SEC Championship Game

The SEC was the first NCAA conference in any division to hold a football championship game that was exempt from NCAA regular-season game limits. This was made possible in 1987, when the NCAA membership approved a proposal sponsored by the Division II Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association allowing any conference with at least 12 football members to split into divisions and stage a championship game between the divisional winners. The SEC took advantage of this rule by adding the University of Arkansas and the University of South Carolina in 1992, bringing the conference membership to 12, and splitting into two football divisions.^[1] The format has since been adopted by other conferences to decide their football champion (the first being the Big 12 in 1996).

The first two SEC Championship Games were held at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. From 1994 until 2016, the game was played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.^[2] Following the closure and subsequent demolition of the Georgia Dome in 2017, the SEC Championship Game remained in Atlanta, moving to the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium that replaced the Georgia Dome under a ten-year contract. In November 2023, the SEC signed a five-year extension with Mercedes-Benz Stadium with an additional five-year option which will get the game at the stadium until 2032.^[3]

The SEC Championship Game has been played on the first Saturday of December with two exceptions. The 2001 edition was moved to the second Saturday in December so games cancelled during the week of the September 11 attacks could be rescheduled on the first Saturday. The 2020 edition was pushed back to the third week of December as part of the adjustments in the 2020 season for the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the SEC expanding to 16 teams with the 2024 arrival of Oklahoma and Texas, it announced on June 1, 2023, that it would eliminate its football divisions at that time. Championship games from 2024 forward will feature the top two teams in the conference standings.^[4]

240km
149miles

Vanderbilt

Texas A&M

Texas

Tennessee

South Carolina

Mississippi State

Ole Miss

Oklahoma

Missouri

LSU

Kentucky

Georgia

Florida

Auburn

Arkansas

Alabama

   

– Member school
– Championship Game site

Between 2006 and 2013 the winner of the SEC Championship Game went on to play in the BCS National Championship Game eight straight years, posting a 6–2 record. Since 2014, the SEC Championship Game winner has gone on to appear in the College Football Playoff every season, posting a 8–2 record in the national semi-final and a 4–4 record in the College Football Playoff National Championship. Two of these losses in the National Championship were to another team from the SEC, including a rematch of the 2021 SEC Championship game in the eventual National Championship.

Results from all SEC Championship games that have been played.^[5] Rankings are from the AP Poll released prior to matchup.

‡ 2020 game attendance limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The SEC's tiebreakers changed when they eliminated divisions in 2024. The tiebreaker is applied to any number of tied teams, and is repeated until only one team (or two in the case of teams being tied for first and second in the standings) remains.^[9]

Currently the SEC champion plays in the Sugar Bowl unless it has been selected to play in a College Football Playoff semi-final bowl, or if the Sugar Bowl is hosting a CFP semi-final and the SEC champion either does not qualify for the CFP or has a seeding that prevents it from appearing in the Sugar Bowl.^[10] In the SEC Championship Game era, eleven winners of the game have gone on to win the national title (outright or shared), with thirteen SEC teams winning national titles overall, including seven consecutive titles from the 2006–2012 seasons.

There are three occasions when the SEC champion advanced to the BCS or CFP but lost to another SEC team which won the national championship:

In 2011, LSU won the SEC Championship Game and advanced to the BCS National Championship Game which they lost 21–0 to fellow SEC West member Alabama.

In 2017, Georgia won the SEC Championship Game and advanced to the College Football Playoff, defeating Oklahoma in the semifinal and advancing to the CFP final game, which they lost 26–23 in overtime to SEC member Alabama.

In 2021, Alabama won the SEC Championship game and advanced to the College Football Playoff, defeating Cincinnati in the semifinal and advancing to the CFP final game, which they lost 33–18 to Georgia in a rematch of the SEC title game. It was the 1st time that the loser of the conference championship won the national championship game in the same season.

Rankings are from the AP Poll at the time the game was played.

Rankings are from the AP Poll at the time the game was played.

• List of NCAA Division I FBS conference championship games