Ranking the SEC (after Week 9)

After a week of unsurprising outcomes, the rankings don’t have much of a different look this week. In fact, the top 5 are exactly the same. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least read this, though.

1. LSU – With both the Purple Tigers and the Crimson Tide being off last week, there are no changes at the top. LSU has completely dominated entire games. Alabama has not. I’m still going off that.

2. Alabama – Obviously, this order will stay the same or switch depending on what happens Saturday.

3. Arkansas – The Razorbacks are pretty much here by default, but if you look at their schedule they could easily be in the jumbled mass below them. They very much so could have lost to Texas A&M, Ole Miss, and even Vandy last week, but they didn’t. Hence they remain in the first spot below the two best teams in the history of the world.

4. Auburn – The Tigers actually looked like a good team last week against the Rebels so I feel a little less guilty about putting them above eight other teams. This will all shake out in the end, but again I ask you to put them up against the teams below them and tell me that they absolutely couldn’t or haven’t beaten each team.

5. South Carolina – I have no idea how South Carolina only has one loss. It feels like they should be down there with the Mississippi teams, but they play in the East so there you go. Note: this is the exact same thing I said last week about the Gamecocks because I still have no idea how they only have one loss. Oh well, that will probably change this week.

6. Georgia – Last week I had the Bullpups above the Gators because I said that Florida would beat them. They still should have, but I don’t agree with losers being ranked above the winner.

7. Florida – I assumed the return of Brantley would be enough for Florida to beat Georgia. It was not, but that’s only because he could barely stand up without help. A healthy Florida would beat a healthy Georgia, but who wouldn’t?

8. Vanderbilt – It’s not too often that a team moves up after a loss, but with the way Vanderbilt played against Arkansas, they definitely looked good enough to be higher on this list. And wouldn’t you know, the Commodores play Florida next week. Maybe they’ll be flipped the next time these rankings come out.

9. Tennessee – Again, nobody knows how good this team would be without injuries. Would they be lighting up the SEC? Probably not, but I still like where Dooley is headed, even though his fanbase does not.

10. Mississippi State – Are they still playing football?

11. Kentucky – There are no bigger fans of Houston Nutt than Kentucky Wildcat football fans. Kentucky was easily the worst team in the SEC after the first month or so, but now they can say “Nay! Nay! The worst team is Ole Miss Rebel Black Bears!”

12. Ole Miss – The worst team in the SEC, and there’s really no excuse for it. They have nice facilities. The coaching staff has been there for a few years. There has no been no probation. They just stink.