The Southeastern Conference boasted nine ranked teams in the preseason Associated Press poll, the most out of any conference. Some football fans felt that was too many, while the remaining knew that the gauntlets of SEC schedules would send some teams down and others up.
In week eight, the SEC still has nine representatives in the poll. But that hasn’t meant a lack of chaos in the conference — Oct. 17 is the perfect example.
Let’s start at the top. Last Saturday, Georgia, Alabama and Texas all lost in the same weekend for the first time since 1996, according to On Texas Football’s CJ Vogel. And just as shockingly, all three defeats were to lower-ranked or unranked teams. Former No. 1 Georgia fell to unranked Auburn at home, while Rocky Top got the best of previous No. 6 Alabama, who went scoreless in the second half against then-No. 14 Tennessee. As those of you reading know, former No. 7 Texas collapsed in Austin against an unranked Florida team coming off back-to-back defeats.
A Sunday X post from ESPN’s Pete Thamel provided the following statement from a “veteran administrator,” which effectively sums up the recent events surrounding those three national powerhouses.
“Two weeks ago Texas, Bama and Georgia were the three best teams in SEC, the conventional wisdom would have suspected that the only losses they might take is when they played one another,” Thamel’s post reads. “Since then they are a combined 1–5, and their only win in that group came because two of them played each other.”
Last weekend’s results made the SEC’s unpredictability clear. And it also displayed the success first-year head coaches Alex Golesh of Auburn and Jon Sumrall of Florida are already bringing to their programs.
Plus, perhaps the most surprising team in the SEC is the Kentucky Wildcats, under first-year head coach Will Stein. After Oklahoma seemed to be turning its season around with a Red River Rivalry win over the Longhorns, the Sooners returned to Norman, Oklahoma, and fell to the Wildcats. Stein’s team, now 6–1 and ranked No. 12 in the nation, is riding a five-game win streak into its home matchup against Vanderbilt, who sits 0–4 in the SEC after a home loss to Arkansas.
But, especially with last week’s outcomes in mind, Stein is not overlooking the matchup against the Commodores.
“It’s another tough test this Saturday,” Stein said on Tuesday. “The SEC has no gimmies, and we got to continue to fight and continue to play well.”
Last season, there were seven SEC teams that finished with two or fewer losses in conference play. Entering this Saturday, 12 of the 16 SEC teams already have two or more SEC losses. On top of that, there are no undefeated SEC teams remaining after Georgia’s loss.
This reality sets up a second half of the regular season with the conference championship spots truly up for grabs.
The coming weeks will likely reveal the contenders from the pretenders and establish greater disparity in the conference. Still, there is no doubt that the conference is as balanced and talented as ever.
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian explained the state of the conference bluntly on Monday.
“There’s a lot of football left to be played,” Sarkisian said. “There’s not a game on a Saturday in the SEC where any team can’t beat the other team.”
