ESPN releases Week 9 SEC power rankings
ESPN released its SEC power rankings following Week 9 of the 2016 college football season.
Alabama, Texas A&M and Auburn remain in the top three while LSU and Florida each moved up one spot. Tennessee fell two spots to No. 6 after an upset loss at South Carolina.
Here’s a look at the full SEC power rankings including a brief portion of the summary for each team.
1. Alabama: “After eight straight games and eight straight wins, the Crimson Tide got a much-needed bye week before their trip to LSU.” — Alex Scarborough
2. Texas A&M: “A manageable final month of the season begins at Mississippi State next week, and with just one loss, the Aggies have an outside shot at the playoff.” — Sam Khan Jr.
3. Auburn: “As for Auburn, there might not be a hotter team in college football right now.” — Greg Ostendorf
4. LSU: “The Tigers are 3-0 since Ed Orgeron took over and have broken a school offensive record in all three games.” — David Ching
5. Florida: “This team doesn’t win in pretty fashion, but maybe that’s just how the Gators like it.” — Edward Aschoff
6. Tennessee: “The losses to highly ranked Alabama and Texas A&M stung, but falling Saturday against unranked South Carolina hurts much more.” — D.C.
7. Arkansas: “There’s a ton of work to be done on that defense.” — A.S.
8. Ole Miss: “The Rebels might be the best five-loss team in the country, but they still have five losses.” — G.O.
9. Kentucky: “These Wildcats have momentum now.” — A.S.
10. Georgia: “This just isn’t a very good team from top to bottom, and the offense was hit by a Mack Truck against a Florida defense that limited the Bulldogs to just 164 total yards.” — E.A.
11. South Carolina: “South Carolina’s upset win over Tennessee sends the Gamecocks to 4-4 and within reach of a bowl bid that seemed highly unlikely a couple of weeks ago.” — D.C.
12. Vanderbilt: “At 4-4, they are still in contention for a bowl bid, but winning two of their remaining games — at Auburn, at Missouri, Ole Miss, Tennessee — won’t be easy.” — D.C.
13. Mississippi State: “Against an FCS opponent at home, the defense gave up 41 points and more than 600 yards of offense.” — A.S.
14. Missouri: “It has become a familiar refrain this season, but it’s worth repeating: What happened to Missouri’s defense?” — A.S.
You can read the full power rankings at ESPN here.
After the past 3 days, I would say Tennessee should be much lower.
Kentucky once again getting no respect. Tennessee is 6th and just lost to uhh I don’t know SOUTH CAROLINA!!!! A team who UK beat!!!! UT is injured, disfuntional, losing players, and just simply trending down. Meanwhile Kentucky is healthy, on a roll, beat SC, and actually has some organization!!!! Please give us more respect!!!!
While I agree we’re not playing like the 6th best team in the league, Kentucky hasn’t really done anything either. We handily beat the Florida team that made you look like a high school team. Beat GA and TN and you’ll get your respect.
The South Carolina team Kentucky beat at the beginning of the season is a completely different team now.
I am starting to agree. After watching Clemson continuing to flirt with a loss, it would be fun to see USCe beat them at the end of the season.
Respect is earned through beating better opponents than Mizzou and USC. While UT definitely SHOULD NOT be ranked #6, I don’t think putting us at #9 is lacking respect.
Arkansas should be higher they have lost three games and the combined record of the teams they lost to were 20-3. I think they beat Florida at home this weekend.
why? Just curious.
That was a really hard stretch of games for Arkansas the only three losses came to three top ten teams, they are coming off a bye week and are playing at home. I like the home team in this one.