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SEC power rankings, Week 9: LSU is back, sort of

ByJohn Buhler|
OXFORD, MS - OCTOBER 21: LSU Tigers running back Derrius Guice (5) rushes the ball during a football game between the LSU Tigers and Ole Miss Bears at Vaught Hemingway Stadium in Oxford Mississippi on October 21, 2017. Guice rushed for 276 yards for the day. (Photo by John Korduner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
OXFORD, MS - OCTOBER 21: LSU Tigers running back Derrius Guice (5) rushes the ball during a football game between the LSU Tigers and Ole Miss Bears at Vaught Hemingway Stadium in Oxford Mississippi on October 21, 2017. Guice rushed for 276 yards for the day. (Photo by John Korduner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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The SEC rolls along into Week 9 after having a bunch of teams on their byes a week ago. Here are the weekly power rankings in the SEC heading into Week 9.

We’re getting to that really great part of the college football season where things are definitely starting to heat up as the weather changes. The SEC has a pair of undefeated teams in the No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide and the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs who look to be on a collision course for Atlanta in the 2017 SEC Championship Game.

Then, there are a handful of teams that are looking increasingly likely they won’t be going bowling this holiday season. We have to expect that the Battle Line Rivalry the day after Thanksgiving will be the last game of the season for both the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Missouri Tigers.

Week 8 didn’t reveal all that much about the state of the SEC. That’s because five of the 14 member institutions were on byes. The SEC went 5-4 as a conference will all four losses being in conference play. Missouri throttled the Idaho Vandals in the non-conference because of course they did.

Here are the weekly power rankings for the SEC heading into Week 9 of the 2017 college football season. Alabama, the Auburn Tigers and the LSU Tigers will be on their byes this week.

COLUMBIA, MO – OCTOBER 21: Running back Dawson Downing No. 22 of the Missouri Tigers in action against the Idaho Vandals at Memorial Stadium on October 21, 2017 in Columbia, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, MO – OCTOBER 21: Running back Dawson Downing No. 22 of the Missouri Tigers in action against the Idaho Vandals at Memorial Stadium on October 21, 2017 in Columbia, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)

It’s become painfully obvious that Bret Bielema has no place in the SEC. Wasn’t he supposed to be an elite coach in the Big Ten when he left the Wisconsin Badgers? Then again, the Big Ten was in a down cycle when he was going to Rose Bowls. His Arkansas program is horrendous in 2017.

The Hogs can’t hang in SEC games. You knew that Auburn was going to steamroll them on Saturday afternoon. It won’t do the program any good to can Bielema mid-season, but his team isn’t winning four of their next five games to finish 6-6 and go bowling.

Though Arkansas might beat them in the Battle Line Rivalry, Missouri gets the slight edge over the Razorbacks again in these weekly power rankings for two reasons: 1. They actually beat a team this week. 2. We know that the Tigers offense can actually score points.

Missouri should beat UConn this week but is probably in too deep of a hole to go bowling. However, there is a pathway to which Barry Odom keeps his job. The Tigers need to go finish 5-7. With the best team left on the slate for the Tigers being the Florida Gators, that’s not out of the realm of possibility.

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