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After the first full weekend of the college football season, it would be tough to find anyone who believes there’s a better team in the SEC than Alabama or Georgia.
But who’s going to emerge as the third best team in the conference in 2022?
Texas A&M would seem to be the most likely choice, but there are other candidates as well.
ESPN and SEC college football analyst Paul Finebaum and senior college football writer for The Athletic, David Ubben, had that conversation Monday, and Ubben offered some interesting thoughts on the matter.
Who's the third-best team in the SEC? @davidubben says a few new teams have entered the chat after Week 1 of this season pic.twitter.com/VAJ3wY7Fk9
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) September 5, 2022
“I would vote for the Aggies, but I think certainly Florida is not a team that I would have entertained three days ago in that conversation, but I think they are now,” Ubben said. “So you look at the Aggies, you look at, obviously, Kentucky, Tennessee, and now Florida.”
Ubben went on to add a major sleeper to the discussion.
“Don’t overlook Mississippi State in this conversation either,” he added. “They are getting no love coming into the season. But if Mississippi State is sitting here in December as the third best team in the SEC, people should not be surprised looking at what they bring back, what they can do. Don’t sleep on the Bulldogs.”
Finebaum, however, was having no part of the Bulldogs being among those in consideration as the league’s third-best team.
“That’s what we call a hot take in the world of ESPN,” said Finebaum with a chuckle.
"Chris Wallace covers college football for Saturday Down South. He has covered college athletics for multiple newspapers and also worked previously for Rivals.com and GolfChannel.com."
