Athlon's ranks SEC by tiers

[Gerry Hamilton]

https://athlonsports.com/college-football/sec-football-ranking-conferences-16-teams-tiers-2026?taid=6a6905bf71891d0001141d15&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

[Bobby Burton]

Maybe, I’ll be proven wrong. But I don’t see how anyone can put A&M in tier 2 instead of tier 3.

And, IMO, Georgia should probably be alone in tier 1 until proven otherwise. 

[nicray0920]

19 minutes ago, Bobby Burton said:

Maybe, I’ll be proven wrong. But I don’t see how anyone can put A&M in tier 2 instead of tier 3.

And, IMO, Georgia should probably be alone in tier 1 until proven otherwise. 

Agreed @Bobby Burton - feel free to copy and paste OTF family. Great post @Gerry Hamilton to debate on!

Here's my Tier's

Tier 1 - Georgia 

Tier 2 - Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M(can QB Reed eliminate TO's?), LSU (Kiffin factor and portal adds), Ole Miss (can Pete Golding hold the ship together?) 

Tier 3 - Alabama (need an answer at QB and DL), Tennessee (same here with QB and defensive question marks), Florida (sleeper team)

Tier 4 - South Carolina, Missouri, Auburn

Tier 5 - Mississippi State, Vanderbilt (post Pavia era), Kentucky, Arkansas

[watty7796]

There are a lot of "ifs" on this list.  How quickly does LSU take to buy in to Kiffins system, and how does Ole Miss fill the void for the guys that bailed and went to Louisiana are huge questions?  Does Sellers have a reliable weapon or 2 and does the Oline hold up enough to keep him off his back?  Miss St and a dynamic QB has the potential to jump up and steal a few wins in games they have no business being competitive in.  UF and how much does the new staff get out of a talented roster?  UGA is the stand alone 1, and Texas still has a lot of prove it with a rebuilt Oline and a new coord for the defense.  Tenn Okla and ATM all have talent but there are still a lot of question marks.  Ok has not produced at a high level on offense under the current staff and strength on one side of the ball os not enough in the SEC.  Tenn has been so up and down that its hard to have high expectations and ATM has not fared well against teams that their roster talent should be blowing out.  My dark horse to compete for an SEC champ is Missouri.  Drinkwitz seems to always get the best out his roster.  If they fare well in the first couple of games itll put everyone else on notice.Just a few opinions.  Bama is another that jas a great coach but has underperformed the last few seasons. Vandy without Pavia and the grit and grime attitude is going to be back to what everyone expects Vandy to be.  Inexperienced and short on weapons.  

Edited 1 hour ago by watty7796

[akhookem]

1 hour ago, Bobby Burton said:

Maybe, I’ll be proven wrong. But I don’t see how anyone can put A&M in tier 2 instead of tier 3.

And, IMO, Georgia should probably be alone in tier 1 until proven otherwise. 

Blinded by A&M’s cupcake 11-1 record last year. None of these people actually watched them against Texas or Miami (only teams with a pulse). And they’ve been listening to Gerry spouting about their NIL and roster talent🤣

I’m curious what A&Ms record would have been on Texas or OU’s schedule last year.

[TexasMDcoach]

Tier 1a - Georgia 

        1b- Texas

Tier 2 - Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Alabama (OU made playoff last year w no offense, A&M very talented team with good coach)

Tier 3 -Tennessee Florida, Missouri

Tier 4 - South Carolina, Auburn

Tier 5 - Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Arkansas

Edited 26 minutes ago by TexasMDcoach