
Predicting every SEC team's final record after Week 11: Ole Miss, Alabama answer the bell
Another week, another reorganization of the SEC. OK, so we did note that Ole Miss (and not Tennessee) could be the biggest threat to Georgia. We did also have Alabama winning (although probably not in a runaway). But not everything in the SEC was expected.
Week 11 altered several outlooks, for better or worse.
Here’s our predicted order of finish and record for every SEC team.
Texas (11-1, 8-1 after beating Florida 49-17)
The Horns are solidly on top of the SEC. Aside from A&M on the road, it’s a pretty easy run. Arkansas doesn’t seem to have the defense to hang with Texas and Kentucky doesn’t have the offense. The Aggies are the only stumbling block left, and you’d have to prefer to be in Texas’s shoes in that one.
Tennessee (11-1, 8-1 after 33-14 win over Mississippi State)
The injury to Nico Iamaleava could be a big deal, because the question will be whether Tennessee can get the offense untracked to put up some scores on Georgia. A week ago, Georgia would have been the pick, but seeing UGA unable to score in too many games (and the generally positive initial precautionary nature of Nico’s injury) makes Tennessee the road pick here. UTEP and Vandy shouldn’t be threats.
Ole Miss (10-2, 8-2 after 28-10 win over Georgia)
That was a statement maker. The statement is that the Rebels are going to make the Playoff. Florida on the road and the Egg Bowl at home don’t leave much room for competitive games. Ole Miss took it right to Georgia and earned a hard-fought, physical victory in the kind of game they’ve seemed to lose in recent seasons.
Alabama (10-2, 7-2 after 42-13 win over LSU)
Is this the game where Kalen DeBoer acknowledges that while he’d really like to line up and throw the ball all over the field, he’s at his best when running and leaning on the defense? This Alabama team is now very solidly within the CFP field and nobody left on the schedule has the scoring punch to outlast the Tide.
Georgia (9-3, 7-2 after 28-10 loss to Ole Miss)
Obviously, a Georgia Tech team that can beat Miami can’t be a total afterthought, but Tennessee is the key game here. Beat the Vols and UGA can create 10-2 chaos. That said, the regression of Carson Beck makes it hard to pick Georgia in this game. Surely, it’s the receivers on the outside who are the stumbling point, although you have to wonder if Beck has taken some physical punishment that has left him a little bit off.
Texas A&M (9-3, 7-2 after week off)
The Aggies shouldn’t get a challenge from New Mexico State or Auburn, but Texas seems likely to be the loss that might bump A&M out of the CFP hunt. Still, A&M is pretty clearly going to be far from the only 9-3 team that’s hoping and crossing their fingers come CFP announcement date.
LSU (9-3, 6-3 after 42-13 loss to Alabama)
Yes, this was a tough loss. Yes, they’re out of the Playoff. But it should an easy 9-3 finish. At Florida then home against Vandy and Oklahoma is a pretty soft ending to the regular season. As wacky as the 2024 season has been, the Playoff selection committee might end up picking a 9-3 SEC team … or an unimpressive 10-2 Mizzou team. So LSU might not be quite as dead in CFP terms as was presumed.
Missouri (9-3, 7-2 after 30-23 win over Oklahoma)
This is the key. The schedule shapes up for Missouri to have a straight-forward path to 10 wins. Could the CFP overlook a 10-2 SEC team with a cruddy schedule for a 9-3 team with a tougher slate? Here’s the thing — all those other potential 9-3 teams have to be hoping that South Carolina or Arkansas takes down the Tigers. Of the two, Carolina looks the most likely and we’ll project that. A 9-3 Mizzou team isn’t coming within 100 miles of the Playoff.
South Carolina (8-4, 6-3 after 28-7 win over Vanderbilt)
Carolina was again impressive. Honestly, 9-3 could well be in the cards. Mizzou at home doesn’t look intimidating and FCS Wofford is no matchup. That leaves Clemson, and the Tigers are entirely within reach. That said, for the moment, we’ll stick with 8-4, which is quite a job by Shane Beamer for this anti-Missouri of horrific SEC slates.
Vanderbilt (6-6, 6-4 after 28-7 loss to South Carolina)
LSU and Tennessee should handle the Commodores. Still, it’s a remarkable season and Vandy should get a bowl opponent that is a much more competitive matchup than its last couple of regular-season games.
Arkansas (6-6, 5-4 coming off a bye week)
The Hogs at Missouri is a very, very interesting game, but we’re trending very slightly on the Tigers’ side of things. Beating Texas isn’t plausible, but handling La. Tech will get the Razorbacks to bowl eligibility. Sam Pittman’s seat should be at least a little cooler than it was.
Oklahoma (5-7, 5-5 after 30-23 loss to Missouri)
This was the shot for the Sooners. It’s hard to see Alabama or LSU being competitive games for a team that uses so much energy shooting itself in the foot. No way around seeing Oklahoma as one of the SEC’s biggest disappointments of 2024.
Florida (5-7, 4-5 after 49-17 loss to Texas)
The brutal schedule month from continues. Billy Napier got a statement of confidence, but let’s see how confident anyone is if the LSU and Ole Miss games are also 30+ point losses. Well, there’s always Florida State in the finale.
Kentucky (4-8, 3-6 after week off)
It’s an FCS game coming up, so Kentucky’s bowl hopes will last another week before Texas handles that. Mark Stoops’ team has always played well against Louisville, but with likely no real stakes on the line, it’ll be interesting to see if that continues.
Auburn (4-8, 3-6 after week off)
Like Kentucky, Auburn’s bowl hopes can live another week given an easy matchup with ULM. But A&M and Alabama don’t look plausible. Could Hugh Freeze be the SEC coach most likely to be hitting the road?
Mississippi State (2-10, 2-8 after 33-14 loss to Tennessee)
The Bulldogs are playing out the string. Missouri and Ole Miss aren’t teams they can beat.
LSU is not out of the playoffs yet. They still hold the tiebreaker over OM if both teams finish with 2 SEC losses and aTm knocks off UTA and UTV loses to UGa. There will be a lot of Bama fans pulling for UGa this weekend as well, I imagine. They need a 4 way 2 loss scenario to assure a CFP birth by winning the SECCG
Bama doesn’t need to win the SEC to assure a spot. They just need to win out.
In fact, playing in the SECCG might be their most likely way not to make the playoffs.
True, you can probably say that about any 2 loss team in the SEC except the one that wins the SECCG if you start thinking about all the tiebreaker scenarios. What would be worse, 10-2 with losses to Bama and Ole Miss, or 10-2 with losses against UTV and Vandy, or losses against UGa and Arky? Someone ain’t gonna be happy but the one thing we know for sure based on recency bias, it won’t be Bama.
Who know at this point. All I care about is UGA winning out, taking two weeks off, and hosting a Playoff game in Athens. After that, let’s the chips fall where they may. At this point, that’s a lot to wish for.
I know I can be over reactive, your thoughts about Beck and Rashada caught on camera over on the bench laughing and cutting up while we’re trailing 22-10 with under 4 minutes left in the game?
I mean. I don’t know.
Maybe he read your comments last week about his moping on the bench(:
Talk about the perfect answer…lol, well played my friend, well played.
Nice JTF lol
It’s interesting how SDS’s narrative switches so quickly – Georgia loses to Ole Miss so they have no chance of winning against Tennessee. Forget the fact that Georgia has home advantage and very talented players, and that Tennessee’s top 2 offensive players have injuries. In my opinion, both teams have a similar chance to win, but if I had to choose a winner I’d pick Georgia.
The only way LSU can make the playoffs is by winning the SEC championship! Even if Ole Miss and LSU both have two conferences loses the tiebreaker will not matter because LSU has 3 loses there is no way a 3 loss LSU team gets in without winning the SEC championship.
Two shots at Mizzou in one post, pretty much your bias average.
I didn’t think they were shots. Mizzou has had an easy schedule and struggled to win against teams that weren’t very good. OU is a good example. Plus they were crushed by the two teams they played that were good. I’m a Mizzou fan but I’m also a realist. We have a great D, a lousy O, and a below average special teams. It’s a testament to Drink’s coaching that we’ve won 7 games.
However, we could end up 7-5 or 10-2. It’s been a crazy season.
I have no problems with the writer beefing about the quality of Mizzou’s schedule. My problem with the writer is that Missouri’s schedule is no worse than that of the mighty Longhorns, so why not throw in a comment or two about god’s gift to college football playing a soft schedule?
Elbon, how do you get so far off the fact sheet? How is playing Alabama an easy schedule? Or the other seven SEC opponents? Even Vanderbilt has a good football team this year. If you think their non conf schedule is too easy, just watch their league games.
Freeze isn’t going anywhere just yet. Auburn fans are still blaming most of the mess on the Plains on Bryan Harsin–as they should–though Freeze could have fixed at least some of those problems in the portal, especially at QB (Freeze probably still has sleepless nights asking himself why he didn’t go after Diego Pavia). But Auburn is recruiting at a level it hasn’t in quite some time, and you have to think Freeze has learned some valuable portal lessons, so he’ll get 2025 to prove that he knows what he is doing and he’s more than just two wins over Saban a decade ago. But if he doesn’t have the Tigers at least knocking on the door of the Playoff next year, he may not get a 2026.
Dang, I hope this is right for UT’s sake, but I’ll believe it when I see it with UGa. Nico is not Dart, and pressure on Nico causes problems. You also have to consider UT’s tendency to lose games they should win over the past 50+ years in my personal observation. The Vandy game is not a forgone conclusion as it may have been in the past especially with Pavia at QB. Maybe the Arkansas game was the one that got away this year.
Clarification…
By “games they should win”, I did not mean the UGa game but rather the Vandy game.
The conference is carnage this season and I am ready for more. Let the Aggies beat Texas, UGA beat Tennessee, SC beat Mizzou, and Vandy get one more shock win. Hell, while I am it let us also see Mississippi State get an SEC win and Auburn knock off Bama in the Iron Bowl. Crazy? Yes, but who would have predicted a lot of what has already happened?
I’m glad UT doesn’t have to play USC this year.
Feel the same way here, coots are on a roll.
As long as the ref crew doesn’t manufacture outcomes ….. Ike it looked like they were going to give Oklahoma a big fat fake freebie at Missouri night before last!
I don’t know who Cox thinks we are going to lose to, when he predicts 8-4 instead of 9-3. We have never beaten a Drinkwitz coached team (0-1 against him at App State), but this is our best team since Spurrier had the three 11-2 seasons. We have had three big road wins, and only lost to Alabama on the road by two points because our field goal kicker is our Achillies heel. I predict that LaNorris, Rocket, and the rest will do to Clemson the same thing that Spenser Rattler did at Memorial Stadium in Clemson two years ago-beat them
So how can 7 or more SEC football teams turn out to be “Disappointments” to the writer boys of this silly esports newspaper? Math is not your strong attributes I have to note. Every game has a winner and loser and you know the number of games????????????
I honestly thought Ole Miss was dead to rights for the playoff after they lost to LSU, but I believe regardless if they win out they will be in the playoff… crazy but that’s college football for you this year. SEC and Big 10 gonna get 4 teams each in the playoff potentially 5 from SEC.
After they got destroyed at home by Bama I can’t imagine any scenario where LSU gets picked over a bunch of other 2 loss SEC teams. The playoff committee showed their hand tonight. I believe UT will lose at UGA with or withiut Nico and they will drop us out of the playoffs and put UGA in. Bama will once again get the bias even though we won head to head. 4 teams in-Texas, Bama, OM, UGA.
It’s going to be fun to watch MSU beat Ole Miss in Oxford in two weeks.