It’s a question that’s worth asking, especially after the national championship that we witnessed in January.

Can anyone seriously compete with Alabama and Georgia for the top 2 spots in the SEC Power Rankings?

That won’t be answered in the preseason. Certainly there are teams that are capable of pulling off the occasional upset, but actually supplanting Alabama or Georgia seems like a tall task at the moment. For now, there’s not much suspense who will start at the top of the SEC Power rankings.

It’s the rest of the list where it gets interesting.

14. Vanderbilt

A team that was -166 vs. the SEC last year lost its leading rusher in school history, and it brought in the No. 40 recruiting class. That’s with the same coach who’s 6-26 vs. the SEC. I’m not saying it’s easy to generate preseason hype in Nashville, but the past 365 days haven’t made me very optimistic about the Commodores’ 2018 outlook.

13. Arkansas

Chad Morris lacks the personnel to run his system. Inheriting a 4-win team that struggled in so many areas last year is a difficult rebuilding project for anyone, much less someone coaching in the SEC West. Growing pains are coming, but so is a more exciting brand of football.

12. Kentucky

I’d love to see a scenario in which Benny Snell ran for 2,000 yards and put Kentucky on his back for a historic season. That’d be all sorts of entertaining. With the quarterback situation such a mystery, though, it’s hard to envision a scenario in which Kentucky establishes much offensive balance. I like the playmakers on defense with Josh Allen and Mike Edwards, and a healthy Jordan Jones would certainly help. But there’s still a ton of defensive production to replace from a unit that didn’t set the world on fire last year.

11. Tennessee

Avoid major embarrassment on and off the field, stay competitive in every home game and get to the postseason. Those are perfectly realistic goals for the start of the Jeremy Pruitt era.

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That roster still has talent, despite last year’s winless SEC season. I think the offense makes steady improvements and is at least easier to stomach than last year. But it’ll be a struggle for Pruitt to completely flip Tennessee’s lackluster defense in Year 1.

10. Ole Miss

Ole Miss could easily wind up having the best passing offense in the SEC. That’s the type of potential Jordan Ta’amu has with the likes of AJ Brown and D.K. Metcalf back. Ole Miss could also easily wind up having the worst run defense in the SEC. The Rebels would have owned that title last year if not for the dumpster fire that was Tennessee. The problem is that while I look forward to seeing Ole Miss’ offense get into a rhythm, there’s a ceiling on a team that can’t stop the run in the SEC. Until that’s fixed, Ole Miss isn’t getting back to the upper echelon of the conference.

9. Mizzou

Like Ole Miss, you don’t worry about the passing offense. Well, Derek Dooley’s presence is a mystery. You worry more about stopping teams on defense. Barry Odom has yet to prove that he can lead even an average defense in his first 2 years as a head coach. Last year, Mizzou was 7-0 when it scored 45 points and 0-6 when it didn’t. Really. As talented as Drew Lock is — I also like what the ground game can accomplish with Damarea Crockett and Larry Rountree III — Mizzou has to find a defensive identity before it can return to competing for division titles.

8. Texas A&M

I loved, loved, loved the Mike Elko hire. That’s a defense that vastly underperformed in the tail end of the Kevin Sumlin era. It wouldn’t surprise me to see that group get a nice shot in the arm like what Elko did at Notre Dame last year. But I’m tempering my expectations of the offense in Year 1 of the Jimbo Fisher era.

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Kellen Mond and Nick Starkel have a ways to go before they start leading the Aggies to wins against quality opponents. Maybe Fisher is the guy to get them there. But with that schedule, I don’t think they’ll have the roster to be a contender just yet.

7. Florida

The growing pains for the Florida offense will still be there in the start of the Dan Mullen era. That isn’t changing overnight. What will change overnight is the competence of the staff. I believe this defense will be better under Todd Grantham, and it won’t be gassed because of it ineptitude on the offensive side. Regardless of who starts at quarterback, Mullen will do a better job of getting skill players like Kadarius Toney and Malik Davis involved in space. That’ll yield a nice little improvement from 4 wins, though it won’t be 2013 Auburn-like.

6. South Carolina

I’m not going all in on the belief that South Carolina is ready to challenge Georgia for the division. I think Georgia still has a clear advantage in the trenches and at the quarterback position. Having said that, we’re still talking about a team that won 9 games and returns nearly every offensive starter not named Hayden Hurst. That’s significant. I’m in wait-and-see mode with this offense because I’m not automatically buying the belief that Jake Bentley is ready to take this next step. Maybe he’ll prove me wrong, but for now, South Carolina is a distant second to Georgia in the East.

5. LSU

Is the offense a complete mystery? Absolutely. Is the schedule daunting? Definitely. But let’s not forget that for all the questions on offense, the defense is still loaded with Dave Aranda running it. That should prevent this team from the grim 6-6 outlook some have forecasted. I’m more of the belief that Joe Burrow will be a success than a typical LSU failure at quarterback (that’s not to say Danny Etling was a complete failure). I think Burrow has his ups and downs in his first year as a starter, but he gives LSU a better chance to open up the field with this inexperienced ground game than anyone else on the roster.

4. Auburn

A great “what if” for Auburn fans will always be what would have happened in the end of 2017 with a healthy Kerryon Johnson. Well, now there’s no Kerryon Johnson.

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But Jarrett Stidham is ready to take on the main role of the offense, and he has plenty of weapons on the outside. My questions are about the offensive line play and the running game, which seems strange to question. But if Auburn can figure that out, it will be an awfully dangerous team considering how good that front seven is expected to be.

3. Mississippi State

I think 3 teams win at least 7 SEC games this year, and I believe MSU is one of them. Sound crazy? Well, I’ve been saying this all offseason, so there’s no backing out now. Joe Moorhead was the perfect coach to take over a program that returns the most production in the SEC. He’s going to maximize the potential of that offense, especially at the skill positions. Defensively, how can you not like the potential of a group that returns Jeffery Simmons, Montez Sweat, Gerri Green and Mark McLaurin? Bob Shoop walked into a pretty ideal situation himself. The talent is there, the coaching is there and the schedule is there for MSU to have a historic season.

2. Georgia

Georgia’s encore is one of the great storylines heading into 2018. These raised expectations are unlike anything we’ve seen in Athens in recent memory, but why can’t Georgia sustain this pace? It doesn’t have to beat Alabama to get to Atlanta, it’s stockpiled with talent and it has a perfectionist coach who is following the Nick Saban blueprint to success. Thanks to the way Kirby Smart has been recruiting, this group is loaded with weapons who are ready to replace all-time program greats like Roquan Smith, Nick Chubb and Sony Michel. I’m buying the belief that Georgia and Alabama are still on a level that’s a noticeable notch above the rest of the conference.

1. Alabama

Alabama is far past the point of trying to break down how much experience it returns or which coaches are still on board. As long as Nick Saban is roaming the sidelines in Tuscaloosa, the preseason ranking is going to be No. 1 until further notice. Am I crazy for thinking Alabama can be even better this year? I think with Tua Tagovailoa, the offense takes a considerable step forward and it doesn’t look nearly as vulnerable as it was at the end of the regular season. I’m not worried about the turnover in the secondary, nor am I concerned about depth at linebacker. The Tide is still the cream of the crop, no matter how boring that is to say.