Andy & Ari On3 - SEC POWER RANKINGS: Is Texas the CLEAR #1? Breaking down all 16 Southeastern Conference teams

Episode Date: June 10, 2026

As Auburn hosted a soccer match between Argentina and Iceland last night, Andy & Ari dive into Freddy's experience in Jordan-Hare Stadium last night. After diving into Freddy's fun time in America, the fellas stick around in SEC country and analyze the SEC power rankings that On3's Chris Low put out earlier this week. With Texas as Chris's top team, is this warranted? Should Georgia be the obvious number one? Watch here as Andy & Ari debate   (0:00) On Today's Episode (0:47) Presenting Sponsor (2:20) Intro: Freddy goes to Jordan-Hare (8:23) Talking Soccer (10:10) SEC Power Rankings (10:38) #1: Texas or Georgia? (20:26) LSU at 6 (28:46) Too LOW? SEC 1st Year head coaches (32:42) QBs in the SEC (37:36) Bottom of SEC vs Bottom of Big Ten (38:39) Alabama at 7 (50:58) Extensions - Coaches' Contracts (58:05) Closing out the list (59:20) Thanks for watching!   After the debate between Texas and Georgia, Ari tells Andy who he thinks is too low on the list: LSU. Should LSU expect BIG things in Lane Kiffin's first season in Baton Rouge? Andy & Ari discuss   One of the most dominant teams in the SEC over the past quarter-century has been Alabama. As of late, however, the Crimson Tide have not been living up to their fans' insurmountable expectations. Is this the year for Kalen DeBoer to make a run? How will things play out in Tuscaloosa?   Thanks for watching! Be sure to tune in tomorrow as Andy & Ari dive into the Big Ten conference!   Our show is also presented by BetMGM!   If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works:   1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB. 2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. 3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sure you use bonus code CFB when you sign up!   Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary.   See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. This promotional offer is not available in DC, Mississippi, New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET (Available in the US) . 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only (if applicable). Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel   Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/KhXyJulqZv0   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey   Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today is Annie and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. The SEC power rankings released earlier this week by Chris Lowe, add-on three. Ari and I will debate should Texas be number one? Should Georgia be number two? We can go all the way down this list. There is a lot to chew on here because this may be the most difficult conference to rank. And it gives us an excuse to just talk about. these teams as we head in the 2020-season.

You know, well, everybody else is concentrating on soccer, we are going to concentrate on American football. SEC Power Rankies next on 880-R-R-R-R-3. This show is brought to you by BetMGM. All the lines and totals we use come from BetMGM. And if you'd like to sign up, download the BetMGM app. Use the bonus code CFB when you sign up and get up to $1,500 in bonus. bonus bets. If you're already signed up, it's a huge sports week. We've got the NBA finals set.

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All the action is at BetMGM. So make it legendary with BetMGM. See Betmgmgm.com for terms 21 plus. Only this promotional offer is not available in D.C., Mississippi, New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem called 1-800 gambler or 1-800 gambler or 1. 1-800 My Reset available in the U.S. 8778-8-Hope-N-Y or text Hope-N-Y 4667-369 in New York,

1-800-3-0-0-0-Masachusetts, 1-800-1-800-1-80-2002-3 in Puerto Rico. First bet offer for new customers only if applicable, subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in seven days in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Welcome to Annie and Arion 3 presented by BetMGM, and it is time for some peak off-season debate, Ari. We're going to go through the SEC power rankings. Chris Lowe released his rankings earlier this week at On 3. We got every conference coming out. You did the Big 10. I did the ACC. Brett May Murphy's doing the Big 12. We're going to hit all of those in the next few days. And this one could get controversial, but just to put everybody in the mood, I want to

introduce everyone to Freddie. Freddie is a German soccer fan. In the U.S. for the World Cup and has, I just say Freddie's doing it right because Freddie is basically traveling through SEC country, learning about our culture as he heads to the Germany game in Houston. Before you show this video, Andy, I have to ask you, if you had to teach a European who has never been to America, American culture, what would the road trip be? Well, it would probably be Walmart Buckees and an SEC football game, which is basically what Freddie experienced in the last 36 hours. The German mind cannot comprehend the Buckees. So there was a friendly, a pre-World Cup friendly between Argentina and Iceland at Jordan Hare Stadium on Tuesday night.

So Leonel Messi playing soccer in Jordan Hare Stadium with the Argentinian national team. pretty awesome. And oh yeah, they treated it like an Auburn home game, including the flight of the eagle. Look at. Freddie goes, there's an eagle flying around the stadium. Freddie had just been to Buckees, by the way. Freddie had also just been to Walmart.

I'm going to follow him. He ruined his shoes tubing down the Chattahoochee River and had to buy new shoes at Walmart. Good for him. You're getting all. the best that we have to offer, Freddie. Like, take it back to your to your folks and tell them. We're not the worst place in the world.

The German soccer's like whereabouts, but you should tweeted Freddie like the five best places to eat in all those towns that he goes to because there's no one more qualified than you. Freddie's been eating a lot of fast food and gas station food. And I get that. Like Freddie went to Taco Bell, went to Wendy's and just was blown away by the Coke freestyle machine. Blown away.

The European. And certainly cannot comprehend free refills and ice in your soda. Yeah, that's the one thing I've never, like, I've been to Europe a few times on family vacations and stuff. It's like, come on, make your drinks cold. And if they're not cold, like they have, you know what they have in Europe? That's a problem. They have all these fridges that are open in the front.

So there's no ice box. Like you reach in through some plastic flaps or something. And none of the drinks are ever ice cold. And then if you want to make them ice cold, they don't have ice cubes, which, you know, blows my mind. but you know what, Andy, I'm going to follow that guy. I want to see his trip and all the things that he discovers that we take for granted. This is the best country.

It is basically Alexis de Tocqueville traveling through SEC country and taking the findings back to Europe. Like that's all it is. Yeah. How many how many Cs do you know who Alexis is the token is? The soccer team have zero, but welcome to the country. I know that right now is a somewhat divisive time in our country and Americans are at each other's throats. But this is our chance to. prove how much how much more awesome where we live is than where they live.

Yeah. We all can agree that if you are confused or appalled or even amazed by the freestyle machine, that is our, that's Wednesday for us. That's what we get every day. Exactly. It doesn't matter whether you're a Democrat, Republican, what religion you are. You can go fill up with a, with a crispy ice cold drink from your Coke freestyle machine.

Orange vanilla Coke Zero. Yeah. You never even thought of until you can press those buttons together. Nana, go for it. Yeah, that's your prerogative in this country. It's incredible. You know, they had a friendly at Texas A&M before this, and Messi got a signed Marcel Reed jersey.

I saw that. I don't know if he got a Byron Brown jersey last night. There are some pretty massive soccer stadiums. I don't want to pretend like I know anything about soccer, but are these players amazed by the cathedrals they're playing in right now, or is that normal there? I think they're bigger because our 100,000 seat

stadiums are the biggest stadiums in the world. Okay. So Kyle Field is like an insane masterpiece. But also I think probably the size of the stadium compared to the size of the town because these European pros are playing and now some of them play in smaller towns but most of them play into large cities.

Yeah. So they're probably used to large stadiums in large cities so that when they, you know, when they go to an NFL stadium, it makes sense that you're, okay, you're in the metal lands and you're looking across the, you know, looking across the Hudson in New York and there's this big stadium here. But when you're in the middle of nowhere, Texas or the middle of nowhere, Alabama, and all of a sudden there's 90,000 or 110,000 people, it's pretty jarring. Yeah. And I think that it's also just maybe the fact that these are in the south and in Texas. But like, Andy, I went grocery shopping in

north there's just like really cool grocery store that they have in plano uh or north of dallas that britt likes to go to sometimes on the weekends and like we drove by allen high school's football stadium and it's like a 27,000 i think 27,000 uh person stadium for a high school yeah like a massive building for high school like it's like that it's like that's like that's our church here for a lot of people so um you know it's interesting but i am really excited to sink our teeth into the SEC because I know you're fired up about a talking point that you think is interesting. But there's one that I have that I haven't even shared with you and I like to do this on her right. Keep it inward. Why is that team there? So that's been your World Cup preview first.

Yes. That's about all you're going to get at Annie on three for the World Cup. But here's some analysis for soccer if you want it. Oh my God, there's a breakaway. He's going to score. It's going to happen. He's going to go. No, he didn't. The Ombudsman. The Ombudsman. fans were having fun on their message board last night. And somebody posted a thread that just was titled Soccer Sucks. Yeah. It convinced me I am wrong. And the best post was, and I think Argentina was only up one nil on Iceland at the time.

He goes, yeah, it does. We scored three against Kentucky and Hugh Freeze got fired. These losers have one combined. I sent you, I sent you the standup comedy. bit about soccer. And I don't know if you remember what I'm talking about, but I'm going to remind you where it's like we get all fired up about college football rivalries like the Iron Bowl.

He's in the heart of it. They're at Jordan Hare Stadium. Oh, yeah, yeah. But like the rivalries and soccer are more intense because it actually proceeds like global conflict. That's why the Kansas Missouri rivalry is as intense as it is because a town got burned down. Yeah. In that rival,

not not in the football rivalry, but in the Kansas and Missouri rivalry. So I'm like open to the idea, though, that like soccer has intense rivalries and the hatred between those rivals, although I can't name who they are really, would be more intense than maybe the Michigan, Ohio State rivalry because of actual. Probably, but they'll score fewer points, and that's not very exciting. So let us talk. SEC Power Ranking's Chris Lowe put his out on Monday.

He's got Texas number one, Georgia 2, Ole Miss 3, Oklahoma. Oklahoma 4. This is for the podcast listeners in case you can't see it. Texas A&M 5, LSU, Alabama 7, Tennessee 8, Florida 9, South Carolina 10, Missouri 11, Vanderbilt 12, Auburn 13, Mississippi State 14, Kentucky 15, and Arkansas at 16. So I want to start at the top. The Texas Longhorns are number one. I think they're going to be number one in the country on a lot of people's preseason rankings. Here's my question, Ari. Are we sure Georgia shouldn't be number one until somebody proves they can beat them? Yeah, I mean, I guess it just depends on your viewpoint of this. And I think that the cool thing about the on three staff, like the national staff all taking one conferences is that although power rankings in theory should be done the same way, we might weight things differently. I personally, if I were doing the SEC, would have unquestionably had Texas number one. And I understand the viewpoint that maybe Georgia should be number one considering Georgia beats them every time they play. Right. And I say somebody, now somebody has beaten Georgia, including an SEC team.

Ole Miss just beat George in the playoff. But Georgia's won the conference title the last couple of years. And they've been consistently the best in regular season play. They've done it despite playing pretty tough schedules. I have a hard time saying they shouldn't be number one. Now, this is a power ranking. So this is who you think is just going to be good regardless of. schedule. So I don't know. I just, I guess, I guess we're saying and or Chris is saying the Texas roster just feels like it can be better than the Georgia roster.

Yeah. And here's how you know Chris is right. If you take away your argument point that Georgia beats Texas or has tend to be Texas since Texas Joy. Well, that's the thing. Georgia is Texas is kryptonite, but they don't even play in the regular season this year. But what's another argument for why? That Texas wasn't as good.

wasn't good enough yet. I don't think that Georgia would have another argument for moving forward why they should be out of Texas is what I'm saying. Like, I don't, like they have Gunner Stockton. I actually think that we should have a real conversation about whether Gunner Stockton is underappreciated as an asset in college football because when you think about all the stars in the sport, I don't think that he gets clearly like enough credit for how good he's been.

Like, I think that he's been very good. Would you take Gunner Stockton or Arch Manning? I'd probably take Arch Manning. But I also think that if I had to take Gunn-Colman or You don't even have to even tell me who the other person is. But I also don't know if I would take Arch Manning over Gunner Stockton

if Gunner Stockton was on Texas and Arch Manning was on Georgia. Now maybe that's the case. I think it's possible that Arch Manning turns out to be the best player in college football by the end of the year. But he might not. You know, we were wrong about this a year ago

and I was certainly more wrong about it than you were. But I think Gunn-Rer. Star, Stockton is a very great, really good athlete, really good runner, and has made some big time throws. He certainly did. Tennessee throws that he was making down the end of the stretch. Sorry, River, at the end of last year's game, we're remarkable. And he's obviously going to be a year more experienced. But when you think about the overall offensive explosiveness and the overall defensive explosiveness when it comes to athlete for athlete, like, I don't think that Georgia holds a candle to Texas right now.

That doesn't mean. So, and this is another thing. It doesn't hold a candle. They kick the crap out. out of them when they played late last season. We're projecting backward. I realize that, but you, they don't hold it. Like, if they played tomorrow, you think Texas would beat them by three touchdowns?

I don't think so. If they played tomorrow, I get that very seriously. Win by double digits would be my prediction, yeah. Then that might be crazy. But, like, I also have never been, like, I'm a prison. Blood dogs are slept on on this on this show. Slept on. I mean, I think Texas is going to win the national title.

Like, I'm very high on Texas. So maybe I'm overstating it a little bit. But player for player, when you go down NFL draft boards, which is the closest thing that we can to fact at this point before these teams have played, Texas probably has. I just like Georgia loses a couple of playoff quarterfinals and it's like, oh, let's just dismiss them. This is blowing my mind.

Do you think Texas would beat Georgia by doubling them? We're comparing them to a team that I believe is going to win the national title. Like I think that they firmly belong at number two. Yeah, but the rosters were somewhat. similar when they played last year and it was an ass kicking the other way. So like you think you think what Texas has done with this roster and what Georgia has lost. Like are they moving like this is a legitimate question. Yes, I do.

Is Georgia falling while Texas is rising? Okay. Yes, I do. I think that. If you asked random fans who Georgia's receivers were, do you think anybody could name them? Who doesn't know London Humphreys, sorry? I mean, do you think that an Arizona state fan knows who London

Humphrens is. I don't. I don't. Yeah. I don't think they know he started out at Vanderbilt. I don't think they know he didn't transfer to Georgia. You know, Nate Grazer is probably, right? I mean, he's really good. But like in terms of star power and that and here you're hoping you're hoping C.J. Wiley, you know, has a breakout. Yeah. Here's the thing though. And I think it's interesting in the SEC specifically. We spoke last year. Taylor maybe this all that we, we, we, we, We spoke this entire offseason, Andy, about the SEC having more talent than the Big Ten, but firing, what was it, six coaches.

Coaching, I think, in 2026 means more than it did in 2016. Okay. And there's no question in my mind, I would take George's coaching staff. So, like, even though Texas has more draftable players, like, you're not, you're, like, I think Steve Sarkeesian has assembled a pretty good staff. and, you know, obviously a pretty high-profile defensive coordinator coming in to maybe shake things up. Who's a Georgia alum and a former Kirby Smart defensive coordinator? Yeah.

Isn't Will Must Champ like Kirby Smart Light to a certain extent? Like, I don't know. But I will. I don't think I'd ever call Will Mustchamp anybody light. You get full strength with Will Must Champ. Will Must Champ was Kirby Smart. His career just didn't end up being Kirby Smart, right? Yeah, similar upbringings.

Nick Saban's defensive coordinator, became a head coach. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Georgia guy. But, yeah, I don't know, man. I just like, I think it's an interesting discussion because change of the guard is interesting. And Texas is a team that people continually roll their eyes at as a, you know, think that they're going to choke at the end or that they're not good enough or Steve Sarkeesian's going to blow it. I don't roll my eyes at it.

I just think the level of consistency that Georgia has shown under Kirby Smart. cannot be discounted. You can't be. And it's not. If you think they're going to fall off the table, okay, but I will not be predicting that until I actually see it because

they've had opportunities to fall off the table and they don't. They just keep winning. But here's the thing and why it's not being discounted, Andy. I don't think that Georgia is the second most talented team in the conference either and they're number two.

And I think that they belong at number two. Okay. Which is, I think, but last question, if you had to buy stock in the next of a team right now, and they're all priced evenly, and you get returns based on SEC championships and playoff wins for the next five years, are you allocating your funds to Texas or Georgia starting today? I'm betting on Kirby Smart in that one. Okay. So give me Georgia.

But if you did the list, would you put Georgia one? It would be tough. It'd be tough because I do think Texas probably has the best roster in the country right now. Yeah. So, but I just, I'm not, this is not me trying to play devil's advocate either because you know we don't fake arguments on this show. No, I know. I know you think this. My thing is, why do we think they're going to fall off?

What are they done to tell you they're going to fall off? They keep recruiting well. They keep developing players. They keep putting players in the NFL. Andy, this might be a clip. I'm not trying to be controversial here at all. And I certainly don't want to be on the wrong end of the Georgia avalanche. They have already.

They're not as good as they were before. No, they're not as good, but they were better than everybody before. Right. There will be no team as good as the 2021 or 2022 Georgia team in this era, not possible. But in terms of consistency, like Texas is also outside of losing head to head to Georgia, which, you know, I don't think really should account for much thought in this. Oh, and three in the last two seasons. But Texas has been a more successful football program over the last three years, no?

I mean, they don't have the SEC title. They won the 12 and made the playoff, the 14 playoff. They haven't won the SEC yet, so maybe that matters to you. Yeah, and who kept winning the SEC? No, the Georgia's winning the SEC. Yeah, I know. Okay, all right. What do you think matters more advancing in the playoff or winning the SEC?

Like it's 2025 and. six now, you know. If Georgia had gotten to play Clemson instead of Notre Dame first that year, they probably would want to playoff game too. So Texas also like played Ohio State down to the flash drive of, of the semi-final. Like there's, I don't know, Texas has been in bigger moments nationally in the last two or three years than Georgia has been. And I'm not one of those people who who assumes Texas is going to flop. Like, I think Texas is really good. I just don't think we need to abandon the old bulldogs just yet. I think abandoning would be having them at seven or eight

where you know, so want to talk about abandon? Where's BAM on this list? All right. Let's get to that. You said there's a, I can't believe that team. Yeah. Is ranked there. It's not Bama. Which one? I think Bama is appropriately ranked at number seven. I think LSU is too low. LSU's number six. I think LSU should be three. Okay. That was going to be my next question. So I'm glad. Because I think that's one of those.

This is the tough part with some of this where you're like, they are too low. And I'm like, okay, who you're replacing? You're very confident that they should. So they should be above Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Texas, A&M and Alabama. We haven't yet defined this yet. But power rankings to me is who do I think is going to be really good right now. Right. Regardless of schedule.

Yes. I don't know who's got a higher likelihood of winning the national title based on schedule and probability. But pound for pound who has a better roster. Everybody's schedules or schedule draws in the conference are pretty tough. This isn't like in the Big Ten, you can say that Penn State is going to finish higher in the Big Ten just by looking at their schedule. Yeah. Because their schedules easier than some of the other contender schedules. I just think it would be interesting.

If we did like a mock, like pretended like it was Friday and we did a draft and you got Ole Miss and we did it one at a time. You got Old Miss, I got LSU. You got Oklahoma. I get LSU. And we just like went player for player and just went back and forth who would run out of like elite talent first. I think all those teams would run out. I think A&M, Oklahoma and Oleness would run out of talent before LSU. And we did this roundtable with the LSU site.

I know that you participated in it. You got some questions about what your expectations are of LSU. One of the questions that I received and I'm assuming you got the same ones considering it's a roundtable was, does LSU have legitimate thoughts or hopes or aspirations or even expectations? or even expectations this year of winning the national title. And I said unequivocally yes. They have invested too much money. They have put themselves through a public circus.

They're paying a buyout. They invested all this money in the roster. And they have a lot, a lot of really good players. And I would venture to say, I don't know how they are in terms of depth in comparison to some of the legacy programs like Georgia. Like I would probably guess that Georgia's twos are better than LSU's twos. But are LSU's ones better than Georgia's ones?

probably right across the board. Are you sure about that? Are you sure? Are you sure? The LSU's offensive and defensive lineman are better than Georgia's offensive and defensive lineman? Because you know who Jordan Seaton is. I do.

Well, I also know who Prince Well, Uman Mieland is. I can't say his name. Uman Mieland. Yeah, I mean, they've got two top end first round draft picks on both sides of the ball at very crucial positions. I don't know pound for pound, maybe Georgia. Like overall. Georgia puts an offensive or defensive line in the first round pretty much every year.

Yeah. It's like hard because like as we're quibbling about one, two, three, it's like the top three teams and the SEC should all be like top 10 teams in America. So it's like hard to like make a point without making it seem like I'm down on Georgia while also acknowledging that Georgia is firmly number two. Like so like I don't know how to do that without it sounding like I'm doubting Kirby Smart. That's the last thing I would do. Well, it's so the LSU thing's interesting because so Chris has him at number six. Number six would be outside of the playoff. Like they're not, there's not going to be a lead that gets six teams in the playoff.

There might be one that gets five in, maybe, but probably four is what you should be shooting for. Are there five teams in the SEC that you think are more likely to win the national title this year? That's the problem. This is where you come in because yes on Georgia, I mean, I'm sorry, yes on Texas. Georgia's won the league the last two years, doesn't appear to be slowing down. Ole Miss brings back the quarterback. They made the semifinals last year. Oklahoma made the playoff last year.

We've talked about this multiple times. We both think they got better. And then Texas A&M, we don't know because they did lose some high-end talent. But since Michael Elko has been there, they've been pretty good at stock in that roster. So it's, but you definitively think LSU 3, so Texas, Georgia, LSU. You know the roster, but can I just read it for fun?

Yeah, go for it. Okay. I'm going to just, I'm like looking at their too deep here. Ty Benefield is supposed to be one of the best safeties in the country, right? Yeah. DJ Pickett is another defensive back who is a five-of-nature, yes. Five-star prospect who is definitely going to be a top 15 pick in the NFL draft one day. T.J. Daughtery, Prince Well, Uman, Mielan, Sam Levitt,

trade as green jordan seaton like i just like you go up and down this list here and you have like these are all guys that i think could be first round guys so again i think that the the thing that is probably most concerning about ls u is twofold one anytime you have a new coach and you have as much turnover as lane kiffin obviously had to do with the roster you do wonder about team chemistry you know, functioning at peak levels. Obviously, injury, Sam Levitt wasn't 100% healthy coming into his LSU tenure. There are things that you could like come up with

and say, yes, this could derail LSU. Also, depth. Like I don't know from a depth standpoint how much you can actually fix in one cycle. That's the thing I worry about. I don't worry about chemistry at all with this coach. Lane Kiffin has proven he can take the pieces from other places,

put them together on his team. and make that team play well together. Like that's probably his superpower as a head coach. So that I'm not worried about at all. The depth thing is the thing you just don't know about. But you're right. Top end and you mentioned some of their defensive players, but guys that came back, Witt Weeks, PJ Woodland,

these are really good players who were already on LSU's roster. And Andy, I think that there's a certain level of benefit of the doubt that a team like Georgia gets. obviously they've been a recruiting juggernaut for a long time, and Kirby Smart has developed, signed, and had talent go to the NFL on a consistent basis. Those teams that you mentioned that no one will ever be as good again were just loaded with five-star players that were the, they didn't have a huge falloff in high school recruiting at all. So like, we take for granted that Georgia has good twos because we know how Kirby Smart operates.

We know how he recruits and we know how he develops. LSU is this closest thing that you could possibly come to outside of maybe the top tier or even belongs in the top tier of teams that you can take for granted and probably have some LSU freaks or Louisiana freaks in their twos right now that are just young. We're recruited out of high school and are developing. So like we might not know who those guys are yet. But if you go through their twos and you look at some of these names, they're all very familiar names that you saw during the recruiting process. So, you know, I think that when you talk about how Miami has cracked the code of being able to, to do really well in the portal and do really well in high school recruiting,

I can't imagine that LSU doesn't have that same superpower. Six is low. Like if they don't make the playoff, they're going to burn. But somebody's going to be six. So are you just bumping everybody down? You're putting A&M6 in that case? I would put, yeah, I would go Texas, Georgia, one, two. I would put LSU three, based on my expectations,

Ole Miss 4, Oklahoma 5, Texas A&M6. See, I think if you're in the top eight here, you have a chance. If you're actually in the top 8 of the SEC from the top half, you're in striking distance to the playoff and it'll probably come down to the bounce of a ball. Yeah. And then also which one of the teams 9 through 16

is going to end up being awesome that we're not like, I don't know. There might be a team like, is it impossible? And I just, I've been scarred and I have scar tissue all over my body for what I went through with Florida last year. But like, is there a possibility that Florida who checks in at number nine on this list is actually

a playoff contender? Like, I think it's possible. right? Sure. You're pretty good in the video game. It's possible, but we have no idea what their offensive line is going to look like. And I think it's a little more of a known quantity with the teams that we've already talked about. Yeah. I am fascinated by this one thing outside of Pete Golding, who checks in at number three because the roster is really good.

All of those first year young change of guard coaches are on the right side of these rankings in the 9 through 16 range. Yeah, other than Golding who inherits a team that. And I would almost probably bet my entire livelihood that one of John Summerall, Alex Golish, Will Stein, Ryan Silverfield is going to be awesome. Well, okay. Which one do you think is ranked too low? So, again, take Pete Golding out of it because he's inheriting a playoff team. We got Florida at 9. We've got Auburn at 13. Kentucky at 15. Arkansas at 16. Who do you think is too low here? So I would probably... I have a definitive thought on this.

Okay. I would probably put Auburn a little higher. Is that your team? I think Kentucky's too low. Yeah. Kentucky. Well, yeah, I know that you're high on their moves that they made this off season. 15th in the SEC means you're going to go two and six in the league. Yeah. Or two and seven in the league. Sorry, their nine-game conference schedule now. Yeah. I don't think that's the case. Who's too high?

I don't know that anybody's too high out of this. I think Florida at 9 is fine. I wouldn't put them any higher because you don't know what they're going to be. Yeah. But you know they bring some significant talent back. I think I just drank a lot of Byron Brown Kool-Aid. Well, and that's the thing. If you believe, and we've seen this happen in various spots before,

that bringing most of an offense, personnel-wise, to come run that offense in a more competitive league, if you believe that that works, then you should believe that Auburn is due to have its first winning season in quite some time. I just think that the power of having a freak athlete at quarterback, although I know that there are some questions of Brown's throwing motion. I think having a person, that can turn a broken play into a 40-yard touchdown run is such an important aspect.

I'll be a national title game with Nick Marshall playing quarterback. Like, you don't have to be a prototypical NFL quarterback to win if you're in the right offense. Yeah. And Byron Brown is clearly in the right offense for Byron Brown because we've seen him perform in it for the last two years. Yeah. And I'm like looking at quarterbacks and I know that there's so much more to this than just who's your quarterback, but I'm looking at the right side of the list here. And it's like, would you take Byron Brown over most of the quarterback?

Like, would you take Jared Curtis this year or Byron Brown? Would you take? I'm trying to think, like. Would you take Phazon, Brandon, or George McIntyre? I'm obsessed with him. Brandon. For the same reason. He was a five-star.

And why he was a five-star. Did you take Marcel Reed or Byron Brown? That's tough. Who would you take? Lenora Sellers are Byron. Brown. Lenora Sellers. That's probably why South Carolina is ranked ahead.

Yeah. Yeah, Austin Simmons is pretty good, I think. Right. Jared Curtis is pretty good. Like, it is going to mention, but you're behind. I will say if Byron Brown puts up anywhere near the numbers he did at USF last year at Auburn, they're going to be good. Yeah.

They're going to be really tough to deal with. Looking at the list and going through it this way, though, like this is a very good quarterback league. Even Mississippi State, Mario Taylor is going to be good. This is one of the better quarterback years we've seen in a while in the SEC. Because nobody has a quarterback, like, outright liability. I think that Kenny Menchie has stuff to prove, but we're like also nitpicking the 15th team out of 16 right now.

Right. And at the top four, Archmanning Gunner Stockton, Trinidad, Shambliss, John Matier. You feel really good about that. Yeah, and then you go to Marcel Reed. Then you go to Sam Levin, and then maybe Keel and Russell or Austin Mac. One of them is going to be good, right? And then quarterback battle that we've talked a lot about at Tennessee.

And I don't know how it's going to, you know, hit at Florida. But then you get into Lenore Sellers and Austin Simmons and Jared Curtis and Brian and Brown at 13. Like, that's a lot of quarterback talent. Yeah, I, so I say Kentucky's too low. And one of the reasons is I think Kenny Menchie's going to wind up being an effective quarterback. Yeah.

So when he was competing with C.J. Carr for the job at Notre Dame, we kept getting told it's neck and neck, nip and tuck. And you never know if you're supposed to believe that or not. But I still don't know if I kept on saying it even after C.J. Carr definitively won the job and proved that he's an excellent quarterback. And then even after Kenny Minchie transferred, they're still like, no, we liked him a lot. He's really good. I also think, too, that there's a lot of tea leaves that need to be read.

Like, Will Stein is an offensive guy. And you're taking an SEC job, your first head coaching job. Like, who you pick to be your quarterback is a huge, important decision because you want to start off with a bang, right? Yeah. Whatever he saw on film, Will Stein, that is. Like, I still think should account for something. I think that that's a more important tea leave than even how did Kenny Minchie play or how close was he to C.J. Carr. I think that that is a huge reason to believe in him.

So that said, there's a lot of quarterbacks on this list that are going to be playing with a ton of proven assets at the skill position players that maybe Kenny Minchie won't have. Although I'm anticipating their offensive line will be pretty good considering how much work they put in the portal. Yeah, they put a lot of money in the O line. And I think that's the other part of it that gives me confidence in Will Stein because that's where he went first. Like that was, I need this much in resources and here's how I'm going to deploy it. The schedule is hard. I went on Matt Jones podcast, Matt Jones, the founder of Kentucky Sports Radio. He's talking about the schedule.

Could he hear you? He's right. This schedule is crazy tough. Like they got Alabama week two and at A&M week three. I don't know if it's because the person who wrote into our mailbag a little bit go got in my head. But like, I would be shitting my pants if I were Alabama. That's a tough, that's a tough September 12th game on the road, I think. Well, especially like, we're going to probably learn that day who, who definitively the Alabama starting quarterback is. We'll see if

they play both guys in the first game, but you're probably going to know who Kail and Abor has chosen by who he sends out for that Kentucky game. Because it, They've got Kentucky, then Florida State, and then, you know, the race is on. So I just think that game might be the most interesting early season conference game we see. Week 2's got some other really good games. Obviously, Oklahoma's going to Michigan that day. But that one, just in terms of conference play, that's the first one you go, okay, I got to watch that one. I got to sit down and strap in for that one.

Yeah, yeah. But I will say, you know, I've been one of the leaders driving the bus of there's not a ton of difference between the SEC and the Big Ten. And I did the Big Ten power rankings, which we're going to talk about later in the week. When you start analyzing the lists, because I had the pleasure of doing the blurbs for teams 14 through 18 in the Big Ten, there is certainly a much higher floor in the SEC. in terms of like is Kentucky, I would take Kentucky over Rutgers in terms of like a tough game. Kentucky still could wind up being the, like I'm saying they're too low. They still could wind up being the 13th or 14th best team in the SEC. But they still could be pretty, like, then you're like, okay, what do they look like against Louisville?

And figure out how they look against everybody else. So I do think that like optically speaking, and I don't know if this is just like, because we're conditioned from 25 years of 20 years of results to like roll our eyes at Rutgers, you know, but I don't know how Rutgers would fare against this. No, and that's the difference. The difference is the bottom of the SEC is better. They're not, like they're not making that up.

It's true. The draft bears it out. Kentucky cares more about winning in football than Rutgers does. Correct. The top of both leagues is awesome in both. in both cases. And the best teams in the Big Ten are as good or better

than the best teams in the SEC, as has been proven out by who wins the national championship the last few years. But I am really excited for Oklahoma, Michigan. I think that'll be revelatory, right? Like, I mean, that you got four and four.

You know, I like when the middle meets the middle. But I do wonder sometimes, too, if, like, Texas played three games against Michigan State, Northwestern, and Rutgers, if they would be better served later in the season, although I don't think that has any bearing

on who wins. national title. Let's talk about one more team because when this came out, I looked at it, I understood it, I understood why this team was where it was. But it's still scorched my eyeballs to see it. It still looked strange and felt strange to see Alabama at seven in the SEC. one spot from the middle, essentially. Alabama.

If Alabama is the seventh best team in the SEC, what conversation are we having at the end of this year? Probably the same one that we've been having. There has been, they made the playoff, they advanced in the playoff last year. There has been a steady decline. And I think that it's very easy to blame Kalin DeBore for that. I don't know if it's his fault.

I really have no concept, but my understanding is that Alabama is just not equipped to compete from an NIL perspective at the same rate as some of the teams surrounding it. I don't know why LSU is way richer than Bama. Is it because they're closer to New Orleans and it's a bigger, bigger place? I just think they're willing to spend money they don't have. Maybe that's a I don't know, but I understand why Georgia is. I understand why Texas is probably well suited, considering the fact that Austin's a booming tech town. And obviously, Texas has got the oil industry to back it.

A lot of very rich high-brow Texas fans. But the question that I have is, if Kalin DeBore isn't the man for the job, do you think that this is a coaching issue, or do you think that they are just not able to spend commiserate with what their expectations are? I think it's a much harder job than when Nick Saban had it. Yeah.

And I think Nick Saban knew that, which is why it's not his job anymore. Yeah. So I will point out, because I said seventh in the SEC, what conversation were we having? Alabama, now, they finished first in the standings last year, and they made the SEC championship game because they were seven and one in league play. They were fifth if we were power ranking them because the college football playoff selection committee did power rank them at the end of the end of the season. season and they ranked them fifth in the SEC and ninth overall. So fifth might be good enough to get you in, but seventh is not going to be good enough to get you in.

Andy, they lost 10 players to the NFL draft last year. And let's name some of the names. Caden Proctor, Ty Simpson, Jeremy Bernard, L.T. Overton, Josh Quavis, the really good tight end, Domani Jackson, Jam Miller, others. Is Alabama from a financial aspect? because they've done really well in high school recruiting. Let's not forget that.

And that's important. But are they equipped to shoulder the burden of replacing 10 draft picks in a single off season? And is that squarely the reason why they're number seven? If Georgia can keep doing it, and they've done it that way also by still recruiting grade out of high school, not really as much through the portal, then Alabama can keep doing it. And like you said, they have recruited well at a high school. Like, what if Keelon Russell wins the job and he's just awesome? And I think there's a chance of that. I mean, we're talking about a five-star quarterback prospect from Duncanville that a lot of people are excited about.

I think that that's certainly on the table. I think that it's also interesting because you and everybody else, and I think even me, give Georgia the benefit of the doubt that Kirby's smart will get his guys ready to win the SEC because they've done that, right? And you also give them the benefit of the doubt of losing players and backfilling with great development in high school recruiting. And for whatever reason, Alabama doesn't seem to get the same benefit. We haven't seen Kailen DeBoer do that. We have seen, I mean, if Kailen on the board take a team to the national title game.

Yeah. With Washington. But that was also his second year in the program. So we haven't really seen him, you know, with a bunch of guys that he recruited out of high school doing it that way. So I think that's probably why. And Kailin Bore has won nine games and 10 games in the regular season of Alabama. Yeah.

Alabama will take almost anywhere. Alabama in the 2024 class had 28 signes and ranked second overall in high school football recruiting rankings. And in 2025, finished third with 21 commits. So like they have. In 2026, they finished sixth. So overall, three recruiting classes that have been on the roster, and I haven't crunched the numbers of how many of those signies are still on the team and vice versa,

how many they brought in, excuse me, to replace those guys. But conventional wisdom, if we were looking at Alabama in its current situation, losing 10 players to the NFL draft, replacing them with five-star quarterback, and bringing in three classes that had a combined. bind 20 top 100 players, like that would be a pretty high recipe for success. So like the thought process that they are cooked is wrong. But I think where they are in the rankings is predicated on two things. One, they don't have their legendary coach to fall back on as, well, he's going to figure it out.

And two, they aren't spending and aren't making as many splashes in the portal commiserate with a Texas or a Georgia or even, you know, LSU, obviously, with what they just got done doing. Like, if you go look at Alabama's incoming class, they don't have, like, who's, the sexiest signy. That's not what wins games, but when you're talking about an off-season perception standpoint, if you're able to say we brought in Sam Levitt or we brought in Cam Coleman, or we brought in this guy or that guy, like, who's Alabama's guy that they're like, look who we brought in. I don't think they really have that. So that's why I think that they are where they are.

And they're going up against a lot of teams that are very bought into football and are spending at levels and equipping their rosters at levels that Alabama wasn't facing when Nick Sabin was dominating. Yeah, it's, it is a more challenging job. And I think everybody accepts that. It is still strange. Do you think it's fire, Caitlin to board? Do we have to look internally for why they're eight and four?

I think there will be a significant amount of their fans who would like to make a change at that point. The simplistic thinking in 2026. But you have, yes, you have to examine the why. And if you're, and that's the thing. It's not just Alabama. This is every SEC team, especially in the SEC, because I feel like the pressure to make a change is even higher in the SEC. Obviously, there's other programs that are going to be like that in other leagues, but it feels like it's more pressurized here. Yeah.

You have to understand what your realistic expectations are. Yeah. But the problem with Alabama is they're not that far removed from completely dominating. the sport. It makes it harder to have realistic expectations because, one, you had maybe the greatest coach of all time. So he was outperforming that environment anyway. The environment then changed, the rules changed. And you just said, and we both agree, Nick Saban left because he knew it was going to be harder to do that. And the ironic part is that actually... Added that to the fact that that maybe there's no coach alive who could do what Nick Saban did.

And yes, your realistic expectations have to change. But I'm not sure your actual expectations change fast enough to catch up. Yeah. I mean, I actually think that it's funny that Nick Saban would have had a harder time and might not have possessed the same talent advantages that he had when he was the coach there. But if anybody could help shoulder the burden of financial inadequacy, it would be him because that's the ultimate coach that you play. play for at a discount. So, like, I think that Nick Saban would actually have a much easier time navigating

these financial hardships even than Kalin DeBoer because he would have that baked in legacy to fall back on. And I think that Kirby Smart is the beneficiary of. Everybody wants to play for Kirby Smart because everybody knows that Kirby Smart's won multiple national championships and his reputation precedes himself. That's not the case, even though Kalin DeBoer went to the national championship game with Washington. I don't think that people go well. I'll play. I'll play. for Kalin DeBoer for a million less or 500 grand less. And I think that that's an important piece of the puzzle for some of the places that might not have the finances that like an Ohio State might have or Texas might have. So it'll be very interesting to see them navigate it.

But at the same time, this is the question that I've always had in college football and we'll never know the answer to. What if you put Ryan Day as the head coach of Iowa State? What if you put Kirby Smart as the head coach of, I don't know, let's say NC State? and let them cook. Maybe if you get to take your reputation with you to those places, you get better players than somebody else would. But I think they would have a hard time in this climate if they didn't have the resources and the financial backing

to sign the types of players that leads to those successes. It's just a different time now. And I think that hopefully, and I don't know if this is the case, but we won't be dismissing coaches acumenes or ability based on down years because I think down years are inherently going to be part of the puzzle for everybody. And I wonder if Davosweeney's down here last year, although maybe this is a terrible example because they had a bunch of draft picks.

It's just like part of the game. Like there's been so many teams that have gone decades without having one bad year. And it's like, well, maybe everybody has to cozy up to the idea that you're going to have three bad years every decade, even if you're one of the best. I don't know. But Alabama is in that weird cross-section between I have confidence in Kailin DeBore as a coach. He's already unequivocally proven that he's a good coach. But if your players aren't as good from top to bottom as the players,

you're playing against i don't care if you're freaking vinz lombardi like it's just not it you know the players are going to play um and that's that so very interesting season i think that alabama is going to continue to have these very interesting discussions and off seasons and big year for kalan debor headlines and all that stuff until they finally break through and win another one which may may not come for a long time i know it might be shocking to say alabama but great teams go decades without winning championships. That happens all the time. You haven't lived through that in the recent past,

but maybe this is the beginning portion of that. And then that recalibration will happen naturally when you've gone five years without winning one. Or you just lose your mind. These quarterback hits and they wish to win one. I'm just saying, like, but for an Alabama standpoint. I know, I know. It's, yeah, it's got to be tough.

Like, because nobody's been spoiled in that way for that long. You know, I just watched a show on, I don't know if it was staged or not. It was a, it was a show, and I think it was on the Discovery Channel or something, where they took like a billionaire and they gave him like a hundred bucks in a pickup truck and dropped them in a random town. And like he had to try to become a millionaire in like 90 days with $100 to his name and a pickup truck. And like I thought it was really cool like show to watch to see like what they would do or the type of business.

And like most of the time they became millionaires very quickly. Maybe Alabama has that in them. but like the question is and maybe this isn't a great Alabama discussion because he just signed a massive extension. But like there has to be calculus of is it financially viable to fire our coach or should we be allocating buyout funds to further supporting him with the players that we could bring in. Wisconsin just crossed that bridge, right? You know, other teams are going to cross that bridge. I'm not sure Florida State crossed it. I think they.

I mean, LSU is what they just spent a unicorn. or how many teams can do what LSU just did financially? I think Kentucky just did it. Yeah. Do they allocate as much? Well, I mean, Mark Stoves was a good offensive lineman, which means they spent a ton of money, and they had to deal with a very high buyout as well.

So can Alabama do it? I mean, we're nine. I don't think they're going to do it. I think the extension means that's pretty much off the table unless it's an abject disaster. I don't, I don't. And look, we talked about it when it happened. I'm not going to criticize the extension.

I criticize these extensions when you're bidding against yourself. Michigan was going to hire him if he wanted to go there. Well, the ultimate question with Bama is if Michigan was a real threat and they play it on, that they weren't because he was never going to go. But if they were and are, do coaches have a high? threshold of success that they have to reach before they're no longer like made men at the place that they're at like I'm surprised that Bama wasn't just like okay go we'll find somebody else like you have to go find somebody that's so remarkable so accomplished that nobody's going to out bid you for your own guy

or now in this new roster building world do you have a higher threshold before you don't let somebody walk away well I think not we've seen that people will pay the big buyouts. So if it's bad enough, you'll pay it. But it would have to get pretty bad, I think. And I don't think that they're in that position at all. But if you ask an Alabama fan, has Kalin DeBoer done enough in his time at Bama to be an untouchable resource that we cannot allow to leave? How many of them do you think would be like, yes? I don't think many of them would. I think this is sort of like the Norville thing at Florida State. It's circumstances. Norvel was on Alabama's list. when Saban retired.

That's why he got the extension. Again, I will criticize the hell out of these extensions when they are made with nobody bidding against you. There was another bidder. But I think now, because that even happened before we got into the teeth of the NIL era. I mean, that was right at the beginning of it. Yeah.

I think now someone bidding against you is not the only thing that comes into mind to me when we're grading whether the extension was far away. You have to decide, but remember, they were also in a really weird situation. They'd won the playoff game against Oklahoma. Now, I think they were fine at that point because Michigan kind of had to move on.

But if they'd lost Oklahoma, it would have been a really interesting situation. But if Mike Norvell last year went undefeated in the regular season, let's just pretend like what happened to them in 2020. Was it 22? What happened to them, or was that 23? 23 is when they won and got left out of the playoffs.

Right. Let's pretend 2023 happened in 2025. Like, was Mike Norvell with what we know about him and the way that he's built his roster, accomplished enough as Florida State's coach to pay that insane amount of money to extend him or would it have been the end of the world of Florida State let him go? I think the calculus of what you need to do, what kind of coach must be retained under any circumstance has had to have shifted dramatically in the last time. Probably. And that's a great question. Maybe that's a column later. I realize we're talking about the SEC here.

If it had happened now, and Mike Norville is coming off that year and he's on Alabama's list, do they just roll the dice and be like, well, go if you want to? Yeah. I mean, the fundamental basis of what made a great coach great in 2020 is so different than it is now. Although I will say at that point, Norvel seemed like someone who got the new era better than everybody else. He did, right. I'm not saying they made a mistake in the moment, but I think that the calculus of how they arrived at that decision that they made with him

would be different if it happened right now. Yeah, listen, I'm not for financially strapping yourself over a coach. Why did you keep a coach in 2019? You kept them because that person was going to sign top three recruiting classes, develop them, and win because of it. Now, if the way that you win is by allocating funds to bring in players that are good enough, how much you pay your coach is very consequential as it pertains to what your budget might be left over. And I understand that there's supposed to be different pots, but it's all the same pot, Andy.

It's all coming from the same place. So, like, it's, to me, if you're the number one thing about your success as a coach, and this pred, this goes right back to the Alabama discussion that we're having, is can you blame Kalin DeBoer for them not being national championship contenders because they're not spending as much as LSU, then you would be crazy to spend a shit ton of money on. that same person to keep him if the bottom line on whether you win or loses how good your players are. It's a completely different game. You could never lose Nick Sabin and his heyday because you knew Nick Sabin was going to win the recruiting crown eight years in a row. Like that is completely different.

What's more important to spend your money on the players or the coach? I think it's the players now more than ever. They used to always be the coach. And Alabama may back caught in the middle of this thing. Yeah. Because they're also on a place that's programmed to believe it's the coach. They've believed it's the coach for 20 years going into this. So they have to reprogram their brain there too, but maybe Caleb Dabor is not as important as any other coach in college football. If you can take all the money that you would have spent on said buyout or extension and gotten him, gotten the new coach, four new players are going to be drafted in the top 17. What do you think Bama wants more?

They just want to win. I don't think they care how it happens. But how do you do it with a great, brilliant coach or do you do it with a roster that is insane? Maybe it's a combination of Brilliant coach at Indiana. I sure did. I'm not saying that coach doesn't matter, but I think it matters.

What I'm saying is, Kailin DeBorsell has a chance to prove that he can be that guy. Well, certainly now. He's got plenty of runway now. Well, I think he has a chance to do it this year. Because like you said, you went through the recruiting rankings.

We talked about what the quarterback back could be. They still have a chance to be a supremely talented team if they develop these guys correctly. Yeah, and maybe development's the key, and that's what they did at Washington. Maybe we're back in his wheelhouse. We're going to find out. We are going to find out. And that's what makes all of this so exciting because I got to be honest with you guys,

10 years ago, we're like, Alabama's going to roll over everybody. And look at, look at that. Look at that list. Ole Miss at number three, Oklahoma at number four. Yeah, the playoff race between four, five, six, seven, and maybe even eight. I had to throw in eight there for River. Yeah, Tennessee at number eight. Yeah.

And maybe three. Maybe you go all the way up to three. Like Texas and Georgia are probably going to make the playoff this year. Now, what of the other three teams from the SEC are going to make it, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Texas, A&M, LSU, Bama, Tennessee? And there's a team from the right side of that column going to be in that mix, too, probably at least one, right? I would say at least one. fun SEC season for sure it is going to it's going to be awesome it's nine games conference play this year everybody's been complaining when are they going to play nine conferences you're going to do it this

year you're going to see wildly different schedules than you've seen before in the SEC i cannot wait for those they're playing nine game schedule columns when everybody is like four and two in week six oh it's it's it's coming great it's coming the thing is like watch somebody go nine and oh Watch one of these guys go 9 and 0. Like, oh, this wasn't that hard. Texas? Or Georgia. Woof, woof.

So, Big 10 tomorrow, ACC Friday, then Big 12. It's going to be a lot of fun. Get ready to argue the top of the Big 10 tomorrow, because I think there's a lot to argue about. We'll talk to you then.