Here are last week’s rankings.
1. Florida – The Gators stay on top because they still have faced and defeated the toughest schedule to date. Already to 5 SEC wins.
2. Alabama – The Tide keep winning and they move back up from number 3 last week. They haven’t faced too tough of a schedule, hard to believe their best SEC win might be Ole Miss.
3. LSU – The big gainer this week is LSU. They’ve got a loss but beating South Carolina is the best win anyone in the conference has gotten so far this year.
4. South Carolina – USC lost, but they really didn’t lose that much considering the SEC East and national title is still a possibility. Next week’s game at Florida will be huge.
5. Mississippi State – I certainly hate to move the Dawgs down after their biggest win of the year, but the fact is all of State’s SEC wins are over teams with a combined 0-11 record. LSU and USC have losses, but they have big wins too, and State hasn’t played anyone near the top 25.
6. Texas A&M – The Aggies took down undefeated LA Tech, albeit ever so slightly. They are 5-1 now with a couple of conference wins. Johnny Football might start getting some Heisman talk.
7. Georgia – They had a bye this week and move down a slot. Their wins are starting to look a lot less impressive as those teams continue to lose.
8. Mississippi – I can’t believe they’ve climbed this high. I don’t know whether it’s because of how far the bottom half of the league has fallen or how much they’ve improved, I hope it’s the former.
9. Arkansas – The Hogs are back from the dead. They pounded Kentucky the way they were pounded by Bama and A&M. All of a sudden they have two SEC wins with Ole Miss in two weeks, after a bye.
10. Tennessee – The Vols are a good team, and if this were a power poll I think they’d belong ahead of Ole Miss and UPig, but it’s not and they don’t really have much to hang their hat on at 0-3 in the SEC.
11. Vanderbilt – The ‘Dores played Florida tough, but just don’t have the athletes to finish a game like that. Auburn comes to Nashville this week so they’ve got a shot to get back on track.
12. Missouri – They just aren’t very good. So much for that “we can beat anybody in this league” talk.
13. Auburn – Just terrible. They are terrible.
14. Kentucky – Beyond terrible.
SEC Standings
WEST
Alabama, 3-0
Mississippi State, 3-0
LSU, 2-1
Texas A&M, 2-1
Arkansas, 2-2
Mississippi, 1-2
Auburn, 0-4
EAST
Florida, 5-0
South Carolina, 4-1
Georgia, 3-1
Vanderbilt, 1-3
Tennessee, 0-3
Kentucky, 0-4
Missouri, 0-4
The Bulldogs are tied for first and a legitimate title contender. This week’s game vs. Middle Tennessee has trap written all over it, but it’s still not a SEC game. No matter what, MSU will go to Tuscaloosa undefeated in league play with a chance to make something happen. You just never know – the good news is State has put themselves in position to do something special.