Week 1 SEC Power Poll

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Week 1 is in the rearview mirror and plenty of surprises for some of the preseason SEC favorites. Week 1 is probably going to be the most difficult Power Poll to put together because we’re operating off a very limited sample and really difficult to make judgments for one week. I’m sure I’ll regret some of these rankings in a few weeks when all teams have a greater body of work, but let’s go ahead and have some fun.

  1. LSU – Brian Kelly saved himself a lot of personal hell by dispatching a highly ranked Clemson, in a night game on the road no less. Aside from some questionable game management to end the first half, I thought LSU looked impressive. The refs did them no favors and they still came away with a 17-10 win and the rights to “The Real Death Valley” moniker. Honestly, it felt like they were more dominant than 17-10, but I’m sure they’ll take it. Plenty of time left in the season for Brian Kelly to Brian Kelly, but they’ve earned the top spot for this week.
  2. Georgia – Dominated a game against an inferior opponent, revealed no wrinkles from an offensive or defensive standpoint, gave up less than 100 yards on defense until middle of the 4th quarter, played nothing but 2nd and 3rd teamers for the final quarter. We could put them behind some of the next few teams for level of competition in Week 1, but I think the Dawgs would be a favorite against any SEC competitor on a neutral field right now (maybe a pick ‘em against LSU?). Very solid start to the season. And this is where things get a lot tougher…
  3. Tennessee – I don’t like this any more than you do. As happy as I was to see Tennessee call Nico when he raised on the turn, I was still hoping they would look and play awful. Turns out, they comfortably took care of business against a Syracuse team that had a very solid 2024. Would they win every H2H on a neutral field against some of the teams below them on this list? No clue. But I’ll give them some Week 1 respect for playing a P4 squad on a neutral field and getting a decisive victory.
  4. Auburn – This game was closer than the score would indicate, but Auburn’s offense was very competent in a sneaky tough Week 1 game away from home. The kickoff return touchdown certainly helped a lot and those are hard to rely on week to week, but I guess I need to reward these lousy buttholes for playing a good P4 team on the road and getting a quality win.
  5. Texas – I can hear the screams now of SEC teams who claimed victory in Week 1! I know Texas didn’t look good on Saturday. I know Arch Manning didn’t live up to the impossibly high expectations, or even solid game manager expectations…alright, his play just wasn’t near good enough. That said, Ohio State isn’t some also ran football program and they were playing in The Shoe. I know OSU lost a TON from last year’s team, but they weren’t trotting out a team of high school dudes. It’s not like the score was 56-3. I think Texas will be better than what they showed and I think Arch will be better than what he showed. I’d take Texas in a H2H against any of the teams below them on this list right now.
  6. Ole Miss – This was a tough one for me. I don’t love the Laner, but he does make the conference a hell of a lot more fun. I think he’s proven himself to be a very competent coach at Ole Miss. They went all in last year on roster investment and came up empty for the CFP. It’s hard to gauge how good they are after drubbing the mighty Georgia State Panthers, but 63-7 is at least decisive. I don’t think they have the same level of roster as their 2024 version, but after Week 1, I still like them more than…  
  7. South Carolina – Let’s put it out there…LaNorris Sellers is a certified playmaker, Nyck Harbor might be the fastest player in the country, and Dylan Stewart is a BMF. If their game ended after their first drive, South Carolina is higher on this list. But…VT more than stuck around and if their QB hit a few more wide-open receivers, this game is a lot more interesting. Maybe VT is better than I’m giving them credit for, but they’re a slightly under .500 team post COVID season, and play in a pretty weak conference. 24-11 on a neutral field, 7 points coming on a punt return TD, with the score 10-8 going into the 4th quarter…I’m holding till I see more.    
  8. Florida – They beat the snot out of Long Island University. I’m the first to admit, I could be completely wrong about them, up or down…I don’t have the first clue how good/average/bad Florida is right now. Media pundits seem to think DJ Lagway should have a bronze statue in Gainesville, but they accorded that same status to guys like John Brantley and Jeff Driskel early in their careers. Somewhere in the middle of the conference seems fair to me right now.  
  9. Oklahoma – They sure took it to Illinois State this weekend! Who would have thought Oklahoma would turn into one of those teams in the preseason where people are saying, “Oklahoma could be sneaky good this year?” Still too hard to tell anything about them, but we’ll slot them in at #9 and adjust accordingly.  
  10. Texas A&M – If you want to flip/flop A&M with Oklahoma, be my guest. I just wasn’t too impressed with A&M giving up 24 points to UTSA at home…so Oklahoma gets the nod this week from my point of view.  
  11. Alabama – I guess it’s time. Is Alabama really the 11th best team in the conference? I hate to admit they’re probably better than this. They just didn’t show the nation very much on Saturday. To be fair, FSU might be very good this year and maybe the best team in their conference (not a super high bar, I know). I’m sure I’m grading Alabama against the Saban years, so not fair to them. It’s just one week and they’ll have plenty of opportunities to make amends. I expect them to play like the ’85 Bears when they come to Athens because that’s just how it is. For now, they’re #11. Sorry, I’m not sorry.   
  12. Missouri – We don’t know too much after a 61-6 win over Central Arkansas. On the other hand, they did prove they can beat the crap out of Central Arkansas! If you didn’t like this analysis for Missouri…buckle up, the final four will be a rough ride.
  13. Vanderbilt – I know they over-achieved in 2024, and they’ll always have that Alabama upset. Maybe 2024 is the new Vanderbilt! I wonder if Diego Pavia is going to get his number retired there one day…only half kidding. I’d like to put them higher, I really would…but not sure who should take the fall in front of them. It would be fun to take Bama down to move Vandy higher, but I feel like that would piss off the Football Gods before September 27th. I’m doing us a favor here…remember that.
  14. Arkansas – See Missouri…but let’s have a little fun with it and relate this game to a movie quote, “They beat up on a weakling. That’s all they did. The rest of this is just smoke-filled coffee house crap. They tortured and tormented a weaker kid. They didn’t like him. So, they killed him. And why? Because he couldn’t run very fast!” Name that movie…no cheating.  
  15. Mississippi State – They’ve been through enough. They were at the bottom of this poll every week in 2024. Not sure if they’ll survive another week out of the cellar or not, but they did win on the road against a school Marcus Dupree almost attended…so there’s that.
  16. Kentucky – I’m probably disrespecting Kentucky putting them here. Toledo wasn’t a bad team last year (record wise at least) and Stoops has put together very good seasons in the past. I’m basing a lot of this on recency bias of last year, and the score entering the 4th was only 10-2. Let’s look at this as an incentive to prove me wrong.

Have a great week!

16 thoughts on “Week 1 SEC Power Poll”

    • I have always been on the Colonel’s side: Private Santiago’s death, while tragic, in the end saved lives.

  2. I think TX vs OSU and LSU vs Sons of Clem are great illustrations for take the points and stop the toxic going for it on 4th down masculinity. Looking at you Brian Kelly.

  3. Hopefully after Sep 27th we can refer to the Laner as “Bama Coach in Waiting Joey Freshwater.” I just hope he doesn’t take the job.

  4. I actually would put LSU, Tennessee, Sackerlina and Auburn above us just for beating Power 5 opponents away from home. Give them props for taking care of business.

    Certainly not how I think the season plays out, but if I take off my homer glasses, that makes sense to me.

    • I would put all the orange teams in a tie for dead last cause this is football, not a picking up cans in the side of the road competition.

  6. A few good men.

    Glad LSU won’t after I had to endure watching Clemons bus the team from their locker room to the other side of the stadium, so they could touch a rock – Perhaps cfb’s most ridiculous ritual(s).

    • And the way that announcer kept going on and on about it like is was the coolest tradition in all of CF. It was so anticlimactic!

      • Yeah..smoke and mirrors and traditions just for the sake of traditions…Cowboys with a big hat and no cattle..etc. Clemson copying LSU blew up on their All Cupcake Conference asses.

  7. Won not won’t!

    I’d AI turns out to be as lousy as autocorrect, a lot of investors are gonna lose their shirts.

  8. I can’t put Bama that low and can understand why you did. They have way too much talent to look as bad as they did in Tallahassee. Everyone is blaming Ty Simpson, but they gave up 31 while getting bullied on defense. I guess that’s what happens when you’ve become a QB dependent program.

    • “I guess that’s what happens when you’ve become a QB dependent program.”

      Magnificent shade right there.

  9. I remember when the 2010 August pundits confidently proclaimed John Brantley was the second best QB in the SEC in 2009, when he was the backup to Tebow.

    It’s just like Hollywood. Nobody knows anything.

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