Tigers was at the hands of visiting and then-No. 20 South Carolina by a field goal in double overtime.

2020 Championship Game: Alabama (10-0) defeated Florida (8-2) / Top Two Teams: Alabama and Texas A&M (8-1)

The virus played havoc with a conference-only schedule resulting in most teams playing 10 games and others nine. What would have made the difference in Texas A&M participating in the championship game is that the Aggies defeated the Gators and did so on a Seth Small field goal as time expired in an early-season (by 2020 standards) matchup at College Station. A week earlier, the Crimson Tide defeated the Aggies by 28……The Crimson Tide, which outlasted (52-46) the Gators to win the SEC, went 13-0 and won their most recent national title.