After five weeks of college football, the dust is finally starting to settle on the best and worst of the SEC … as well as the middle of the pack, for that matter. Here are our weekly power rankings, post Week 5.

As usual, the standard caveat applies that this isn’t a projection of the future, just a statement on the here and now.

That said, here’s how the SEC is shaping up:

14. Arkansas (1-4, lost to Texas A&M 24-17)

For the second week in a row, the Arkansas defense looked like it belongs in the SEC. We all know Chad Morris can coach offense, so in the long term, this is good news. In the short term, they’re still 1-4.

13. Tennessee (2-3, lost to Georgia 38-12)

Speaking of moral victories, Tennessee did an admirable job of not letting Georgia rub its face in the dirt in this game. For Jeremy Pruitt, it’s a question of getting signs of life from a program that was very much dead on his arrival. This week was a slightly positive sign.

12. Vanderbilt (3-2, beat Tennessee State 31-27)

It’s hard to give Vanderbilt a ton of credit for a win in which they trailed an FCS team at halftime. The good news is that the Commodores woke up. The bad news is that they may not play another game in which they can afford to slumber through the majority of the game.

11. Mississippi (3-2, lost to LSU 45-16)

The Rebels have been boatraced twice, and will boatrace others, as their defense allows. They’re tremendously entertaining, but just not terribly good.

10. South Carolina (2-2, lost to Kentucky 24-10)

At this point, Carolina has beaten two bad teams and been beaten by two good teams. Looking ahead at their schedule, there are more good teams than bad ones remaining.

9. Mississippi State (3-2, lost to Florida 13-6)

At this point, the Bulldogs have managed to take a road-grader offensive line and a talented QB and turn them into 13 points in the last eight quarters. Note to Joe Moorhead: this ain’t the Big Ten.

8. Texas A&M (3-2, beat Arkansas 24-17)

Leave it to A&M to impress us deeply in losing to Clemson and leave us utterly unimpressed in a victory over Arkansas. The offense that looked so dangerous back in that Clemson game looked really pedestrian this week.

7. Missouri (3-1, off this week)

The Tigers were off this week, but Mizzou’s testing ground is coming on soon.

6. Auburn (4-1, beat Southern Mississippi 24-13)

A fairly sloppy and uneven performance from an Auburn team that’s hard to figure. They’ve played two big games and gone 1-1, but their spot in the SEC West remains far from certain.

5. Florida (4-1, beat Mississippi State 13-6)

Writing off Florida because of a loss to Kentucky now looks a little unfair. Dan Mullen pulled off impressive wins in very different ways in the last two weeks, and that bodes well for Florida in the SEC East moving forward.

4. Kentucky (5-0, beat South Carolina 24-10)

Do not adjust your spectacles, oh fearless reader. Given past performance, we understand if you snicker when you see Kentucky listed here. But sleeping on a team that grinds out first downs on the ground and has one of the top statistical defenses in the country feels like a mistake. Who has looked better?

3. Georgia (5-0, beat Tennessee 38-12)

For the second week in a row, Georgia was never in any real jeopardy against a team that it greatly outclassed in talent. And for the second week in a row, the Bulldogs never really seemed engaged in this game. That’s a bad trend, because there are certainly better teams than Mizzou and Tennessee awaiting.

2. LSU (5-0, beat Mississippi 45-16)

We asked for it and the Tigers finally delivered the aesthetically pleasing beatdown we had waited for. It would be hard not to rank them as the second-best team in the West. On a given night, maybe they’ve got some magic up their sleeve for Alabama.

1. Alabama (5-0, beat Louisiana 56-14)

Hey, Alabama lost a half, 14-7 to Louisiana. But as long as they keep winning the other half 49-0, that will probably be OK. There’s no reason to change any assessment of this team.