If you didn’t know better, you’d swear the first BCS standings of the 2012 season were actually the SEC standings.
Six of the top 12 spots were occupied by SEC teams, with No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 Florida garnering the all-important top two spots.
Also within striking distance were No. 6 LSU, No. 7 South Carolina, No. 11 Georgia and No. 12 Mississippi State.
An SEC team has now been the top-ranked team in 11 straight BCS standings, dating back to the last two weeks of the 2010 season.
Despite all of the SEC teams at or near the top, one thing to keep mind is that most of them still have to play each other. South Carolina plays at Florida this Saturday. Georgia and Florida square off in two weeks along with Alabama and Mississippi State. And on Nov. 3, Alabama travels to LSU.
If Alabama and Florida were to remain unbeaten and hold onto the top two spots, they’d meet in the SEC championship game with a berth in the Discover BCS National Championship Game at stake. It would be a repeat of the 2008 and 2009 SEC championship games.
Alabama has a comfortable lead right now as the No. 1 team, but Oregon is right on Florida’s heels for that No. 2 spot. Even so, with games against nationally ranked foes South Carolina, Georgia and Florida State all remaining, you’d have to think the Gators would stand a good chance of holding steady in that No. 2 spot if they win out.
A one-loss LSU team is also in position to shoot up the BCS standings if the Tigers can win out, which would include a win over Alabama on Nov. 3.
The same goes for a one-loss South Carolina team if the Gamecocks can win at the Swamp this weekend.
The SEC would need Notre Dame, Kansas State and Oregon all to lose somewhere along the way if it wants to have any shot of an all-SEC national title game again this season.
Two teams may be a stretch, but the SEC is nicely positioned to send at least one team to the title game for the seventh straight season.