Great OP.
Here's one I wrote in 2011:
(In the fall of 1990, Arkansas and South Carolina joined the Southeastern Conference, expanding the SEC to 12 teams. This allowed the conference to invoke a little-known clause that permitted a conference championship game just so long as a conference had 12 teams. The 20th game will be played this December in Atlanta, so today we take a look back and rank the 19 previous games from worst to first. Please note that this is only one person's opinion, and I trust fair discussion will ensue).
The expansion of the SEC to 12 teams for the 1992 season altered the landscape of college football like a 7.1 earthquake on a major fault. The SEC immediately opted for a conference championship game, a move that was soon to be emulated but hardly duplicated. While its success now seems to have been inevitable, other conferences have tried and monumentally failed to mimic the SEC model. The WAC and Big XII introduced conference championships in 1996. The WAC game only lasted three years before conference intrusion destroyed it. The Big XII lasted for 15 only to prove over the long haul the meaninglessness of the game when a championship game loser (2003 Oklahoma) and non-divisional champion (2001 Nebraska) both advanced to the national championship game anyway. The SEC, on the other hand, has continued now in an unbroken string of 20 years. Changes have made been to rules and conferences but the SEC championship game continues.
How significant has the impact been? Consider this: of the last 19 national champions, NINE of them (nearly half) won the SEC championship game. Another winner (1995 Florida) lost the national championship game (the only SEC team to lose a national title game since 1983). And still another (2004 Auburn) went unbeaten but didn't get to play in the BCS title game. Since the current divisional alignments were set, only Ole Miss has failed to reach the title game from the West while Kentucky and Vanderbilt still await their first appearances from the East. Florida has been the big winner since 1992, with 7 wins in ten appearances and three national championships. But SEC parity has also seen multiple national championships at Alabama and LSU during the same time frame.
Not all of the games have been good, of course. But what follows is one person's ranking of the games - from least exciting to most exciting - with some comments thrown in for good measure. The criteria is somewhat subjective, but some clear trends emerge. To be in the top five, of course, a game must have been close, exciting, or significant at some level. There will be disagreement - some vehement, some not - but this is an attempt to be as unbiased as possible. Given the fact there have been seven Alabama-Florida match-ups, there is no way to avoid them being ranked in all different places on the chart.
So here we go:
19) 1995 Florida35 Arkansas 3
Seriously, do any of you even remember this game? Arkansas had the good fortune of two officiating gaffes knocking off Alabama, held on to beat Auburn at home, then collapsed down the stretch but still fell into the title game. They may have been the most undeserving division champions ever. And they played like it. In fact, I'll bet there are
many Florida fans who don't remember this game, either, primarily because they focus on their next tilt, a massacre at the hands of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, or because they expected to win so big. Only Razorback fans who were longsuffering recall this game, and the memories aren't pleasant.
18) 2010 Auburn 56 South Carolina 17
It took the Gamecocks 19 seasons to make the title game. Once they got there they put on a game that only heartened those of War Eagle persuasion. Everyone remembers the controversy surrounding Cam Newton leading up to this game more than they do the game itself.
17) 2002 Georgia 30 Arkansas 3
Two SEC title game appearances, two field goals (one in each game), and two blowout losses to the Eastern Division champion. That was the Arkansas resume prior to a pretty good effort in 2006. Georgia was up, 17-0, before most fans got up to relive themselves the first time. This game is better remembered for the nine Bulldogs who sold their SEC
championship rings afterward.
16) 2000 Florida 28 Auburn 6
Is it not a little strange that the last conference title won by Steve Spurrier is not even remembered? Rex Grossman, who was quite the college player, had the Gators on the board less than two minutes into the game. Halfway through the second quarter with Florida leading, 21-0, the game was as good as over. Auburn began the game with a completed pass that was fumbled and recovered by the Gators at the Tiger 41. It was all downhill from there for Spurrier and Company.
15) 2005 Georgia 34 LSU 14
Two words stick out with this game: Tyrone Prothro. Were it not for the life-altering injury of the star Alabama receiver, the Tigers would not have even played in this game. Prothro may not have been a Heisman contender, but he most certainly was worth the four points needed to beat LSU in overtime after the Tide had run the record to 9-0.
Just a win in that game would have made this an Alabama-Georgia match-up. Georgia gained a measure of revenge by matching the score from two years earlier within one point. So motivated were these Dawgs that they fell behind West Virginia by four TDs early in the Sugar Bowl and their loss created the delusion that Rich Rodriguez is a big-time coach.
14) 2003 LSU 34 Georgia 13
Nick Saban's first national championship run included a rematch with the Georgia team his Tigers had beaten six weeks earlier. Same teams, same result but with more devastation. Needing a huge win to overcome what appeared to be an insurmountable BCS point lead by Oklahoma, LSU "doubled down" and won. First, they smashed a pretty good Georgia team by the score of 34-13. Their bigger break came when Kansas State shocked the college football world by not only beating but massacring the Oklahoma Sooners and Heisman winner Jason White, 35-7 - in a game that wasn't even that close. LSU went on to win the first national title by an SEC team in the new millennium.
13) 1993 Florida 28 Alabama 13
Can you win the SEC championship game and not even be the best team in the conference? Yes, you can. This game matched up two teams that the Auburn Tigers had beaten earlier in the year. Auburn, of course, was ineligible due to the Eric Ramsey sanctions. But the fact that the
sophomore version of the SEC title game featured opponents who had both lost to an undefeated team served to undercut the game's popularity. It was further reduced because both teams were missing their starting QBs (Jay Barker and Danny Wuerrfel). It had zero implications other than SEC champion who got to face West Virginia in the Sugar Bowl. In the battle of the back-ups, Terry Dean easily prevailed. After leading the Tide to the end zone on the opening drive of the game, Brian Burgdorf and Company only scored two FGs.
12) 1996 Florida 45 Alabama 30
Of the seven times these 2 teams have met in the SECCG, the winner has gone on four times to win the national championship. Alabama prevailed in 1992 while Florida used this game a their stepping stone to the title. The implications of the game altered suddenly in the late afternoon when heavy underdog Texas stunned Nebraska in the inaugural Big XII title game. The Cornhuskers were two-time defending champions who had an opening thanks to the collapse of unbeaten Ohio State against Michigan. Although this was pre-BCS, this was a match-up of titans. 9-2 Alabama had only lost to Tennessee and MSU, both losses in the final minutes. Florida's sole loss after spending much of the year at number one was to Florida State, 24-21, in Tallahassee. The final score of the game is deceptive on a couple of fronts. First, Florida had a 24-7 lead at on point prior to halftime. Freddie Kitchens hit a 94-yard TD pass, the longest scrimmage play in Alabama history, to spark the crowd and bring the Tide back into the game, trailing 24-21. The third quarter ended with the Gators only leading by 2 points, 30-28. At that point Danny Wuerffel showed why he had won the Heisman, with two back-breaking drives that relegated the Tide to the Outback Bowl and set up Florida in a rematch with Florida State. When Ohio State knocked off unbeaten Arizona State, the Gators needed only to beat the Noles which they did, convincingly.
11) 2004 Auburn 38 Tennessee 28
In a rematch a tad more exciting than their regular season meeting, "The Two Teams That Hate Alabama Most Bowl" was won by Auburn, who completed an unbeaten SEC slate en route to a 13-0 season.
10) 1999 Alabama 34 Florida 7
A look at the score by a twentysomething fan no doubt elicits two reactions: 1) how in the
world can you consider a four TD blowout one of the best games followed by; 2) this is just a case of your Alabama bias coming out, isn't it?
No. It really isn't. The 1999 game was a truly phenomenal game for about 50 of the 60 minutes. It was a rarity at the time, only the second rematch of two teams who had met in the regular season. And ABC television (who broadcast the SEC title game that year) executives were no doubt excited because it was a rematch of perhaps the most exciting game of the 1999 season when unranked Alabama ended Florida's five-year home unbeaten streak in overtime. This game began just like that one, with Florida hitting a lightning quick TD and the Tide sitting on the ball and methodically running the clock. One of the more imaginative offensive games saw wide receiver Freddie Milons line up at quarterback and make a daring 77-yard dash for the game-breaking touchdown. Two plays later, defensive lineman Reggie Grimes intercepted a tipped ball and scampered in for another touchdown. Just like that, a 15-7 close game turned into a 28-7 Bama blowout. Nerves jangled for much of the game, and Tide fans coast to coast were thrilled to have beaten Steve Spurrier twice in the span of eight weeks.
9) 2006 Florida 38 Arkansas 28
Once again we have a game that is better remembered what occurred off the field rather than on it. When UCLA shocked four-TD favorite USC, it put the Gators in line for a title shot if they could just beat 10-win Arkansas. A thrilling game ensued, but the game was overtaken by Gary Danielson's legitimate carping that Florida deserved a shot at Ohio State rather than Michigan meriting a rematch. The game was competitive through three quarters but Urban Meyer's bunch had tons of talent, riding it all the way to a national championship after beating the Hawgs. For Arkansas, at least it could be said that their third trip to Atlanta had been a better game than the previous two shellackings.
8) 2007 LSU 21 Tennessee 14
There is something in the LSU-Tennessee match (rarely contested compared to other SEC rivalries) that borders on the bizarre. The 2001 title game - the only legitimate upset in 19 years of match-ups - was overshadowed by the off-the-field debate concerning who exactly deserved a title shot at Miami. The 2005 game (regular season) was overshadowed by the fallout from Hurricane Katrina. And the 2010 game, of course, saw perhaps the only "fourteen men on the field" penalty in college football history. Why then should the 2007 championship game be any different?
The mess that was the 2007 season crashed to a bizarre ending that sent a two-loss team (LSU) into the title game against a team nobody thought deserving (Ohio State) that had lost in mid-November. Distractions erupted due to the imminent departure of Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr. One story broke the day before the game claiming that Nebraska Coach Bo Pellini was the new head man in Baton Rouge, which would have been ok except the job wasn't even open yet. In a pre-game press conference, Les Miles defiantly stated he was going to stay at LSU. His fired up team then went out and put on a good show against Tennessee. Led primarily by the defense, LSU held on for a seven-point win. Once again, Gary Danielson adopted an argument to favor LSU's participation in the BCS. But at least in 2006 there was a legitimate case that Florida was being overshadowed by Big Ten favoritism. Danielson adopted Miles's "we never lost in regulation" defense, and the LSU Tigers went from two losses in November to a national championship.
7) 2009 Alabama 32 Florida 13
Only one SEC championship has ever had two unbeatens square off - this one. And this particular coaching job was Nick Saban's finest hour as the head coach at Alabama (Texas? Don't get me started on that fake punt deep in their own end). Indeed, the first half of this game was probably the greatest half of football ever seen in the 19 games. Alabama won the toss and somewhat surprisingly opted to receive. They immediately lined up in Florida's spread formation to the shock of Verne Lundquist and just about everybody else. That first pass play was an 18-yard pickup pass from Greg McElroy to Julio Jones that brought the Georgia Dome alive like never before. When the drive stalled, the Tide simply hit a long field goal to take the early lead. After holding Florida to a three-and-out, the Tide put together a drive that ended with eventual Heisman winner Mark Ingram cruising into the end zone from 7 yards out and 9-0 lead. Florida got three on the next drive and then the defenses took over. Facing a 12-3 deficit, Tim Tebow sliced up the Tide defense on three straight passes for a TD that made it 12-10. Then came the play that clinched the Heisman for Mark Ingram.
Greg McElroy hit Mark Ingram in the flat, who turned and bolted 68 yards in a spectacular touchdown that gave the Tide a 19-10 lead. From that point on the game was pretty much over although one could never be sure with Florida. Every effort the Gators made was thwarted, and Alabama played its best game in years en route to a 32-13 thumping of the defending national champions. It was a spectacular game for Tide fans.
Why then only seventh? Because as exciting as it was for Alabama fans, it was pretty much over when the Tide went up 26-10 early in the third quarter. The Tide was playing with emotion and it was building. The game thus was a letdown for non-Bama fans. And the game was conclusively over when Javier Arenas intercepted a Tebow pass on the comeback drive in the fourth. The Tide went on to win their 13th national champion.
6) 2001 LSU 30 Tennessee 21
When the September 11 attacks occurred, the entire nation shut down for the rest of the week. All sports events were cancelled in a week of mourning. The ramifications of that shutdown stretched the rest of the season because important SEC games - notably LSU vs Auburn and Florida-Tennessee - were moved to the end of the season, a change that necessitated moving the SEC title game back a week to December 8, 2001. The move wound up creating a match-up nobody in his right mind would have dreamed of. The first domino fell when Alabama upset Auburn in a 31-7 rout while the Tigers were leading the SEC West. Slowly, methodically, LSU climbed back into the race and when they squared off against Auburn, the winner got a trip to Atlanta. It is probable that had the "Battle of the Tigers" occurred before LSU was playing well, Auburn would have won a second straight SEC West title. LSU won and then the Volunteers stunned the country by upsetting Florida - who was aiming for a national championship showdown with Miami - and squaring off against LSU. After Texas inexplicably lost their rematch with Colorado, Tennessee was in the catbird seat to play Miami if they only beat LSU, which shouldn't have been a problem as they had already beaten them earlier in the year. For all of one half, it appeared Tennessee was on its way to a rematch with Miami.
To make it worse, LSU lost their starting QB to injury while trailing, 17-10. So naturally - in this bizarre season ending meltdown of highly ranked foes - LSU found an extra gear and dismantled Tennessee the rest of the way, gaining a stunning 31-20 victory that thrilled hearts in Baton Rouge and Lincoln, Nebraska, where the Cornhuskers now had a date with Miami.
It should be noted that despite SEC parity, this is the only game of the 19 that can truly be called an upset. While the underdog has won a time or two, this game established Nick Saban as a big-time SEC coach, an SEC champion, and set the stage for his run both at LSU and later at Alabama.
5) 1998 Tennessee 24 Mississippi State 14
In November 1997, the MSU Bulldogs had a two-game lead in the SEC West. Naturally, they lost it and watched Auburn square off against Peyton Manning. A year later the Dawgs were two games behind Arkansas entering November. Fortunately for the Dawgs, Arkansas had a new coach named Houston Nutt, who had not yet earned his reputation as a Bad Luck Charm. After watching Clint Stoerner fumble away a possible national title to Tennessee (who won it all), Nutt stood on the sidelines and watched Ryan Hazlewood drill five FGs and shock the Hawgs, 22-21, sending cow bells ringing everywhere.
It was, of course, a joke. MSU had no chance against Tennessee. But somebody forgot to tell the Bulldogs that. This was the first year of the BCS and its first controversy (a continuing soap opera): three teams (K-State, UCLA, Tennessee) plus another forgotten unbeaten (Tulane, who did not imitate Boise State) for only two slots. The BCS nearly suffered its first embarrassment because if all three won then the #1 team in the AP polls (K-State) would have been shut out of the title game. So naturally, UCLA and K-State both lost. And then - to make it worse - Tennessee was trailing, 14-10, in the fourth quarter. But the BCS got a reprieve when Tee Martin led two quick scoring drives that gave the Volunteers their date with destiny (Florida State) and their first title since 1951.
4) 1997 Tennessee 30 Auburn 29
The first time a rematch ever occurred in the SEC championship game was this one. Trailing 20-10 at halftime, the Tennessee adjustments resutled in a 30-29 win in Peyton Manning's last SEC game. The Volunteers went on to face Nebraska, whose shellacking of Fulmer and Co was their case for a third national title in four years. It worked.
3) 2008 Florida 31 Alabama 20
When Florida stunningly loss to Ole Miss, the Legend of Tebow was born. Giving a tearful speech and with steely determination, the devout Christian rallied the Gators back into national title contention. By the time of the SEC title game in December it was clear that only Alabama stood in his way. Alabama, by contrast, was making its first appearance in the game in 9 long years. It was also the first time Alabama had been ranked number one during the regular season in three decades. And for three quarters the Tide stood like a boulder in the way of Tebow's dream.
This was an excellently played game all the way around. Alabama also benefited from the lack of gamebreaker Percy Harvin. But Alabama's depth was minimal owing to the years of sanctions, and this game served as a reminder that there was still work to do. Entering the fourth quarter, Alabama had a nation mesmerized with their 20-17 lead over Tebow. But Florida responded as deserving champions by putting together 2 long drives that ate up the clock and gave them an 11-point lead. Florida went on to capture the national championship with a victory over Oklahoma.
2) 1994 Florida 24 Alabama 23
Late in the 1992 campaign, ESPN pundit Lee Corso angered Aggie Nation by suggesting that unbeaten Texas A&M was unworthy of being ranked ahead of once-beaten Florida State due to their soft schedule. The voters then dropped aTm in their next poll setting off a round of anger in College Station that only died when Notre Dame blasted them in the 1993 Cotton Bowl. In November 1994, Corso was at it again. This time, he was complaining about the polls under-rating Alabama. Corso looked at the Tide's schedule that remained: #16 MSU on the road, #3 Auburn at home, #4 Florida in Atlanta, and #6 Florida State. Corso was touting Alabama as national champions if they ran the gauntlet. He made clear that he didn't think Alabama could run through that patch unscathed because "nobody could." But he looked at Alabama somehow sitting as #5 and couldn't figure out the logic that had both Nebraska and Penn State ranked higher. Trailing by 10 with eight minutes left, the Tide stunned MSU in Starkville. They then ended Auburn's 20-game unbeaten streak at Legion Field.
Alabama took the field against Florida not really knowing what would happen even if they won. Three plays into the game, Jay Barker hit Curtis Brown with an 85-yard TD, giving Florida a dose of its own quick strike medicine. The game tottered back and forth although Florida seemed to have the upper hand for most of it. Then lightning came in the name of Dwayne Rudd, who picked off a Danny Wuerffel pass and darted in for a go ahead score. Post-game controversy was sure to ensue when Coach Stallings opted to kick the PAT and take a 23-17 lead. In five plays, Wuerrfel brought Florida back down and with the help of a couple of plays that appeared to have been drawn up by Gus Malzahn, the Gators scored and kicked the PAT for a 24-23 lead.
Except Alabama got the ball back needing only a field goal with a good kicker. Furthermore, the Tide had come back in the fourth quarter a whopping eight times while going 11-0. As Barker got close to midfield it appeared another miracle was in the offing. But the Tide gave it up on downs leaving Steve Spurrier with his second straight SEC championship.
1) 1992 Alabama 28 Florida 21
It seems a bit unfair to rank the very first game as number one - as if nothing great has happened since then or as if the game peaked on that first day. But this game had a lot to commend it as the greatest of them all. The reasons why this is first are as follows:
a) Alabama is the SEC's flagship school and it was fitting they won the very first conference title game of any kind.
b) The game was played outdoors like God, George Halas, and Walter Camp intended. This was on the hazy overcast "tundra" of Legion Field in the "Football Capital Of The South."
c) It was a game right up to the final play. Even after the sensational lightning bolt TD from Antonio Langham, the Gators still had plenty of time to come back and tie the game. Only the equally sensational Tide defense stopped a pretty good QB in his tracks.
d) The winner of the game won the national championship, proof of the quality of teams that play in the game.
e) The weather that day was overcast, perfect December weather for a ballgame.
f) It was clinched by a play memorable even if you were not a fan of the winner.
Florida began this game by stunning the Legion Field and nationally televised audience, marching right down the field and into the end zone against the nation's best defense. Keith Jackson even marveled by saying, "Florida made it look easy." Add to this the fact that Alabama had won 21 straight games and their last loss had been to Florida the year prior. Thus, most of these players had played in the 1991 game. Florida, who had been highly ranked, had lost six times since that evening while Alabama was on a streak that eventually reached 31 games unbeaten.
There was also - an important ingredient - much off-the-field controversy. Alabama had just been accused of improprieties by Gene Jelks three weeks previous. Florida State was somehow arguing that if Alabama couldn't beat Florida by as much as the Noles had then they deserved a second shot at Miami. (Why this logic carried weight is bewildering, especially since once the game got away from Spurrier he benched his starters to prepare for the SEC title game - a luxury Alabama never had as Gene Stallings pointed out many times). Texas A&M was upset because they were unbeaten and unrespected. Michigan kept pointing out they were undefeated but they also had three ties.
It is also important to point out that this game did, in fact, have an overtime provision to avoid a tie. This provision was later adopted in 1996, but the SEC as always was ahead of the curve.
The game itself saw a great TD pass from Jay Barker, the running of Derek Lassic and - the most important play - a 40-yard PAT from Michael Proctor after a series of penalties turned the chip shot into a long field goal. Finally, there was Langham darting into the end zone and celebrating with the home crowd when he scored the clinching TD.
The SEC championship game has provided millions with many memories. And there seems to be no end in sight. For that may we all be thankful.