Fall practice has finally begun! We’re celebrating football being back by counting down to kickoff using content-specific pieces every weekend to deliver the good stuff — last-minute primer involving all 14 SEC teams.

Up next: Introducing the league’s Playoff contenders, four teams with a potential ‘elite’ label by season’s end:

SEC’s four College Football Playoff contenders

4. Ole Miss Rebels: A legitimate dark horse this fall, the Rebels are a Top 15 club returning four possible first-round picks in next season’s NFL draft with one of college football’s most talented defenses. Like every other team in the Western Division, the schedule isn’t doing Ole Miss any favors, but there’s a chance this year’s team is better than last with a change at quarterback and five returning starters up front. Laquon Treadwell and Evan Engram are All-American candidates on offense and everyone has spotlighted defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche in the month leading up to the season. You can throw LSU and Tennessee in this slot as well, teams with similar odds as the Rebels.

3. Georgia Bulldogs — Who’s buying stock in Mark Richt’s team this season? We are as the preseason Eastern Division favorite, a group that’s as good as any team in the country when you’re looking at the starting 11 on both sides of the football. Like several teams in the SEC, quarterback is a position of interest entering camp, but first-year OC Brian Schottenheimer knows where his bread is buttered with a backfield equipped with one of the game’s best players in Nick Chubb. Georgia is expected to show immense progress defensively, one of the reasons this team will have staying power inside the Top 10. Jeremy Pruitt likes his personnel and who could blame him with the country’s best most talented group of outside linebackers.

2. Auburn Tigers — The Tigers added two essential elements in the offseason they feel will be enough to guide this team to Atlanta and beyond — a Heisman-caliber quarterback and college football’s best defensive mind. First-year starter Jeremy Johnson is expected to produce gargantuan numbers in Gus Malzahn’s attack as a player with a live arm and speed to burn out of the pocket. It’s the first time in several years Auburn has a true downfield threat as a pass-first quarterback. As for Will Muschamp? He inherits a defense that brings back star pass rusher Carl Lawson who missed the 2014 season due to injury, a pair of key senior starters at linebackers and five-star Byron Cowart, an immediate impact talent at the Buck position. If Auburn can navigate through its treacherous schedule, this year’s Iron Bowl — like most — should be a memorable one.

1. Alabama Crimson Tide — Equipped with what’s expected to be college football’s best front seven, the defending SEC champs and national semifinalist is itching to get back to the Playoff this fall. There are depth concerns at running back, an ongoing quarterback competition and secondary questions coming in, but if any coach is good at downplaying potential weaknesses, it’s Nick Saban. As it often does, The Process will work, again. Alabama’s the preseason Vegas favorite to represent the SEC in the Playoff despite facing one of the nation’s toughest schedules. It should be an exciting year in the SEC, especially for the Crimson Tide.