No one has been spared in chaotic SEC season

Chaotic is one of many words that can be used to describe this wacky, wild season in the SEC.

It’s a year that’s spared no one – though Texas, Georgia and Tennessee can claim to have survived, having locked up spots in the College Football Playoff.

Then there’s Alabama – currently in, but with its fate in the hands of SMU in the ACC title game – and Ole Miss, with the door essentially sealed closed by the committee’s latest rankings, along with South Carolina, which finished with six straight wins but couldn’t make a case to oust the big brands just ahead of it, having lost to each in October.

But that was only after things ramped up.

In the final week of September, Alabama’s 17-year-old freshman phenom Ryan Williams spun his way past Georgia – twice, in the matter of seconds – snatching victory from the jaws of defeat on a 75-yard touchdown that rendered the Bulldogs’ 28-point comeback for naught.

A week later, Alabama – top-ranked, following that win over Georgia – lost to perennial doormat Vanderbilt, and while first-year head coach Kalen DeBoer might’ve been regretting his decision to be the man to replace Nick Saban, Georgia’s Kirby Smart stood at podium following his own team’s win over Auburn, and was asked to assess his counterpart’s misery.

“Nothing shocks me about our league,” he deadpanned. “Welcome to the SEC. It’s hard every week.”

Before the goalpost that Vanderbilt fans dumped in the Cumberland River could be fished out, things spiralled even more out of control. A Tennessee loss to unranked Arkansas, followed by a magical, overtime win by LSU over Ole Miss – a loss that left the Rebels fighting for their lives, thanks to an inexplicable loss at home to Kentucky two weeks earlier.

Each week, the term “elimination game” was thrown around – first, for the third Saturday in October, when Alabama lost at Tennessee. Then again, when the playoff landscape allowed the Crimson Tide to creep back into the picture, for their meeting with LSU at Death Valley a fortnight later. Alabama obliterated the Tigers in Baton Rouge, but lost 24-3 to middling Oklahoma two weeks after that. And yet, DeBoer’s team is clinging to life.

Even Georgia, the back-to-back national champion in 2021 and 2022, found itself on the outside looking in, banished from the bracket after a listless defeat against Ole Miss in Week 11. Smart’s team managed to flip that script seven days later, beating Tennessee – like Alabama, once thought to be on the brink – behind Carson Beck’s season-saving, draft-stock-redeeming, second-half charge.

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Beck, as well as Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, went from one-time Heisman favourites to afterthoughts, thanks to the unparalleled play of Colorado’s Travis Hunter and Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty – players in lesser conferences, with apologies to the Big 12 and Mountain West. Texas’ Quinn Ewers also staked an early claim to college football’s most prestigious award, before an oblique injury in Week 3 made Arch Manning the most gushed-over quarterback in the sport.

On Saturday, all eyes are back on Ewers, as the Longhorns – new to the SEC, after moving over from the Big 12 – meet Georgia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in the conference championship, a game that carries a first-round playoff bye, which comes in especially handy in a season where we’ve come to expect just about anything.

It’s Texas’ second chance at beating the Bulldogs, after they had their unbeaten season upended in a mistake-ridden 30-15 loss in Austin in Week 8.

For Ewers’ counterpart, Beck, it’s another opportunity to assert himself ahead of next April’s NFL Draft. Widely considered to be the top pick heading into the season, he struggled in between the Alabama and Tennessee matchups, throwing six touchdowns and 12 interceptions over a span of six games.

Since, and including that win over the Vols, he’s had eight touchdowns without being intercepted, and revived Georgia after halftime in last week’s eight-overtime, 44-42 rivalry week win over the ACC’s Georgia Tech.

By now, that aforementioned chaos is the expectation – not just between Georgia and Texas, and not just in the SEC – but across all of college football, both this weekend and beyond.

On Saturday, undefeated Oregon – like Texas, a newcomer to its conference – faces Penn State in the Big Ten championship, and in the Big 12, Arizona State and Iowa State will attempt to settle which program snags the 12th-seed in the playoff.

Then there’s the ACC championship between SMU and Clemson – the game that Alabama’s playoff hopes hinge on. If SMU wins, four-loss Clemson stays out of the bracket, leaving the Crimson Tide to firmly grasp the berth the committee determined it had earned as of this past Tuesday.

For fans of college football, it’s a chance to sit back and enjoy. Hey, some might even be here merely for the chaos.

And like this year’s expanded playoff compared to the last, there’s always room for more