SEC OUTLOOK

Chase for spots in SEC championship game still up for grabs with 2 games left

Chase for spots in SEC championship game still up for grabs with 2 games left
It's a tight race! Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images.

With two games left in the regular season, No. 15 Texas A&M has a chance to reach the Southeastern Conference title game for the first time since joining the league in 2012.

If the Aggies win their remaining games against Auburn and No. 3 Texas they will be 7-1 in conference play and be guaranteed a shot.

“This is everything that you want, right? We haven’t been in this position as a program ever,” first-year Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said. “There’s been no time ever where Texas A&M has been in the SEC, in the last two games controlled their own destiny to go to Atlanta. And so that’s what you work for. It’s the opportunity that you’ve trained for.”

But a loss would create more chaos in an already tight race that could end with as many as six teams with a 6-2 record in the first season the league has played without divisions since 1991.

“It’s interesting because this is my first year being in the SEC without divisions … I’m just kind of thinking what would that look like now? It makes it very entertaining,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “I think college football is at an all-time high, popularity wise, people watching us. They want to know what’s going on. It’s not just our conference, it’s a lot of other conferences. I think it’s a good thing.”

The Aggies are currently tied with the Longhorns for the SEC’s best mark at 5-1. Texas hosts Kentucky on Saturday before the showdown with Texas A&M on Nov. 30. No. 8 Georgia is in third place at 6-2 after already wrapping up league play. Tenth-ranked Tennessee is next at 5-2 and No. 7 Alabama and No. 9 Ole Miss are next at 4-2.

Tennessee last played in the SEC title game in 2007 with a 6-2 league record and lost 21-14 to LSU who also came in with a 6-2 record.

The Volunteers have one conference game remaining against Vanderbilt on Nov. 30. Alabama plays Oklahoma and Auburn and Ole Miss faces Florida and Mississippi State.

Alabama holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over Georgia after getting a 41-34 win over the Bulldogs. Georgia has the tiebreaker over Texas and Tennessee after beating both teams.

If it is still tied after factoring in the head-to-head competition, then records against all common conference opponents would be used to break the tie. The third level to break ties would be the records against the highest placed common conference opponents.

Next would be cumulative conference winning percentage of all conference opponents followed by the relative total scoring margin against all conference opponents.

If things still aren’t sorted out after all that then the tied teams would be subject to a random draw to pick who will go to the title game.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart isn’t thinking about any of that and doesn’t even want to talk about what needs to happen for his team to reach the title game.

“I don’t think that’s a hypothetical, the focus is on UMass. I mean, it really is,” he said. “So, why would I put energy or time into trying to figure out what the best pathway is, including the SEC championship, when I’m worried about UMass? I just don’t think it’s a quality conversation.”

While the Aggies would be thrilled to earn a spot in the conference title game, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin isn’t so keen on qualifying for the game now that the College Football Playoff has expanded from four to 12 teams.

“The conference championship could have a big impact both ways for people,” he said. “I’ve talked to other coaches, so I’ll just give you the feeling from some other coaches that they don’t want to be in it. The reward to get a bye versus the risk to get knocked out completely, that’s a really big risk just to get a bye.”

Kiffin added that playing another game also increases the risk of injuries and then likened playing in it to gambling.

“I’m not a big gambler but that’s kind of like one of those Vegas poker table things, like that’s all in,” he said. “And you’re going all in in the best conference in football, so you’ve got to play somebody great, too. Very different than a lot of these other conferences.”

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A new era begins. Composite image by Jack Brame.

Alex Bregman couldn’t hold back the smile when he was asked who might have had the biggest impact on his decision to sign with the Boston Red Sox.

“My favorite player Dustin Pedroia,” Bregman said of the club's former second baseman and two-time World Series champion.

“He reached out a few times this offseason and talked about how special it was to be a part of the Boston Red Sox,” Bregman said Sunday. “It was really cool to be able to talk to him as well as so many other former players here in Boston and current players on the team as well.”

A day after Bregman's $120 million, three-year contract was announced, he sat at a 25-minute news conference between his agent, Scott Boras, and Boston Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow. Manager Alex Cora, who gave Bregman a hug after he handed the infielder his No. 2 jersey, also was at the table along with team president Sam Kennedy.

Breslow and Cora wouldn't say whether Bregman would move to play second base, Pedroia's position, or remain at third — a position manned by Rafael Devers since July 2017.

A few players, Jarren Duran and Rob Refsnyder among them, and coaches stood behind the seated reporters to listen.

Bregman gets a $5 million signing bonus, a $35 million salary this season and $40 million in each of the following two years, with some of the money deferred, and he can opt out after the 2025 and 2026 seasons to become a free agent again.

Asked why he agreed to the shorter contract with opt outs, he leaned forward to the microphone in front of him and replied: “I just think I believe in my abilities.”

Originally selected by Boston in the 29th round of the 2012 amateur draft, Bregman attended LSU before the Houston Astros picked him second overall in 2015. His family history with the Red Sox goes back further.

“My dad grew up sitting on Ted Williams’ lap,” he said.

MLB.com said Stan Bregman, the player's grandfather, was a lawyer who represented the Washington Senators and negotiated Williams' deal to become manager.

Boston has missed the playoffs in five of the last six seasons and had avoided signing the highest-profile free agents. Boras said a conversation with Red Sox controlling owner John Henry showed ownership’s desire to get back to winning.

“I think it was after Soto signed,’’ Boras said, citing the record contract he negotiated for Juan Soto with the Mets. “We had a discussion. I could tell knowing John back with the Marlins and such, he had a real onus about ‘we need to do things differently than what we’ve done before.’

“This is a point and time where I believe Red Sox ownership was hungry for championship play and exhausted with what had happened the last five, six years.”

Called the “perfect fit” by Breslow, the 30-year-old Bregman joined the Red Sox after winning two World Series titles and reaching the playoffs in eight consecutive seasons with Houston.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to be in the playoffs the first eight years of my career, and I plan on continuing to do that here,” he said in his opening remarks. “I’m a winning player and this is a winning organization.”

Coming off an 81-81 season, the Red Sox acquired left-hander Garrett Crochet from the White Sox and signed fellow pitchers Walker Buehler, Patrick Sandoval, Aroldis Chapman and Justin Wilson during the offseason.

After the pitching moves, they found a right-handed bat, too.

“As the offseason progressed it just became clearer and clearer that Alex was the perfect fit for what we were trying to accomplish,” Breslow said.

Bregman ranks first among players with at least 75 career plate appearances in Fenway Park with an OPS of 1.240.

“He fits like a glove for our organization,” Kennedy said.

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