ATHENS — The SEC office announced the official football tiebreakers for the 2024 season on Wednesday, with head-to-head at the top of the list.

Considering the preseason No. 1-ranked Georgia football team plays the next three highest ranked teams in the preseason polls — Texas, Alabama and Ole Miss — the new tiebreaker rules would seem to work in the Bulldogs’ favor should they find themselves in a tiebreaker scenario.

Per the league release, head-to-head will be the first tiebreaker in place (A), followed by:

If a tiebreaker step produces standings with two teams tied for first place in the SEC, they are both selected for the championship game. To decide the seeding of the two teams, they will progress through the two-team tiebreaker procedures, which will determine home/away designation for the SEC Championship Game.

Two-team tiebreaker procedure

In the event of a two-team tie for second place, the following procedure will be used in the following order:

(A) Head-to-head competition among the two tied teams

(B) Record versus all common SEC opponents among the two tied teams

(C) Record against highest (best) placed common SEC opponent, proceeding through the league standings among the tied teams

If the higher place in the standings with common SEC opponents among the two tied teams includes 2 or more teams that are also tied. The tie lower in the standings will only be broken if the tiebreaker procedure for head-to-head competition can break the tie

— If the head-to-head tiebreaker procedure fails to break the tie between the teams lower in the standings, the records of the tied teams against these common opponent will be combined.

— If there are 3 or more opponents tied, but not all of them are common opponents, only the record against common opponents will be considered.

(D) Cumulative SEC winning percentage of all SEC opponents among the tied teams

(E) Capped relative total scoring margin versus all SEC opponents among the tied teams.

(F) Random draw of the tied teams

Three-team tiebreaker procedure

Three-team tie (or more) for first place: In the event three or more teams are tied for first place in the SEC standings, the procedure below will be used in descending order.

After the head-to-head competition among the tied teams, if a tiebreak step produces standings with a clear No. 1 team by itself, that team is selected for the championship game and the other two teams go to the first step of the two-team tiebreaker procedures for second place; if there are four teams, the No. 1 team is in the championship game and the other teams go to the first step of the three-team tiebreaker procedures for second place, etc..

If a tiebreaker step produces standings with two teams for No. 1, they are both selected for the championship game. To decide the seeding (home/away) of the two teams in the SEC Championship Game, they will progress through the two-team tiebreaker procedures.

If the standings produced by any tiebreaker procedure result in a tie at the top that is insufficient for assigning a championship game participant, but includes one or more teams ranked below the tied teams, the tied teams at the top of the standings will revert to the beginning of the tiebreaker procedures and all other teams eliminated .

(A) Head-to-head competition among the tied teams

If all there is a round-robin where all three teams played each other:

If one team has sole possession of the best record among the tied teams, that team is selected for the championship game.

In the event the two two teams remain tied:

If there is not a complete round robin among the tied teams:

If no team either beat all the other tied teams or lost to all the other tied teams, all the tied teams advance to the next tiebreaker procedure.

(B) Record versus all common SEC opponents among the tied teams

If one team has sole possession of the best record versus common SEC opponents is selected for the SEC Championship Game. The team with sole possession of the best record versus common SEC opponents is selected for the SEC Championship game.

The remaining teams return to the start of the tiebreaker procedures.

Those teams revert to the beginning of the three-team (or more) tiebreaker procedure for first place; and the remaining teams are eliminated from contention in the SEC Championship Game.

(C) Record against highest (best) placed common SEC opponent, proceeding through the SEC standings among the tied teams

If the highest place in the standings with common SEC opponents among the tied teams incudes 2 or more opponents that are also tied:

If one of the tied teams (Team A) is in sole possession of the best record against the common SEC opponent (s) with the best SEC record:

If two of the tied team (Team A and Team B) are tied for the best record against the common SEC opponent (s) with the best SEC record:

If three or more teams are tied for the best record against the common SEC opponent (s) with the best SEC record

If all tied teams have the same record against the common opponent(s) with the best SEC record, proceed to the next common SEC opponent)s) based on their order of finish within the SEC and continue the procedure above until all SEC opponents are exhausted.

(D) Cumulative SEC winning percentage of all SEC opponents among the tied teams

(E) Capped relative total scoring margin versus all SEC opponents among the tied teams

(F) Random draw of the tied teams (See above)