The COVID-19 pandemic changed a lot of things around college football. One of the biggest changes, though, is that the 2020 season didn’t count as a year of eligibility for players.

That means seniors who normally would have graduated had the option to return, and many of them did.

What does that mean for returning production numbers around the country? ESPN’s Bill Connelly crunched the numbers, and the results were surprising.

As you can see below, the normal average for teams’ returning production is 62.6%, but due the pandemic, that average has skyrocketed to 76.7% for 2021:

Here’s where every SEC team ranks:

  • Ole Miss (86%) — No. 26
  • Vanderbilt (80%) — No. 51
  • Mississippi State (77%) — No. 68
  • Arkansas (76%) — No. 71
  • Auburn (75%) — No. 74
  • LSU (74%) — No. 80
  • Mizzou (71%) — No. 96
  • Texas A&M (65%) — No. 109
  • Georgia (65%) — No. 110
  • Kentucky (63%) — No. 112
  • Tennessee (60%) — No. 116
  • South Carolina (58%) — No. 119
  • Florida (57%) — No. 121
  • Alabama (53%) — No. 123

Which teams will make the most of that returning production? We’ll find out soon enough, as the season gets underway for some teams next month!