The SEC has a trio of top-5 teams heading into the 2025 campaign, according to ESPN’s SP+ metric.

The model has Georgia at No 1, Alabama at No. 4 and LSU at No. 5 in its final preseason rankings which were published on Wednesday morning. Ohio State and Michigan round out the top 5 at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.

The preseason AP Poll mirrors those placements for UGA, the Crimson Tide and the Tigers.

Georgia just edged out Ohio State with a projected rating of 29.2. The Bulldogs have the No. 6 offense and No. 2 defense heading into the 2023 season, per SP+ projections.

Other SEC programs to make the top 25 include Tennessee, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Florida and Kentucky.

A tough schedule in the SEC is keeping those programs from being higher in the rankings. Here’s some analysis from ESPN’s Bill Connelly:

The Group of 5’s best teams have iffy rankings but strong win projections; the second tier of SEC teams, meanwhile, has the opposite issue. Texas A&M, the Ole Miss Rebels, Florida Gators and Kentucky Wildcats rank 16th, 18th, 23rd and 24th in SP+, respectively, but they are all projected to finish with between 6.5 and 7.9 average wins. They probably won’t all finish ranked in the polls because of this, and sure enough, only Ole Miss (22nd in both polls) and A&M (23rd AP, 24th coaches) cracked the preseason top 25s.

Vanderbilt will kick off the SEC’s 2023 campaign with a Week 0 contest against Hawaii on Aug. 26. The rest of the SEC will play their season-openers during Week 1.