SEC
Where every SEC team ranks in ESPN's FPI after scheduling update
On Friday, the SEC announced the 2 additional games each team would play as part of a 10-game, conference-only season.
Now, strengths of schedule and other metrics have been updated, as has ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI). There are 6 SEC squads in the top 25 currently.
Below, you can see where each of the 14 SEC teams currently stands in the updated FPI rankings:
- No. 3 — Alabama
- No. 5 — Georgia
- No. 6 — LSU
- No. 9 — Auburn
- No. 12 — Florida
- No. 15 — Texas A&M
- No. 33 — Kentucky
- No. 36 — Tennessee
- No. 38 — Ole Miss
- No. 39 — South Carolina
- No. 55 — Mizzou
- No. 59 — Arkansas
- No. 72 — Mississippi State
- No. 100 — Vanderbilt
Which teams will live up to their standings and which will fall short? We’ll hopefully find out this fall.
There’s an excellent chance all of these teams will enter November undefeated. Well, maybe not South Carolina. Never under estimate Will Muschamp. He always seems to figure out a way to crap the bed…
Concerning South Carolina…you’re 100% right…they win maybe 3 games this year. Concerning the other teams…there’s a lot of football to be played, SEC football. That phrase “any given Saturday” might just become a well-used one this year, with limited crowds in the stadiums=some loos of the home field advantage.
Nobody wins or loses any games this year. That was my point. I will shave my head if a single down is played.
Vanderbilt and Mississippi State would mop up the floor with 2/3rd of the Pac 12, 1/2 of the ACC, 1/3 of the Big 10 and Big 12….. and all of the power 5. This is how utterly stupid the Football Power Index is. Don’t ever forget this because they will change their name and try to make these ridiculous claims under another name next you hoping you will buy it.
Vanderbilt was mopped up by lowly UNLV last year in Nashville. The score was 34-10, but the Rebels emptied their bench and called off the dogs in the 4th quarter. This was the same UNLV team that lost by 26 to a so-so Arkansas State team. I doubt Vanderbilt could beat any Pac-12 school.
Vanderbilt also got blown off the field at Purdue when PU didn’t have their starting QB. The Boilermakers ran up 42 points to easily dismiss the Commodores. Purdue had just lost to Nevada the week before and would follow up the VU game with a slaughter loss at home to a TCU team that went 5-7.
The only ACC team weak enough for Vanderbilt to play to within 10 points is Georgia Tech, who is transitioning from triple option to pro style and doesn’t yet have the personnel. Tech received an immediate transfer of Vanderbilt’s only really good offensive lineman, Devin Cochran.
Mississippi State will eventually be good enough to mop the floor with most of the Pac-12, ACC, and Big Ten. Vanderbilt will be lucky to be able to mop the floor with their annual FCS opponent. Of course, that isn’t always a given, as they almost lost to Tennessee State a couple years ago; they lucked into a 1-point victory over Charleston Southern a few years back; they had to come from behind to edge Richmond in the near past; they were completely slaughtered by an SMU team coming off the death penalty; and they lost at home by double digits to Citadel twice. They did beat Sewanee 20-0 the last two times they played, before Sewanee dropped to small college. That’s who Vanderbilt should be playing every year, and then somebody like Virginia or Virginia Tech could replace them in the SEC.