It’s been a minute.

From 2017-25, I wrote about SEC football on a daily basis for Saturday Down South. And sure, occasionally I pressed pause on the football side while the NCAA Tournament or College World Series was in full swing. But the vast majority of the time that I was asked “what am I up to” during one of those 365 days of the year, my answer was the same — writing about SEC football.

That nine-year streak came to an end in January when my time at SDS concluded. Don’t get it twisted. I’ve still been talking about SEC football on my show, The OG Kickoff (shameless plug) and on others, including several on the TexAgs platforms.

But I say that “it’s been a minute” because January was the last time that I wrote exclusively about SEC football. That ends right here, right now.

Starting today, I’ll be writing SEC columns every other week on this very website. Starting in August, those will become weekly SEC columns throughout the season. You’ll see my too-pale-to-live-in-Florida face discussing those columns and any other thing that my guy David Nuño wants to throw my way.

I come to you, TexAgs readers, as a man without an SEC agenda. I’m an Indiana grad who is now living on borrowed time, and hopefully, that’ll come out with the content I’ll provide.

Do I have certain coaches and players that I like more than others? Of course. Can I still sit here and tell you that Shane Beamer is facing a pivotal Year 6 in Columbia? Of course.

My bi-weekly goal will be to call things like I see it as best I know how. If you disagree with me, let me know about it on Twitter, @cjogara (last shameless plug), or yell about it into a pillow. I won’t tell you how to live your life.

What I will tell you to do is to continue scrolling to see how I view every SEC team heading into 2026. That’s based on personnel moves and previous results, and not at all on what the upcoming schedule looks like. This is about how I’d feel about each one of these teams winning a game if they had to step onto a neutral site in Week 1.

Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs won the 2025 SEC title, their third conference crown in four years.

Sound good? Good. Let’s rank some SEC teams in June:

16. Arkansas
Ryan Silverfield was a non-splashy hire for a team that went 2-10 and squandered seemingly every close game imaginable. Anything but a last-place start would be ambitious, especially considering that they have an inexperienced quarterback battle playing out with the likes of KJ Jackson and AJ Hill. This is Silverfield’s first rebuild, and doing so with a roster that signed 42 transfers will put the Hogs in wait-and-see mode in Year 1.

15. Kentucky
Will Stein did a phenomenal job recruiting in the transfer portal, most notably with some blue-chip offensive linemen to rebuild the “Big Blue Wall.” His evaluation of Notre Dame transfer Kenny Minchey will have a huge say in what Kentucky’s 2026 floor will look like, as will the hire of former Texas A&M defensive coordinator Jay Bateman. There’s a path to a Year 1 turnaround, but let’s not dismiss what it means to do that for a first-time head coach who inherited a team that went a combined 9-15 the last two seasons.

14. Auburn
Points and vibes. If Auburn can get those things in Year 1, Alex Golesh will have an ideal proof of concept. That sounds like a low bar to meet, and then you remember that Auburn is coming off its worst four-year stretch since the Harry Truman administration. Byrum Brown needs to improve throwing under pressure, but if he can become a top-half SEC quarterback paired with a D.J. Durkin-led Auburn defense, 2026 Auburn could follow the 2021 Tennessee path, which Golesh knows well.

Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK

Alex Golesh was introduced as Auburn’s head coach on Nov. 30, 2025, after three years at USF.

13. Mississippi State
Mississippi State squandered an opportunity to have its first winning season of the post-Mike Leach era. We’d be having different conversations about the Bulldogs if they had held on at Florida or against Texas. But as it stands, Jeff Lebby is hoping improvements will come in the form of a full season of the talented Kamario Taylor, as well as his bold decision to bring back his predecessor, Zach Arnett, to run the defense. The Bulldogs won’t climb on this list until they can beat an SEC team in Starkville for the first time in the … post-Leach era.

12. Vanderbilt
Look. We’re living in a post-Diego Pavia world. That matters. It also matters that Vandy is outside the top 100 in ESPN’s percentage of returning production metric. The good news for Clark Lea is that he still has Tim Beck running that offense. While true freshman Jared Curtis could have more hurdles than Pavia, he’s still set up with one of the SEC’s top coordinators and a proven back in Sedrick Alexander. Regression feels inevitable, but there’s certainly a world in which Vandy gets to a bowl game for the third consecutive season for the first time in the Playoff era.

11. South Carolina
It’s tricky because at this time a year ago, South Carolina was considered a borderline top-10 team in the sport. Then 4-8 happened. A&M fans saw how Jekyll & Hyde the Gamecocks were within a game. LaNorris Sellers can still be the best quarterback in the sport on a given Saturday, but as we saw, it takes more than that. Reinforcements on the offensive line, along with Kendal Briles returning to the SEC, could get Sellers and the Gamecocks back to late-2024 levels. A more experienced defense would help that, too. A bounce-back season is in play for Beamer.

Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Shane Beamer is 33-30 in five seasons at South Carolina. Under his guidance, the Gamecocks are 16-24 in conference play.

10. Missouri
Welcome to the SEC, where the team with 29 wins over the last three seasons isn’t even viewed as a top-half team in the conference. Some of that is because of the unknown status of All-American running back Ahmad Hardy after he was shot at a concert over the summer. Some of that is also because Mizzou has lost eight consecutive games vs. AP top-25 teams. Losing Zion Young (NFL) and Damon Wilson II (Miami) on defense was significant, as was Eli Drinkwitz’s offensive overhaul with Ole Miss transfer Austin Simmons set to lead a post-Kirby Moore offense. There are more questions than answers in Columbia.

9. Florida
This might seem a bit high for a team that won four games last year, especially with an unproven quarterback set to take over. But Florida ranks No. 1 in FBS in percentage of returning defensive production with a unit led by Jon Sumrall and Brad White. Plus, that offense is now run by decorated offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, who figures to lean heavily on preseason All-American running back Jadan Baugh. There’s plenty of meat on the bone for Year 1 of the Sumrall era.

8. Tennessee
The Vols are coming off their best four-year stretch in two decades, yet it feels like a pivotal season awaits Josh Heupel. Uncertainty at quarterback exists after whiffing on both the Joey Aguilar eligibility case and the transfer portal. Heupel also fired the only DC he had in Knoxville, Tim Banks, after a disastrous defensive season. Year 1 of the Jim Knowles defense is a relative unknown, though the Vols did go heavy on experienced defensive transfers. Heupel hasn’t had a losing season in SEC play, in part because of his elite ability to answer offensive questions. If he can do that again, Tennessee will maintain its high Heupel-era floor.

7. LSU
Even if Lane Kiffin had just inherited last year’s LSU roster, you’d feel better about the Tigers’ ability to maintain SEC relevance. That, of course, wasn’t the case for the “portal king.” A whopping 41 transfers will have a large say in LSU’s 2026 projection, perhaps most notably one Sam Leavitt, who missed spring ball with a Lisfranc injury. What we don’t know is what LSU will look like in the trenches, and whether elite coordinators like Blake Baker and Charlie Weis Jr. can overcome potential shortcomings there. But it’s a high-priced roster that should be extremely well-coached, so one shouldn’t dismiss LSU’s Playoff chances in Year 1.

Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images

LSU is the third different SEC program to hire Lane Kiffin as its head coach, joining Tennessee (2009) and Ole Miss (2020-25).

6. Alabama
The 2025 SEC runner-up is likely going to have its worst preseason ranking since 2008. That’s the last time that the Tide started outside of the top 10 in the AP Poll. But they still have a head coach who averaged 11 wins the last four seasons, and there’s plenty of buzz surrounding Keelon Russell as the next great Alabama quarterback. Can the Tide bounce back after having the worst rushing attack in school history? That’s a major question, as well as how consistent Alabama’s defense will be in front of a loaded secondary. A massive year for Kalen DeBoer’s public perception in Tuscaloosa awaits.

5. Texas A&M
Last I checked, A&M won 11 games and is No. 14 in the country in percentage of returning production. Does the conference slate get more challenging? Yes. Does that matter with preseason power rankings? No. Marcel Reed taking the next step under first-time play-caller Holmon Wiggins will have a large say in what the Aggies’ 2026 ceiling looks like. It would also help if A&M’s offensive line continuity from 2025 carried over into 2026. While A&M has to find that game-wrecking pass-rusher in a post-Cashius Howell world, it’s still Mike Elko coaching up what should be one of the older units in the conference. That bodes well.

4. Oklahoma
This is the best team that Brent Venables has had in Norman. Period. The Sooners have preseason All-Americans on defense like Taylor Wein, Kip Lewis and David Stone, along with proven standouts in the secondary like Courtland Guillory and the Bowen brothers (Peyton and Eli) for what was already the SEC’s best scoring defense. So much attention has been on the return of a healthy John Mateer in Year 2 as QB1 for the Sooners, but they’ll only rise on this list if they find more consistency in the non-Mateer ground game. Even with those questions, OU has Playoff DNA once again.

© BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK

Entering his second season at Oklahoma, John Mateer will be a redshirt senior in 2026.

3. Ole Miss
Raise your hand if you forgot that Ole Miss was 20 seconds away from playing for a national championship. You’re forgiven. A few other things have dominated headlines in Oxford, most notably the Kiffin breakup. While Kiffin poached some key pieces of Ole Miss’ staff and defense, let’s not forget that Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy are an all-world 1-2 punch who’ll operate behind an experienced interior defensive line. It’s also still Pete Golding’s defense. You can question Golding long-term, but don’t write off a core that avenged its only regular-season loss by eliminating Kirby Smart & Co. in last year’s quarterfinals.

2. Texas
We can acknowledge a couple of things from 2025. Arch Manning didn’t revolutionize football, and Steve Sarkisian fired longtime DC Pete Kwiatkowski. A Playoff-less season was disappointing on the Forty Acres, but as they always seemingly are, expectations have ramped back up for the team that’s No. 6 in percentage of returning production. It’s not just Manning’s late-season improvement (he still had 36 total touchdowns and over 3,500 total yards in a disappointing season). It was adding coveted skill-players like Cam Coleman, Raleek Brown and Hollywood Smothers behind an offensive line that’ll be more experienced than last year. New/old DC Will Muschamp will be heavily reliant on new starters, but you can do much worse than building a defense around Colin Simmons. The Longhorns will likely be the pick to win the SEC — and perhaps more — by the time 2026 kicks off.

1. Georgia
Perhaps it’s boring to say that a Georgia team that rolled in the SEC Championship is No. 1 in the preseason power rankings. To be fair, it’s Kirby Smart leading a team that’s No. 8 in FBS in percentage of returning production. Last year was supposed to be more of a transition season with hopes that 2026 would be a championship-ready team. A more experienced group in the trenches could be at the foundation of that, and Year 2 of Gunner Stockton could yield a more explosive offense if Georgia Tech transfer Isiah Canion establishes himself as a true WR1. Even if it’s boring to give the Dawgs the top spot, it’s hard to make a case against it.