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Alabama Basketball’s Mathematical Path to Win the SEC Title

The Crimson Tide has an excellent shot at their second SEC title in three years.

Alabama v Tennessee
Nate Oats is raising the Tide to new heights.
Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images

With five games remaining in the basketball regular season, the Crimson Tide leads the SEC standings by one game over Texas A&M. Alabama’s Magic Number (any combination of Bama wins ad TAMU losses) over the Aggies stands at five.

TEAM CONF OVERALL GAMES BACK MUST WIN Feb 18 Feb 21-22 Feb 25 Feb 28-Mar 1 Mar 4
Alabama 12-1 22-4 - - UGA @SC ARK AUB @TAM
Texas A&M 11-2 19-7 1.0 1-4 @MIZ TEN @MSU @OM ALA
Tennessee 9-4 20-6 3.0 3-2 @UK @TAM SC TEN @AUB
Auburn 8-5 18-8 4.0 4-1 @VU OM @UK @ALA TEN
Kentucky 8-5 17-9 4.0 4-1 TEN @FLA AUB VU @ARK
Missouri 7-6 19-7 5.0 5-0 TAM MSU @UGA @LSU OM
Vanderbilt 7-6 14-12 5.0 5-0 AUB @LSU FLA @UK MSU
Florida 7-6 14-12 5.0 5-0 @ARK UK @VU @UGA LSU
Arkansas 6-7 17-9 ELIMINATED - - - - - -
Georgia 6-7 16-10 ELIMINATED - - - - - -
Mississippi State 5-8 17-9 ELIMINATED - - - - - -
Ole Miss 2-11 10-16 ELIMINATED - - - - - -
South Carolina 2-11 9-17 ELIMINATED - - - - - -
LSU 1-12 12-14 ELIMINATED - - - - - -

  • For Texas A&M to win the SEC regular season championship, they need to be one game better than the Tide and hold off any others. It could come down to the Crimson Tide and Aggies game on the final Saturday.
  • Auburn and Kentucky must go at least 4-1 down the stretch just for a hope of tying for the best record and then win the league on tiebreakers. UK lost to Alabama (Bama wins tiebreaker) but beat UT and must play them once more. Aubie has lost to the Tide and Aggs with one more game in Tuscaloosa to go. Any tiebreaker chance they may have would have to go to the next round (see below).
  • Missouri, Vanderbilt, and Florida must win the rest of their games. A loss on Saturday for any of them knocks out the running.
  • Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, and LSU are mathematically eliminated.

TIEBREAKERS

  1. Won-lost results of head-to-head competition between the two teams.
  2. Best winning percentage of the two teams versus the highest seeded common opponent (and proceeding through the No. 14 seed, if necessary).
  3. Coin flip by the Commissioner.

* FULL DISCLOSURE: This exercise is just for fun and not exact. There are probably certain scenarios which discounts some of these results. But for the most part it is pretty accurate.