Six SEC teams made up almost half of the new FWAA-NFF Super 16 Poll after a Week 1 that featured 2 SEC teams taking an early defeat.
One of those teams was Texas, which was ranked No. 1 in the preseason AP poll. The Longhorns fell at Ohio State on Saturday, ruining Arch Manning’s much-anticipated debut. The new Super 16 poll punished Texas by moving its previous No. 1 team down to No. 7 in the new rankings. Ohio State took over Texas’s No. 1 spot in the new Super 16 poll, with Penn State moving up 1 spot to No. 2.
The other SEC team to take a tumble in Week 1 was Alabama, which fell at Florida State on Saturday. Alabama was left out of the new Super 16 poll, being placed 4th in the “others receiving votes” category with 59 votes. It was the first time Alabama was left out of the Super 16 poll, snapping the Crimson Tide’s appearance streak at 151 weeks.
The 3rd and 4th spots in the Super 16 poll were filled by SEC teams LSU and Georgia, respectively. LSU moved up 6 spots from last week after its huge victory at Clemson on Saturday. Georgia pummeled Marshall and stayed No. 4 in the new poll.
Miami and Oregon were 5th and 6th, respectively, in the new poll, with the aforementioned Texas following at No. 7. Clemson, Notre Dame and Florida State filled out the top 10, in that order, with South Carolina coming in at No. 11 after its victory over Virginia Tech on Sunday afternoon.
Illinois, Arizona State and Michigan followed the Gamecocks, in that order, with 2 more SEC teams finishing off the poll in No. 15 Florida and No. 16 Oklahoma. The Gators and Sooners moved into the new poll after big wins in Week 1.
The SEC nearly had a few more teams in the poll, but Ole Miss and Tennessee fell out of the poll despite posting impressive victories in Week 1. Still, the SEC had the most teams in the poll of any conference with its 6 entries, followed by the Big Ten with 5.
The FWAA-NFF Super 16 Poll was established at the conclusion of the 2013 season by long-time partners, the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and the National Football Foundation (NFF).
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
