Mississippi State can still win the SEC West. Wait, what?

First things first: I'm not saying it's guaranteed that this will happen. There's a lot of games and this college football season has been very, very weird. But, because this season has been so weird and because the SEC West is cannibalizing itself, MSU might be able to get enough help down the stretch to find their way in the SEC championship game. How does that happen?

Well, the first thing that absolutely needs to occur for MSU to make it to Atlanta is the Bulldogs have to win out. We can't lose anymore games. That means beating Alabama and Ole Miss. Those will be pretty tough games, particularly against the Crimson Tide, who seem to play significantly better on the road than at home this season. So, that would mean the Bulldogs end the regular season at 10-2 and 6-2 in the SEC.

What's next? Well the teams that beat us have to lose a few times. A&M has already lost two conference games, but we need them to lose one more because of their victory over us. If we have a tie breaker with them at the end of the season and the rest of this SEC cannibalism/MSU miracle scenario happens, the Aggies would end up in the Championship Game instead of us. The most logical loss on their schedule is against LSU. Losing there would bring their record, assuming they win ever other game to 9-3 and 5-3 in the SEC.

Oh, speaking of LSU, the Tigers look unstoppable right now. But so did MSU last year at this point in the season. And if you take a closer look at the Tigers, there are plenty of weaknesses that can still be exposed. They have a big game coming up in two weeks against Bama and also have a tough game against Ole Miss up ahead. We need LSU to lose both of those games and then either a loss to Arkansas or A&M. For the purpose of this article and my sanity, we're going to go with a loss to Arkansas and a win against A&M because I don't want to have to go back and predict A&M losing to Auburn, South Carolina, or Vandy. Well, I guess I just mentioned that anyway. The point is, if LSU takes a 3 game losing skid and falls to Bama, Ole Miss, and Arkansas, their record would be 8-3 and 5-3 in the SEC at the end of the season (they had to cancel their season opener due to inclement weather).

So, if this scenario plays out like we hope, MSU would be at the top of the West and the standings would look something like this: 1) MSU at 10-2 and 6-2 SEC 2) Ole Miss at 9-3 and 6-2 SEC 3) Alabama at 10-2 and 6-2 SEC with a loss to Ole Miss 4) LSU at 8-3 and 5-3 5) A&M at 9-3 and 5-3 with a loss to LSU 6) Arkansas likely at 6-6 and 4-4 SEC 7) Auburn likely at 5-7 and 1-7 SEC.

Again, this is all speculation and projection. And a lot of weird stuff would need to happen. But this season has already been very weird, so maybe it's not totally impossible. Regardless, it'll be fun to see if MSU can get the help it needs and if MSU can actually win out. It might not be as unlikely as you think.