South Carolina defeated Vanderbilt last weekend to stay in first place in the SEC East. Georgia also won, and Tennessee and Kentucky lost. (Florida was idle.) As we continue to march toward the end of the season, the SEC East race clarifies itself each week. Currently, the SEC East looks like this:
| Record | Games Back | |
| South Carolina | 3-2 | – |
| Georgia | 3-3 | 1/2 |
| Florida | 2-3 | 1 |
| Vanderbilt | 1-3 | 1 1/2 |
| Kentucky | 1-4 | 2 |
| Tennessee | 0-4 | 2 1/2 |
Given that, here are your scenarios for this week.
Scenario #1: South Carolina wins their next three conference games.
Gamecocks finish 6-2 and no one else can finish better than 5-3, so South Carolina wins the East outright.
Scenario #2: South Carolina wins two out of their next three.
It then depends on who they beat and who beats them, but they can still win the East.
2a. South Carolina beats Tennessee and Arkansas and loses to Florida.
The Gamecocks would finish 5-3 and would need help to win their division. If Florida wins all of their games, then both teams would finish 5-3, and Florida would the tiebreaker. If Florida loses one of their other games, then South Carolina would win the division.
2b. South Carolina beats Tennessee and Florida and loses to Arkansas.
The Gamecocks wouldn’t need any help; they would be 5-3 and own the tiebreaker with Georgia, Florida and Vanderbilt. Tennessee and Kentucky already have four losses, so South Carolina would be headed to Atlanta.
2c. South Carolina beats Arkansas and Florida and loses to Tennessee.
The Gamecocks would win the East. They would finish 5-3 and could be tied with Georgia, Florida or Vanderbilt, but they would hold the tiebreaker with all of them, so it wouldn’t matter.
Scenario 3: South Carolina wins one out of the last three to finish 4-4.
They can still get to Atlanta, but there are too many possible scenarios at this point to explain them all without losing your interest. Let’s hope we don’t have to look at these scenarios at all.
Scenario 4: South Carolina loses all three.
If the Gamecocks still want to go to the championship game they can try to scalp tickets outside of the Georgia Dome because that’s the only way they’ll be getting in under this scenario.
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