This was the last weekend before the real fireworks begin.

This coming Saturday, we will get to see Georgia hosting Notre Dame in one of the most intriguing nonconference matchups of the entire season, Auburn at Texas A&M in the top SEC matchup of the day, and other conference clashes such as Tennessee at Florida, Kentucky at Mississippi State, LSU at Vanderbilt and South Carolina at Missouri.

The cupcakes have been cleared off the plate. Now it’s time to get down to the meaty portion of the SEC schedule.

No major upsets happened on Saturday. A few ranked teams fell, but they were further down the Top 25, and none of those results really qualified as shocks.

In the SEC, Alabama opened conference play by easing past South Carolina, and contenders such as Georgia, LSU and Texas A&M piled up the points against weak opponents.

So there is little movement, at least at the top of our projections. You’ll note some slight shuffling further down. And sorry, Arkansas and Tennessee. Your wins this weekend don’t convince us that you’re going bowling. If that changes, perhaps the Birmingham Bowl and Independence Bowl will get to fill their spots with SEC teams after all.

Now, on to our bowl projections:

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