Football season is nearing the halfway mark (sadly) and we’re getting a pretty good fix on these SEC power rankings.
When Mississippi State plays Auburn this week it will be the Tigers sixth game of the year. That means in under a week’s time they will have played half their season. Why does it go so fast?!
For the first time this year we’ve got a slate of games that do not include any non-conference games:
- 11:00 AM on ESPN – LSU (-3) at No. 18 Florida
- 11:00 AM on SEC Network – Auburn (-2.5) at Mississippi State
- 2:30 PM on CBS – No. 9 Tennessee at No. 8 Texas A&M (-7)
- 3:00 PM on SEC Network – Vanderbilt at Kentucky (-3)
- 6:00 PM on ESPN – No. 1 Alabama (-14) at No. 16 Arkansas
- 6:00 PM on SEC Network – Georgia (-7) at South Carolina
- Off weeks for Missouri and Ole Miss
Three road favorites this week. Should be fun. Now on to the rankings:
14. Vanderbilt – this isn’t a terrible football team but they still don’t have a conference win and may not get one.
13. Kentucky – somehow they beat South Carolina (but it was a fluke so they stay below the Gamecocks) and have a chance to get another win this week, but if they lose to Vandy it’s back down to the bottom.
12. South Carolina – this isn’t a good team, but they beat Vanderbilt and played A&M close.
11. Missouri – they let LSU set offensive records against them and Drew Lock came back down to Earth.
10. Mississippi State – until the Dawgs find a way to beat a good team they’ll hover here on the fence of bowl eligibility.
9. Auburn – this weekend in Starkville it could be a battle to stay out of the SEC West cellar, a far cry from the top 5 match-up two years ago.
8. Florida – I’m not real impressed with this team and I expect LSU to beat them this week.
7. Arkansas – middle of the road for the Hogs right now. Real interesting game this weekend hosting Bama; they could possibly win or maybe they don’t belong in the top 10 of these rankings – I’m not quite sure on them.
6. Georgia – I’m still a little unsure about Kirby Smart but I think he’ll probably figure things out along with his ultra-talented QB and they’ll be real good next year.
5. LSU – something tells me the Tigers are going to play inspired football from here on out and give A&M, Ole Miss, Alabama, etc. everything they can handle.
4. Tennessee – you can certainly live with a rabbit’s foot and win ball games as we saw Auburn do in 2013 but I’m not sure I can say the Vols are better than the top three teams. They’ve basically locked up the East though.
3. Ole Miss – the Rebs are really good and I know they are still kicking themselves about that FSU loss…if not Bama too. But they are 3-2 so far and have a chance to run the table but they won’t.
2. Texas A&M – this is where the Aggies land right now. Big game this weekend against Tennessee which they really need to get if they want a shot at the playoff, but it won’t make or break their season – the Bama game in Week 8 will.
1. Alabama – there’s no debate here. This next stretch of games at Arkansas, at Tennessee, vs. A&M, at LSU will determine if they lose zero, one or two games this year.