The spring can have a big affect on the fall and change our perceptions of teams, for better or worse.
With that said, Athlon Sports ranked all 128 FBS teams prior to the official start of spring (Meteorologically speaking, it always begins on March 1, but astronomically speaking, it begins on March 19 of this year. That’s another story).
Here’s a look at where Athlon ranked all 14 SEC teams, in reverse order:
62. South Carolina
61. Vanderbilt
60. Kentucky
58. Missouri
39. Mississippi State
34. Texas A&M
33. Auburn
29. Arkansas
26. Florida
19. Georgia
11. Ole Miss
8. Tennessee
7. LSU
1. Alabama
The SEC had more teams in the top 10 than any other conference with three, and Ole Miss was just outside. The ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 each had two teams while the highest-ranked Pac-12 team came in at No. 14 (Stanford).
Interestingly, every other Power 5 conference had schools ranked lower than the SEC’s lowest-ranked team, which was South Carolina at No. 62. The Big Ten had five teams below that mark, the ACC had four, and the Big 12 and the Pac-12 each had two.
Born and raised in Gainesville, Talal joined SDS in 2015 after spending 2 years in Bristol as an ESPN researcher. Previously, Talal worked at The Gainesville Sun.
