The season always feels a bit more real after the first College Football Playoff rankings drop.

The committee frames the stakes, and fans and teams alike ready for the decisive stretch run.

Tennessee is No. 1 this week, becoming the 5th SEC team (out of 7 teams all-time) to hold the top spot in the College Football Playoff rankings. Three of the others to be ranked No. 1 at any time during a regular season (Alabama, Georgia, LSU) have won national championships in the College Football Playoff era. Heady stuff for Josh Heupel’s crew as they ready for CFP No. 3 Georgia in Athens this weekend. The best news for the Vols about the No. 1 ranking? They likely don’t leave the College Football Playoff with a loss. An 11-1 Tennessee team? They are almost certainly going to get in, regardless of how the rest of the regular season and conference championship games play out.

A bigger question is who will sit atop the list come conference championship week? Hendon Hooker remains in the top spot this week, but there is movement at the 2 spot and elsewhere on the list as the calendar turns to November. This weekend’s top-10 SEC battles in Baton Rouge and Athens will certainly help tell the tale, but even now, there’s plenty of football to be played.

Last week’s list is here. As always, honorable mentions are first, limited to two per school.

Honorable Mention: Darrian Dalcourt, C (Alabama); Jahmyr Gibbs, RB (Alabama); Ricky Stromberg, C (Arkansas); Drew Sanders, LB (Arkansas); Tank Bigbsy, RB (Auburn); Owen Pappoe, LB (Auburn); O’Cyrus Torrence, G (Florida); Austin Barber, OT (Florida); Stetson Bennett, QB (Georgia); Jamon Dumas-Johnson, LB (Georgia); Jacquez Jones, LB (Kentucky); DeAndre Square (Kentucky);  Micah Baskerville, LB (LSU); Jayden Daniels, QB (LSU); Emmanuel Forbes, CB (Mississippi State); Will Rogers III (Mississippi State); Ty’Ron Hopper, LB (Missouri); Dominic Lovett, WR (Missouri); Nick Broeker, OL (Ole Miss); Zach Evans, RB (Ole Miss); Zacch Pickens, DL (South Carolina); MarShawn Lloyd, RB (South Carolina);  Devon Achane, RB (Texas A&M); Jardin Gilbert, DB (Texas A&M); Trevon Flowers, CB (Tennessee); Cooper Mays, C (Tennessee); Anfernee Orji, LB (Vanderbilt).

10. Mekhi Wingo, DT (LSU)

Wingo, who grades out as LSU’s best defensive linemen, per Pro Football Focus, stays in the top 10 this week despite LSU’s bye. If the Tigers are to slow rival Alabama on Saturday night in Death Valley, they’ll need all they can get from the Missouri transfer on Saturday night. On the season, Wingo has 33 stops, including 2 sacks, pacing one of the nation’s most improved defenses (LSU is up nearly 30 spots, from 64th to 35th, in total defense in 2022).

9. Raheim “Rocket” Sanders, RB (Arkansas)

Sanders rockets back into the list after a tremendous 171-yard day against Auburn. The SEC’s leading rusher with 1,041 yards on the season, Sanders averaged 10.7 per carry in the Auburn game, the highest single-game average on 15 attempts or more since Darren McFadden pulled that stunt in 2006. Speaking of McFadden, how’s this statistic, from SDS scribe Matt Hinton:

Keep chopping wood, Rocket.

8. Isaiah McGuire, DE (Missouri)

McGuire finds himself in the list this week following a 5-tackle (3 for loss, including 2 sacks) performance that helped him earn SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week honors. McGuire also received plaudits from Kirk Herbstreit as one of the nation’s top performers in Week 9.

Mizzou’s defense hasn’t gotten a ton of love thanks to Eli Drinkwitz’s pedestrian on a good day offense. But thanks to budding stars like McGuire and linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper, the Tigers take a top 20 national defense into the Kentucky game this weekend. On the season, McGuire ranks 6th in the SEC in sacks and 5th in tackles for loss, outstanding stuff for a player commanding double teams on the edge.

7. Will Anderson Jr., Edge (Alabama)

Anderson maintains a top-10 spot after Alabama’s bye week. Make no mistake, if the Crimson Tide want to win another national championship under Nick Saban, the defense will have to assist Bryce Young, which means they’ll need the Heisman-worthy version of Anderson to show up every week, beginning Saturday at LSU. On the 2022 campaign, Anderson has 36 tackles and 6 sacks, and he leads the SEC in quarterback pressures with 41. That’s “only” half of the 82 he recorded in 2021, but it’s still a terrific number, as evidenced by the fact it ranks 7th in the country in that metric.

6. Bryce Young, QB (Alabama)

Anderson’s partner in Alabama star power crime, Bryce Young, slots in at 6th. Of all the players in this top 10, it feels like Young has the highest ceiling: he could end up topping this list after finishing third a season ago if Alabama closes strong and repeats as the SEC Champion. Young’s ability to extend plays and avoid mistakes has been the difference between at least 1-2 Alabama wins and losses this season; it’s hard not to sense that will also be the case Saturday night in Death Valley.

5. Jalin Hyatt, WR (Tennessee)

The key to beating Kentucky for the past 2 seasons has been attacking their safeties, and Josh Heupel schemed it beautifully Saturday night in Knoxville. Of course, it helps when no one in the SEC can cover one of your wide receivers, and that’s what happened again at Neyland Stadium Saturday night. Hyatt added 2 more touchdowns to his 2022 haul, giving him a program-record 14 receiving touchdowns on the season. That means Hyatt needs just 1 more touchdown to match Jameson Williams’ SEC-leading 15 touchdown receptions from a season ago. (DeVonta Smith holds the SEC single-season record with 23.)

The Volunteers’ receiver is a shoo-in to be Tennessee’s first consensus All-American at the position since Robert Meachum, and he leads the SEC in receiving yards with 907, almost 250 more than his closest competitor. Talk about dominant football.

4. Quinshon Judkins, RB (Ole Miss)

Mississippi’s star freshman just keeps rolling along. Saturday, he ran through, around, and over Texas A&M, tallying 205 yards on a staggering 34 carries in the Rebels’ 31-28 victory in College Station. He runs like a senior — patient, waiting for blocks to develop, and with a devastating understanding of when to use his athleticism and jump-cut ability.

A Heisman ceremony invite is unlikely, but first- or second-team All-American honors as a freshman running back are a legitimate possibility. For perspective, that’s the kind of accomplishment pulled off only by College Football greats: Tony Dorsett at Pitt in 1973, Herschel Walker of Georgia in 1980, Marshall Faulk at San Diego State in 1991, Maurice Clarett at Ohio State in 2002, Adrian Peterson of Oklahoma in 2004, and Nick Chubb at Georgia in 2014. That’s the list. Talk about amazing stuff.

3. Christopher Smith, S (Georgia)

The Dawgs’ defensive captain was terrific against the hated Gators, tallying 6 tackles, 1 sack and 2 stops for loss in Georgia’s 42-20 victory. The numbers don’t really do him justice either — he also helped Georgia limit Anthony Richardson, who entered the game as the SEC’s most accurate thrower on passes of 20 yards or more, to just 3 explosive completions of 20 yards or better against Georgia on 12 attempts (Smith was not in coverage on those plays, either).

There’s not a better safety in the country, and he’s quickly being recognized as the best safety prospect in the NFL Draft as well.

2. Brock Bowers, TE (Georgia)

Bowers was targeted 8 times in Georgia’s 42-20 win over Florida. He caught 5 of those targets for 154 yards and a touchdown, and he did it despite outstanding coverage by the Gators on at least 3 of his 5 receptions. The circus catch made here (against perfect coverage from Amari Burney) garnered the headlines and highlight reel attention:

But it was this catch, against marvelous coverage from Florida safety Trey Dean, that broke the Gators’ back, securing a vital 4th-down throw for the Dawgs with the game still in the balance in the fourth quarter.

Schematically, the Dawgs are just brutal to defend, and the biggest reason is Bowers, whom Todd Monken can move all over the field to create mismatches elsewhere and force defenses to attend to on every snap. The best offensive weapon in America that doesn’t play quarterback — it is what he offers schematically first, and production second, that puts him at 2 on this list.

1. Hendon Hooker, QB (Tennessee)

Hooker was just a ho-hum 19-for-25 for 245 yards and 3 touchdowns Saturday night in Tennessee’s rout of rival Kentucky. The senior also added 23 yards rushing and a rushing touchdown, pushing him to 25 touchdowns accounted for on the season.

His connection with Jalin Hyatt is “complete each other’s sentences” good and oh-by-the-way, Hooker has now thrown a touchdown pass in 20 consecutive starts, a Tennessee record. Not bad at a school that’s had quarterbacks like Heath Shuler, Tee Martin and some guy named Peyton Manning.

Vegas now pegs Hooker as the Heisman favorite, and the thinking at SDS is the Heisman race is over if the top-ranked Vols win Saturday in Athens.