The top 4 teams at the beginning of the 2024 season were nearly unanimously agreed to be: tOSU, UGA, Texas, and Oregon.
Of those 4 teams, tOSU , UGA, and Oregon all lose WAY more off their rosters than Texas heading into the 2025 season. It’s not even comparable. And particularly, Ohio State loses damn near everybody that started the game on Friday night.
So, the question for me is which teams have a reservoir of returning talent / experience that will surpass Texas in 2025?
Bama? Good grief, no. They’ve been gutted by the portal the past two offseason, and graduation / early NFL entries (Milroe, Campbell, Booker, J.Roberts, Lawson, et al).
Michigan? They’re about to lose 4 first rounders and haven’t been replacing these guys in recruiting.
Penn State? Still have J.Franklin and Allar
Ole Miss? Completely gutted after 2024
aggy? OU? USC? LOL !!
There are 3 schools in the SEC on an upward talent trajectory relative to 2024 that should be improved on field in 2025.
1. Florida
2. LSU (best portal class in country plus Nuss returning and DC in year 2)
3. South Carolina
The question for Texas is do any of those 3 teams actually have enough talent, experience at key positions, and overall depth to surpass Texas in 2025? IMO, while both SoCar and Florida have the QB piece in-place and have some solid players on both sides of the ball, they are both one-deep right now and won’t have Texas’ talent after a 14-17 game schedule.
By contrast, LSU also has the QB, WRs, RB and more talent through the entire depth chart than Florida or SoCar. However, LSU still has huge problems in the secondary, has to replace OL, and is unproven along the DL…all of which matter in the SEC. LSU can win offensive shootouts weekly however.
Add it all up and while we focus on Texas’ personnel losses from 2024, I can’t find any team in college football that enters 2025 with a better roster across the depth chart, and with as many of the key pieces already identified and (many of them) experienced. QB? Arch, WR? Wingo, Moore, maybe an InPort. OT? Goosby and possibly Big Cam. DE? C.Simmon, Burke, possibly T.Moore. LB? Ant Hill. DB? Manny, Taaffe, Guilbeau, Jelani M, D.Williams.
The biggest piece for Texas is finding a decent Kicker.
Finally, keep in mind that SEC teams can’t poach InPorts from other SEC teams in the Spring (for the 2025 season). So, all the talk of seeing Spring roster portal movement is limited to SEC teams poaching ACC, B12, FCS, and Big Ten rosters for talent. If you assume that tOSU, Michigan, Oregon, and PSU have enough NIL to retain the players they want, is there really enough NFL caliber talent on the rosters of other Big Ten schools to be difference makers on an SEC roster? Not really.
How much NFL caliber talent can an SEC team poach from the Big 12 or FCS? A: very, very little (there isn’t much NFL-caliber talent in these leagues).
Which means incremental SEC roster improvement via Spring portal for 2025 will be sourced by raiding ACC rosters for talent in the Spring…except that Clemson has already protected their roster talent. Net-net: SEC rosters for 2025 aren’t going to change too much from what they are at the end of this week (once the portal closes on CFB playoff teams).