SEC bowl projections after Week 5: Is Georgia on verge of Playoff spot?

It’s appropriate that several states with SEC schools have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico, because there is a growing gulf between the top three programs and everybody else in the league in 2017.

Alabama, Georgia and Auburn have separated themselves in a big way. All three had impressive victories Saturday — a combined margin of victory of 156-13, to be exact, all against league rivals — and all three still look like solid candidates for New Year’s Day 6 bowls.

As for the rest? Which other SEC teams covered themselves in glory this week?

Florida at least established a running game against Vanderbilt. That still was not a super impressive victory, though. Texas A&M rallied in the fourth quarter against South Carolina and has quietly won four in a row. But that’s two teams at home eking out wins against middle-of-the-pack SEC East foes.

And … yep, that was the best the SEC had to offer outside of the top three Saturday.

Both the Gators and the Aggies move up the projected bowl pecking order this week, but it’s hard to have faith in either team’s ability to upset any of the three top teams.

Then again, it could be worse. They could have given up 200-plus rushing yards in a home loss to Troy. Or they could have suffered their worst home loss since 1905.

LSU didn’t look like a bowl team at all Saturday. Neither did Tennessee. The guess here is that both still qualify, but, goodness, they have taken quite a tumble from just a month ago when those clubs opened with neutral-site victories over BYU and Georgia Tech, respectively.