Week 13 didn’t have a full slate of games, but it didn’t lack for either action or surprises. Mississippi State slaughtering Mizzou? LSU and Ole Miss engaging in an old-fashioned shootout? All prelude to a dramatic, play-making SEC Championship Game, which Alabama won over Florida, 52-46.
It was good news for fans, but it makes life difficult at the SEC Power Rankings. Nevertheless, here’s what we’ve got.
14. Vanderbilt (0-9, off this week)
It’s pretty certain that Vandy would have been just as awful in 10 games as it was in 9 games. New coach Clark Lea has a lot to fix.
13. South Carolina (2-8, regular season over)
The Gamecocks finished last week and didn’t subject us to another week of relatively purposeless football.
12. Tennessee (3-7, lost to Texas A&M 34-13)
It wasn’t that Tennessee lost to A&M. It was the way that they lost– not even having the ball for 16 minutes of this blood-letting. After a 2-0 start, the wheels fell off this season pretty quickly. Now all eyes turn to Jeremy Pruitt’s job status.
11. Mississippi State (3-7, beat Missouri 51-32)
The Bulldogs certainly didn’t mail it in, and accordingly, they moved up a spot. We considered 2 spots, but this team was awful for a large part of the year. All things considered, they did a good job to persevere and end up with 3 wins.
10. Arkansas (3-7, regular season over)
Arkansas probably ends up where it should. This was a ridiculously entertaining 3-7 season, and the Hogs finished at least 3 spots higher than anybody expected in the preseason.
9. Kentucky (4-6, regular season over)
Kentucky finished last week, and there’s no good reason to move them up or back.
8. Missouri (5-5, lost to Mississippi State 51-32)
The Tigers are hard to figure. They could be 10th, they could be 6th. They spent most of the season playing a little bit over their heads but finished with an absolute dog of a game against a Mississippi State team that looked helpless for much of the season.
7. Ole Miss (4-5, lost to LSU 53-48)
Not unlike Arkansas, this was a wildly watchable season, if not a particularly successful one. If Lane Kiffin can add even a mediocre defense to this offense, the Rebels will be in the top half of the West in a hurry.
6. LSU (5-5, beat Ole Miss 53-48)
LSU spent much of the season near the bottom of these rankings, but finishing with dramatic comeback wins over Florida and Ole Miss made us rethink this team. The Tigers still had a disappointing season, but they did a great job rallying late.
5. Auburn (6-4, regular season over)
The Tigers didn’t play. It’s far from clear that Auburn would beat LSU if they played right now, but at the same time, Auburn’s winning season should entitle it to some respect. Also, the Tigers did beat LSU by 37 when they did play.
4. Georgia (7-2, off this week)
COVID ended Georgia’s regular season at 7-2. It’s been hard to figure out the proper placement of teams, but at the end of the day, we’re going to rely on the fact that A&M beat Florida, and Florida beat Georgia. Teams 2-4 could be interchangeable on a good day, but UGA did less with more than the 3 above them … which is why they’re 4th.
3. Florida (8-3, lost to Alabama 52-46)
The Gators certainly didn’t fare badly, staying competitive in the SEC title game into the final seconds. Arguably, that means they should rank ahead of A&M and Georgia because neither of those teams played close to Alabama. That said, 3 losses matter. So the Gators finish the regular season in the No. 3 spot and start preparing for a nice bowl trip.
2. Texas A&M (8-1, beat Tennessee 34-13)
The good news for us is that we don’t have to figure out if it’s enough to leapfrog into the final Playoff spot. We can focus on the fact that A&M was pretty clearly No. 2 in the West and that due to beating Florida head-to-head, we’ll stick with the Aggies in the No. 2 spot in our power rankings.
1.Alabama (11-0, beat Florida 52-46)
There’s no argument.
Joe Cox is a columnist for Saturday Down South. He has also written or assisted in writing five books, and his most recent, Almost Perfect (a study of baseball pitchers’ near-miss attempts at perfect games), is available on Amazon or at many local bookstores.
