By Michael Gross

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“Near Lock”

Alabama, Vandy, Florida, Arkansas, Tennessee 

“Good Shape”

Kentucky, Auburn 

“Bubble” 

Missouri, Georgia, Texas A&M, Texas

“Fringe Bubble”

LSU, Ole Miss, Miss St.

          Still no teams locked from the SEC, but Vandy has an opportunity to seal their bid by beating Ole Miss this weekend. Arkansas would be on the edge of securing a bid if they can beat Kentucky at home tomorrow. Florida responded from their home loss by easily beating South Carolina. They’ll face Alabama at home with the Tide coming off a blowout win of their own against Missouri. Tennessee went on the road and picked up consecutive wins over Alabama and Georgia. Now they come home to play two games they’ll be favored to win against Auburn and Ole Miss.

          Auburn has won 4 straight games to move up to “Good Shape”. If they can win at Tennessee this weekend, they would move up to “Near Lock.” Kentucky’s tendency to get behind in games caught up to them as they fell behind early against Vanderbilt. They never got back in the game. Let’s see if they can start off better against Arkansas tomorrow. If they fall to Arkansas, they really need to beat Oklahoma at home.

          Georgia has fallen down to the “Bubble” section. With wins over Arkansas and Auburn they are still in the field. However, a team whose metrics are all in the mid 30s and having half their wins in Q4 cannot be considered “Good Shape”. Georgia needs to beat Texas A&M at home or the slide might continue. 

Texas A&M has won 3 in a row and is starting to look like a decent bet to make the NCAA Tournament. If they can win at Georgia or at Alabama in their next 2 games, they will move up to “Good Shape”.

In recent days Missouri survived against OU at home before getting blown out by Alabama. With shaky metrics and a 5-7 Q1-3 record they really need to beat Miss St. and South Carolina in their next two games. Texas lost a tough game against Auburn. They’ve played a tough schedule, but just aren’t converting enough of their games against quality opponents. They really need to beat Oklahoma and South Carolina coming up to stay viable moving forward.

          Ole Miss has lost 2 in a row and is trending towards not being an at large contender anymore. The same can be said about LSU who got blown out at home by Miss St. for their 7th loss in 8 games. Miss St. is back on the page for now, but will need to win at Missouri to stay on it. Oklahoma is off the page altogether.