Most teams are a quarter of the way into their season. But that doesn’t make it too late for predictions. No, it just means maybe we’ll get a few more correct. In the words of the great Billy Idol, “It’s a nice day to start again.” So we start again three weeks into the season, predicting the record for each SEC team. Here goes nothing.

SEC West

Alabama 12-0

A poor week for the Tide, but nothing to change the overall impression that nobody in the SEC is taking them down. Could Vandy and Mississippi State be the two teams with the best shots? Would that say more about those teams or about the league?

Arkansas 7-5

The Hogs were off this week, so we didn’t see anything to change our minds. This is far from the best team in the West, but it’s not the worst either.

Auburn 8-4

Forgive us if we’re circling the Sept. 30 home game with Mississippi State. If Auburn wins that, it can start thinking about nine or 10 wins again. If not, mark down the 8-4 record, a mid-tier bowl, and a cranky fan base.

LSU 9-3

Maybe Mississippi State is that good. Maybe LSU is a really young team that is bad away from home. The next two weeks should help the Tigers heal whatever it is that is ailing them, before a road trip to Florida on Oct. 7 that could count the loser entirely out of the SEC race.

Ole Miss 5-7

They’re going to be fun to watch, but a potential five-game losing streak will be a killer. Where would this team have finished if Hugh Freeze had kept his job and they hadn’t run afoul of the NCAA? Definitely better than it will now.

Mississippi State 9-3

A week ago, I said that if LSU could win one of their next three games, they might go 8-4. Similarly, if Mississippi State can win either at Georgia or at Auburn, they might go 9-3. That’s looking increasingly possible.

Texas A&M 6-6

If they don’t have at least four wins coming into their bye week on Oct. 21, they won’t even make it to six overall. Rough season.

East

Florida 7-4

That road schedule of Kentucky, Missouri and South Carolina isn’t exactly daunting. But then again, neither is this team. The Gators are lucky to not be 0-2 right now.

Georgia 10-2

The Mississippi State game got much tougher, but the game at Auburn is looking a lot less imposing. The Bulldogs are the class of the East until somebody shows otherwise.

Kentucky 8-4

Winning at South Carolina makes a 6-0 start entirely possible. If Kentucky can beat Florida on Saturday, which is not an unreasonable possibility despite the fact it’s lost 30 consecutive in the series, Kentucky might well end up second in the East.

Missouri 4-8

This team is a complete dumpster fire. The Tigers will beat Idaho, win at UConn., and pull off a sleeper somewhere else. But this is the worst team in the SEC and it isn’t close.

South Carolina 7-5

Losing Deebo Samuel hurts more than losing to Kentucky. This is a fairly brutal schedule, although you could do worse than drawing A&M and Arkansas out of the West.

Tennessee 8-4

This might be the worst 8-win team in memory. Somebody has to win some of those SEC games down the stretch. The Oct. 28 game against Kentucky could well determine second place in the East.

Vanderbilt 7-5

The next three games are rough. But if Vandy can keep leaning on its defense, there might still be a seventh win lurking out there. Given this schedule, six would hardly be a disaster.