The 2024 college football regular season is officially over. And after the dramatic season, we're left with three SEC teams that are locks for the 12-team College Football Playoff, and one team that is still alive for a potential at large bid.
Rivalry week in the final week of the season was chaotic across the nation. It began when a brawl erupted after Michigan's unbelievable upset as three touchdown underdogs against Ohio State and the midfield logo flag planting that kickstarted the melee rippled through the country.
Focusing on the SEC, there were several games with postseason implications on Saturday. Texas secured a spot in the SEC Championship Game and eliminated Texas A&M with as dominant of a 10-point win as you can get in a football game. Tennessee clinched their spot in the CFP with a road win at Vanderbilt after battling back from an early 14-0 deficit. And while most people assumed South Carolina at Clemson would essentially be a play-in game, the Gamecocks' thrilling victory left them on the outside looking in.
The team that benefitted instead of South Carolina was Alabama, who will now definitely be in the playoff if SMU beats Clemson in the ACC Championship Game. There's still a good chance the Tide will be in regardless, however, as it's clear the committee will do all they can to get Alabama into the field. Let's take a look at the playoff picture heading into championship weekend. 
Miami's inexplicable loss to Syracuse opened the door for SMU to slide into the 3 seed with a win over Clemson this weekend, as well as Alabama to jump into the field as the 11 seed. Though some people thought Ohio State could drop out of hosting a playoff game after their bad loss to Michigan, they fall back to the 8 seed, meaning they would host Tennessee if the playoff started today.
Let's check in on our SEC Playoff Tracker one last time. 
The CFP selection committee explained that no teams with no games left to play will be rearranged on Selection Sunday, which means Ole Miss and South Carolina are also officially eliminated from the picture. That leaves Texas, Georgia, and Tennessee as SEC teams that are definitely in the playoff, while we'll have to wait to see what happens in the ACC Championship Game before we see what will happen to Alabama.
Here are the final BSSR SEC Power Rankings after the regular season is finished. It can be assumed that whichever team wins the SEC Championship Saturday will hold the top spot over the loser in our final power rankings. 
Here's the highly anticipated BSSR Expert Leaderboard heading into the last game we'll be picking this season.
After surrendering his long-held lead two weeks ago, Micah put together a super clutch 24-6 performance in Week 14 to pull ahead of Ryne by two games. Micah and Ryne have picked the SEC Championship differently, so there'a still a chance for Ryne to win with a tiebreaker. Therefore, the winner of the 5th Annual SEC Betting Challenge won't be fully decided until Saturday.
After all our guest pickers have participated in the challenge, here's the final Guest Picker Leaderboard. 
BSSR would like to congratulate Alex Patterson for taking home our SEC Betting Challenge Guest Picker crown with a phenomenal 71.4% win percentage. He nearly swept all categories except for picks against the spread, which was won by Drew Duncan. So while Drew can claim the satisfaction of winning one of our categories, the sole glory of the overall champion will be hoisted upon Alex's shoulders.
Thank you to all of our guest pickers for participating this season, as it added one extra fun element to spice up our SEC Betting Challenge. We're down to the final game of the SEC season, and our Expert Challenge is on the line. Since Micah and Ryne are the only ones whose positions may be decided by a tiebreaker, they have provided final score predictions to settle the winner in case of a tie. A lot is on the line for the two teams competing in the game as well, as the winner will get a bye in the first round of the CFP and likely as they'll likely be at least the 2 seed. The loser should still be rewarded with a home playoff game in round one barring a blowout in one direction of the other. Our picks for the SEC Championship Game are below. Make sure you check out the Betting Challenge Recap article coming in the next week or two to congratulate the winner and detail our collective and individual performances this season. #5 Georgia vs. #2 Texas (TEX -2.5, O/U 49.5) 
Written by Nick Swatson
Photo: "2023 SEC Football Championship Game" by The University of Alabama is licensed under CC BY 3.0.
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