There really isn’t any doubt about which teams is the best in the SEC or in the entire country for that matter heading in to the final week of the regular season. The questions arise after Alabama in the top spot with a number of teams in the picture with one game left to play.
As we near the end of the season, a lot of people are wondering if the conference has fallen off. At one point in the season, they looked like they could have multiple teams finish in the Top 10 with Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Texas A&M and LSU all vying for the College Football Playoff. However, since then, a lot of those teams have beaten up on each other to the point where they all have multiple losses. Every team in the SEC other than Alabama has at least two losses. That leaves Alabama as the only team in the Top 13 of the Associated Press Top 25 rankings. At any rate, here is a look at the SEC Power Rankings heading in to Week 13.
1. Alabama Crimson Tide
The Crimson Tide extended its win streak to 22 in a row with a win over Chattanooga last week and while it wasn’t pretty by any means Alabama remains in the driver seat as the lone undefeated team remaining in the country. The road to the national championship continues with their regular season finale against Auburn in the Iron Bowl and then a date with Florida in the SEC Championship game. Based on what we have seen from them this season, the Crimson Tide should reach the playoff with a perfect record intact.
2. Auburn Tigers
Last week’s lopsided win over Alabama A&M kept the Tigers to No. 2 on this list as the offense put up 55 points and the defense registered its first shutout since 2008. Auburn had a chance to rest some of its key players in the win and now it will be all hands on deck this week for the showdown with Alabama. The Tigers will have an uphill climb trying to hang around with the Tide this weekend but it’s impossible to completely write them off with a chance to play spoiler and end Alabama’s perfect season on Saturday.
3. Florida Gators
Florida has dealt with a ridiculous number of injuries this season and kept on pushing towards and SEC Championship game appearance so they deserve the No. 3 spot on this list. The Gators have clinched back-to-back SEC East titles under Jim McElwain the last two seasons but the bad news is that they will have to play Alabama in the SEC Championship game once again this season.
4. Texas A&M Aggies
The Aggies didn’t look outstanding in a 23-10 win over a Conference USA opponent in UTSA but they did get the victory so that is enough to hold off LSU for the No. 4 spot in our SEC Power Rankings heading in to the final week of the regular season. Myles Garrett is finally 100-percent healthy and he is coming off a 4.5-sack performance that he will look to build off of this week versus LSU. Texas A&M has certainly had its share of highs and lows this season but they still have an opportunity to end the year on a high note on Thanksgiving this week.
5. LSU Tigers
On the other side of that equation, LSU will be looking to rediscover its form under interim head coach Ed Orgeron following last week’s disappointing loss to Florida. The Tigers blew multiple opportunities against the Gators with just two scores on five red zone trips and that sloppy play suddenly has a lot of people wondering whether Orgeron will be back next season. Coach O probably doesn’t deserve to be back. LSU did what it probably would have done under Les Miles: play respectably in games they were supposed to win but lose the games when they went up in competition. Coach O won’t inspire recruits to come and that’s the main problem.
At any rate, LSU has the talent to beat A&M this week and it might take a lopsided result for Orgeron to keep his job moving forward to next season.
6. Tennessee Volunteers
7. Arkansas Razorbacks
8. Georgia Bulldogs
9. South Carolina Gamecocks
10. Kentucky Wildcats
11. Vanderbilt Commodores
12. Ole Miss Rebels
13. Mississippi State Bulldogs
14. Missouri Tigers
