2026 College Football Preview Part XXV- SEC

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Welcome Back!

Today I conclude my conference previews. These previews will attempt to predict how each conference finishes, but realize that doing so is extremely difficult, especially since no conference has a balanced schedule. Also, whatever the conferences come up with in the form of tiebreakers will make a huge difference, as all but the Sun Belt have done away with divisions. In addition, these predictions aren't my personal opinion; they are the result of the formula/model/statistical analysis/whatever. I will sometimes mention my thoughts in the narratives below the predictions. Also, the formula for my predictions here is different than for my Power Rankings. In other words, for a particular conference, one team may appear higher than another team here, but be ranked behind that same team in the PR.

The list of records for 3-years, 6-years, and 10 years are conference records only, and do not include any results for the conference championship games. You will notice that the teams haven't all played the same number of games, especially when considering they should have. This is because that teams played a varied number of games in 2020, and that sometimes games get cancelled (see Virginia in 2022, for example). In the case of teams switching conferences, I counted the record from their previous conference. Independent teams joining a conference were counted with their full record (UMass last year), but FCS teams moving up enter with 0-0 records.

In case you are interested, I get all of my information from various sources. I use the 4 main preview magazines (Phil Steele, Lindy's, Athlon, and Sporting News), but I also use many different websites, including (but not limited to): Google, Winsipedia, sports-reference.com, ESPN.com, TeamRankings.com, NCAA.com, and, of course, individual school websites.

I don't have a staff- it's just me- so all of the research is my own from these various sources (it doesn't help when they contradict each other...), so any mistakes are mine. I also don't have an editor/proofreader, so you are likely to find several (many? I hope not) typos, such as commas where periods should be (or vice versa), a misspelled or missing word, doubled words ("the the" in the middle of a sentence, for example), etc. 

Finally, feel free to leave a comment. Interacting is much of the fun! Of course, if you know me personally, feel free to just text. I'll get that a lot quicker.

So, on with the previews!


SEC


3-Year History


Georgia 21-3/.875/1st

Texas 21-4/.840/2nd

Alabama 20-4/.833/3rd

Ole Miss 18-6/.750/4th

Texas A&M 16-8/.667/5th

Missouri 15-9/.625/6th

Oklahoma 15-10/.600/7th

LSU 14-10/.583/8th

Tennessee 14-10/.583/8th

South Carolina 9-15/.375/10th

Florida 9-15/.375/10th

Vanderbilt 9-15/.375/10th

Kentucky 6-18/.250/13th

Auburn 6-18/.250/13th

Arkansas 4-20/.167/15th

Mississippi St 2-22/.083/16th


6-Year History


Georgia 44-5/.898/1st

Alabama 43-7/.860/2nd

Texas 35-16/.686/3rd

Ole Miss 32-17/.653/4th

TAMU 30-19/.612/5th

Okla 31-20/.608/6th

LSU 28-22/.560/7th

Tenn 27-23/.540/8th

Missouri 26-24/.520/9th

Florida 22-28/.440/10th

SC 18-32/.360/11th

Kentucky 18-32/.360/11th

Auburn 17-33/.340/13th

Ark 14-36/.280/14th

Miss St 13-37/.260/15th

Vandy 11-38/.224/16th


10-Year History


Alabama 72-10/.878/1st

Georgia 69-12/.852/2nd

Okla 64-23/.736/3rd

LSU 52-30/.634/4th

Texas 55-32/.632/5th

TAMU 47-34/.580/6th

Florida 42-40/.512/7th

Ole Miss 40-41/.494/8th

Missouri 39-43/.476/9th

Tenn 38-44/.463/10th

Auburn 37-45/.451/11th

Kentucky 34-48/.415/12th

SC 33-49/.402/13th

Miss St 27-55/.329/14th

Vandy 19-62/.235/15th

Ark 18-64/.220/16th


Predicted Finish:


  1. Georgia

  2. Texas

  3. Ole Miss

  4. Alabama

  5. Texas A&M

  6. Oklahoma

  7. LSU

  8. Tennessee

  9. Missouri

  10. Florida 

  11. South Carolina

  12. Vanderbilt

  13. Auburn 

  14. Kentucky

  15. Mississippi State

  16. Arkansas


Conference Champion: Georgia


Chances to make the playoff: Guaranteed. The SEC has had a participant in each CFP, and sometimes even had 2, even when it was a 4-team affair. And with the expanded 12-team CFP, I expect anywhere from 3-5 teams to make it in. Expect there to be a fierce battle to get into the SEC CG, possibly decided by tiebreakers. 


Don’t be surprised if… Vandy drops back to near the bottom of the conference standings. They’ve got one of the toughest schedules in the SEC, and repeating last year’s success with a freshman QB is a tall task.


I’m not convinced… Ole Miss will finish in the top 4. I think they end up somewhere in the middle, from 7th to 10th place..


Make sure you come back Monday as I begin my regular season blog schedule!


Until next time, may you and your loved ones be blessed! 

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