It’s easy to lose track of it in the fog of the very jumbled Southeastern Conference football standings.

But remember, these fine schools are, first and foremost, academic-type institutions that also dabble in furrowed-brow research projects.

Or so they say, at least.

But don’t chuckle through your chin straps just yet.

We now we have evidence that some of them are living up to their academic creed. Somewhere amidst these ivy-covered walls and tweed coats — far, far away from the field of play and the locker room luxury of waterfalls and putting greens — there is some serious mathematics being practiced.

Perhaps it was a mid-term thesis project. Maybe some federal grant money being tossed around.

But somebody in the league has run the numbers and can prove, with believable math and only slight leaps of faith, that the SEC race could possibly — are you ready for this? — end up in an eight-way tie for first place.

Apparently they’ve double-checked the math and all the cosines line up properly with the hectares and tangents and whatnot and, still, the algorithmics and hypotenuses all add up slick as a whistle, right down to the nth isosceles or some such.

Eight teams. All in first place. Chaos.

Maybe it took a committee with a sense of humor. Who knows? But those Ivy League egg heads are suddenly very jealous.

Perhaps this is why the SEC expanded to 16 teams. It’s a new take on Almost Everybody Gets a Trophy.

The scenario is real.

Short version: Tennessee, Texas A&M and Texas all need one more conference loss. Georgia, Alabama, Ole Miss, LSU and Missouri can’t lose again.

Check the remaining schedules. Not likely, perhaps, but not totally out of the question either.

And even if all eight don’t check in at 6-2, the chances rise exponentially (I think that’s the fancy math word) for, say, a lone one-loss team and a bunch-way tie for the second spot in the title game. Or even several teams, if not quite eight, tied for first.

Let’s just say that would cause complications.

The SEC expanded the league — not the championship game. It still has room for only two teams in Atlanta for that showdown.

There’s a tiebreaker of course:

1. Head to head.

2. Record vs. common opponents.

3. Record vs. highest placed opponents.

4. Combined winning percentage of all conference opponents for each tied team.

You may need a bigger computer to keep “random draw” from coming into play as the last resort.

Maybe some grad student’s final exam could sort it all out.

Keep in mind all this has a ripple effect on the more important College Football Playoff.

Even after tripling its size from four to 12 (I think I got that math right), the CFP ain’t putting eight SEC teams in it.

All that SEC research and number-massaging apparently did not include an eye test.

The CFP selection committee certainly does and will.

You’ll note, for instance, that the SEC’s crazy eight includes one team — hint: clad in purple and gold and of late answering to the name “Omar” — that in its last six quarters has been outscored 73-19.

What a country, huh?

And is this a wonderful conference or what?

LSU would still have to answer for the season-opening, nonconference loss to Southern Cal. As long as an eye test is in play, the Tigers are left begging.

But, hey, we’re dealing with mathematical possibilities here, not reality.

LSU had been assured it was involved in a CFP “elimination” game while belly flopping against Alabama last weekend.

Evidently, it’s even harder to get eliminated from the playoffs than it is to run out of eligibility in the new and defenseless NCAA.

So if you somehow tiebreak your way into the SEC championship, then accidentally win that title game, the CFP bylaws state that you’re staring at a CFP automatic bid, no other questions asked, no explanations needed.

It’s still not much of a carrot on a stick for the Tigers.

But this is a wild, new and mostly confusing age in college football and … So you’re saying there’s a chance?

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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics. Email him at scooter.hobbs@americanpress.com