Much like last week, Week 9 offers another light SEC slate of just 8 teams playing in 4 conference games.
No. 1 Georgia vs. Florida in Jacksonville, unofficially still referred to as the “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party,” gets the “SEC on CBS’ showcase treatment, but the most impactful conference game of the week might be on The Plains. No. 10 Ole Miss and No. 18 Auburn are looking to avoid taking a second conference loss that would hurt their chances in the SEC West race. The Rebels could potentially land an at-large College Football Playoff bid with an 11-1 regular-season finish, even if Alabama wins the division with the head-to-head tiebreaker over Lane Kiffin’s squad.
ESPN’s Football Power Index predicts the outcome of those games, as well as Mizzou-Vandy and Mississippi State-Kentucky.
Here are the FPI’s predictions:
- Missouri (84 percent chance to win) at Vanderbilt
- Georgia (80.2 percent) vs. Florida
- Auburn (58.7 percent) vs. Ole Miss
- Mississippi State (53.4 percent) vs. Kentucky
Here’s how ESPN defines the FPI:
FPI is a predictive rating system designed to measure team strength and project performance going forward. The ultimate goal of FPI is not to rank teams 1 through 128; rather, it is to correctly predict games and season outcomes. If Vegas ever published the power rankings it uses to set its lines, they would likely look quite a lot like FPI.
Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.
