Where SEC Teams Land in Preseason Coaches, AP Rankings

Nine of the SEC’s 14 teams land on both the Week 1 Coaches Poll and AP Poll with overwhelming consistency between the two polls.

Two more SEC teams received at least one vote from AP voters while four SEC programs received at least one vote from the coaches poll.

Though not the reigning champion, Georgia tops both lists as the top team in college football entering the season. Both rankings also have Texas at No. 4, Alabama at No. 5, Ole Miss at No. 6, and Missouri at No. 11.

The only differing opinion between the SEC programs in the Top 25 is that the coaches poll has LSU at No. 12 while AP voters slotted the Tigers in at No. 13.

Both polls have Tennessee landing at No. 15 in their rankings while Oklahoma comes in at No. 16 according to both.

Texas A&M rounds out the SEC’s Top 25 list at No. 20 according to both AP and coaches.

In terms of teams who received votes but fell short of the Top 25 rankings, Kentucky pulled in two votes in the AP poll while Auburn tallied just one vote. In the coaches poll, meanwhile, Auburn received 25 votes compared to Kentucky’s 12 votes. Florida entered the mix with 11 coaching votes while South Carolina closed out the list with 10 votes.

Here’s a look at how the SEC teams shook out in the Week 1 AP Poll and Coaches Poll:

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While the AP and coaches polls aren’t drastically different in the slightest, ESPN’s SEC FPI (Football Power Index) rankings do have some big changes in comparison.

While ESPN’s FPI still has Georgia, Texas, and Alabama as the conference’s three top teams, the program has Oklahoma at the 4th spot in the SEC with Tennessee at the 5th spot. Missouri, additionally, slides down to the 6th spot in the conference rankings. All three teams land in the Top 10 of the FPI preseason rankings with Georgia at No. 1, Texas at No. 3, Alabama at No. 5, Oklahoma at No. 8, Tennessee at No. 9, and Missouri at No. 10.

The biggest slider in the two comparisons is Ole Miss. While the two polls have the Rebels as the fourth-best team in the conference, ESPN’s FPI rankings have Ole Miss as the ninth-best team in the conference.

The FPI rankings are “a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team’s performance going forward for the rest of the season. FPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Projected results are based on 20,000 simulations of the rest of the season using FPI, results to date, and the remaining schedule,” according to ESPN.

Here’s a look at how the SEC’s Top 25 teams shook out in ESPN’s preseason FPI rankings:

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