SEC power rankings: LSU-Alabama week, Georgia rebounds vs. Florida

This week’s SEC power rankings have LSU and Alabama at the top ahead of their Game of the Century for control of the SEC West.

Through 10 weeks, the LSU Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide are back firmly at the top of the SEC West standings and are dominating the college football polls at the same time once again.

It’s just like old times!

While the two best teams in the division were taking the week off, Ole Miss almost shocked the Auburn Tigers while on the road. Over in Fayetteville, Mississippi State stomped Arkansas while Texas A&M pummeled UTSA in College Station.

Out on the other side of the SEC, the Georgia Bulldogs pretty much punched their ticket to the SEC Championship Game by holding on to beat Dan Mullen and the Florida Gators. South Carolina, unsurprisingly, had no issue with Vanderbilt and the Tennessee Vols soundly defeated a team from Alabama.

All in all, it was a fairly eventful and exciting week of SEC football.

The Arkansas Razorbacks are, by far, the worst team in the Southeastern Conference. Their most recent round of disappointment came as a struggling Mississippi State team bulldozed the Razorbacks, with MSU racking up 640 total yards of offense in the process. Chad Morris might end up being the first SEC coach canned this offseason.

Vanderbilt is bad. That’s not surprising anyone at this point. But, the Commodores put on an admirable showing on Saturday when they took a 7-0 lead over South Carolina. Vandy couldn’t hold it and couldn’t add any other points to the scoreboard, but this game was in reach until late for Derek Mason’s team.

The Mississippi State Bulldogs needed this win in the worst way. Beating Arkansas up and down on Saturday took some of the heat away from Joe Moorhead’s hot seat, but it doesn’t mean that he shouldn’t be criticized for how this year has gone for MSU. This game was, after all, against the Razorbacks. And Arkansas, after all, is one of the worst teams in the country. Still, Moorhead and Mississippi State needed this win.

Now, bowl eligibility is certainly back on the table for State. If MSU can make it to a bowl game, the main discussion topic of this season is suddenly about how resilient Moorhead’s team was and all of that underachieving is simply a secondary storyline.

Ole Miss traveled over to Auburn and nearly went home with a win. The Rebels took one of the best teams in the country down to the wire. What’s most impressive about this game is just how dominant Ole Miss looked on defense, neutralized one of the most productive offenses in the SEC. Yes, the Tigers gained over 500 yards, but the Rebels kept Auburn out of the end zone, keeping this game close up to the end.

Rich Rod’s offense sputtered throughout the evening, and had Ole Miss actually had some decent production offensively, this game would have been won by the Rebels. But, there just wasn’t enough there for the Rebels to win on the road. Now, Matt Luke has to get his team focused on a visiting New Mexico State team before currently top ranked LSU arrives in Oxford.

Things could have gone better for the Gamecocks. Things could have also gone significantly worse, all things considered. South Carolina fell behind Vanderbilt early on, but Will Muschamp‘s team was able to come back and win. That said, the fact that South Carolina had to come back and win against Vanderbilt probably isn’t an encouraging thing for Gamecock fans.

Admittedly, I initially thought UAB would have been able to actually challenge the Tennessee Volunteers. That certainly wasn’t the case as the Vols processed the Blazers with ease, winning 30-7. Tennessee still isn’t a good team, but it is taking steps in the right direction. Beating a well-disciplined, solid UAB team like that is impressive. It’s something that a struggling program like Tennessee should be proud of.

The Mizzou Tigers had a bye week, which they probably needed. The Tigers are currently on a two-game losing streak, having fallen to Vanderbilt and Kentucky in back-to-back weeks. Both of those losses were on the road. Mizzou’s next game is on the road and happens to be against the best team in the SEC East, Georgia. If Missouri can’t win in Nashville or Lexington, winning in Athens will be impossible. Unless Mizzou finds some sort of magic, that is.

The Kentucky Wildcats, like Mizzou, took the week off. The Wildcats are 4-1 at home while being winless on the road this season. Of Kentucky’s four remaining games, three of them are at home with the one last road trip being to Nashville. Kentucky could make this season seem somewhat decent with a strong finish down the stretch.

A&M continues to appear like a very, very solid program. Though the Aggies are not a top-tier sort of team in the Southeastern Conference, they are doing a great job of defeating inferior teams with ease. Beating UTSA 45-14 is a pretty good example of that.

Mullen and the Florida Gators got a slow start against the Georgia Bulldogs. And that is precisely what ultimately doomed them on Saturday. Being down 13-3 at half against one of the best teams in the country is not exactly a recipe for victory. Kyle Trask did everything he could to try and get the Gators back in the game, but Jake Fromm‘s efficiency and Florida’s inability to stop Georgia on third down doomed the Gators.

Florida has definitely looked better under Mullen than it has in a while, but the Gators still have room to grow. Still, this team probably wins 10 games in the regular season, with contests against Vanderbilt, at Mizzou, and then back home against Florida State up ahead.

Auburn got lucky to not have gotten its third loss of the season on Saturday. The Tigers survived in a game that they probably should have dominated against a foe they should have mowed right over. But Ole Miss made things interesting and Auburn held on for a win it had to struggle to get.

The Tigers are better than what they showed against the Rebels and they’ll need to play up to their potential if they want to cause some chaos down the stretch of this season. A bye week gives Auburn a break before Georgia and then the Tigers get Samford before facing Alabama. Both Georgia and Alabama have to go to Auburn to face the Tigers.

The Georgia Bulldogs had opportunities to pull away from Florida, but never quite took advantage of them. That said, beating the Gators by a touchdown was certainly good enough for Georgia and likely good enough for the playoff committee to take note of. The Bulldogs were efficient on third down and kept converting. The offense was good enough and the defense was smothering.

Alright, yes, this is sort of a copout. I’ve got Alabama and LSU tied for the No. 1 spot here. Both teams are fresh off of bye weeks and both teams have been absolutely insanely good all season. It’s almost time to see if Tua Tagovailoa is fully healed and if he can out-duel Joe Burrow and the LSU Tigers.

Whichever team wins will take the top spot here and be the team to beat for the college football playoffs. That said, there’s a chance that the loser could still make it into the playoffs. Alabama and LSU helped usher in this era with a rematch in the BCS national title game for the 2011 season. It would only be fitting if these two teams got to meet each other in the playoffs.

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