Vegas Power Rankings: Where every SEC team ranks entering Week 0
By Andrew Olson
Published:
We’re approaching the final Saturday of the year without football. On Aug. 29, Week 0 games will be played, kicking off the 2026 college football season.
Ahead of Week 0, Phil Steele has released his updated Vegas Power Ratings. While everyone loves to follow the AP Top 25, Vegas numbers are a bit different.
The smartest folks in the desert only care about making money, as the casinos on The Strip weren’t built out of charity. Vegas rates teams based on who would be favored on a neutral field. These rankings can differ from traditional polls that value preseason rankings, records, resumes and results.
Steele, widely recognized as one of college football’s leading experts, has connections to oddsmakers at the Las Vegas SuperBook and other casinos. Steele has published weekly in-season Vegas Power Ratings since his time at ESPN. He’s independent these days, but continues to publish the Vegas numbers throughout the season every year. The difference between two teams’ Vegas Ratings gives an idea of what the betting line would be if they met on a neutral field today.
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Entering the season, Steele has the Vegas top 4 as No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 3 Oregon and No. 4 Indiana. Here’s where the SEC squads check in among the 138 FBS teams:
- No. 5 Georgia (129.36 Vegas Rating)
- No. 6 Texas (128.83)
- No. 8 Alabama (124.10)
- No. 9 LSU (124.05)
- No. 10 Oklahoma (123.90)
- No. 11 Ole Miss (123.69)
- No. 12 Texas A&M (123.40)
- No. 16 Tennessee (120.35)
- No. 20 South Carolina (117.91)
- No. 21 Florida (117.31)
- No. 25 Auburn (116.21)
- No. 27 Vanderbilt (114.94)
- No. 28 Mizzou (114.69)
- No. 40 Mississippi State (109.80)
- No. 47 Kentucky (108.28)
- No. 50 Arkansas (108.14)
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaign of Fred Taylor.
