Bill Connelly at ESPN is out with his latest SP+ rankings, and the top 3 teams are as expected, Ohio State, Alabama and Georgia.

Overall, the SEC landed 9 teams in the SP+ top 25 rankings, and 4 SEC teams are among the most with returning production. Mississippi State checks in at No. 14 as the Bulldogs have 78 percent of production back this year, followed by Tennessee at No. 19 (76 percent) and South Carolina at No. 24 (73 percent).

Connelly last updated the projections in February, and wrote, “These aren’t the final projections of the offseason; those will still come in mid-to-late August. But let’s see what havoc the transfer portal hath wrought in the past three months.

The preseason projections are based on returning production, recent recruiting and recent history.

The returning production numbers are based on rosters I have updated as much as possible to account for transfers and attrition. The combination of last year’s SP+ ratings and adjustments based on returning production makes up more than two-thirds of the projections formula.

For the overall rankings themselves, here are the SEC teams:

2. Alabama
3. Georgia
8. Texas A&M
9. Tennessee
15. Mississippi State
17. Ole Miss
20. Kentucky
22. Auburn
23. Florida