SEC Week 3 Power Rankings

Now that we have two weeks of football in the books, things have settled a little bit more in the power rankings; though still only four teams have completed a league game.

More importantly, LSU’s not the only team to have lost a game anymore and got to leave the basement. The biggest riser this week is Kentucky (whoop whoop!) after a super impressive double-digit win at Florida and the biggest faller is Texas A&M after one of the biggest disasters of the Jimbo Fisher era. They are the first team to receive the dreaded ‘F’ on their report card this year.

They’ve played the games and the grades are in—here are your SEC Power Rankings before Week 3:

1. Georgia Bulldogs

Another shutout, another A+. Perfect football against the FCS. Grade: A+

2. Alabama Crimson Tide

In complete un-Alabama fashion, the Tide almost lost a game to a non top-5 team. But they were playing on the road against a solid Texas team determined to outplay them, and when it counted Bryce Young marched downfield and found a way to win. That’s championship football even if you were Alabama playing an unranked team, and I’m going to give them some credit for it. Grade: B

3. Kentucky Wildcats

Kentucky came into this season with a lot of hype, and backed it up in The Swamp just when everyone had abandoned them for the Anthony Richardson craze after one Florida home game against a Pac-12 school. They held steady after a shaky first half and let their defense carry them to a 10-point triumph that’ll all but assure the Gators stay below them in the SEC East standings this season. If the ‘Cats take their schedule one game at a time, their final SEC game against Georgia will indeed be for a trip to Atlanta and possibly even the College Football Playoff. Grade: A

4. Arkansas Razorbacks

Another solid performance from the Hogs, who are now Alabama’s number one threat in the SEC West with Texas A&M completely flushing their championship aspirations down the toilet. To keep it that way they will need to beat the Aggies in two weeks, though. Grade: A

5. Tennessee Volunteers

The Vols don’t seem to be afraid of anything, because their fearsome offense led by Hendon Hooker once again found a way to fight to victory just like in several games last season. Winning at Pitt is not something a lot of teams in these rankings could do, so good job scraping it out in OT. Grade: A

6. Mississippi State

Would you look at this! The Bulldogs are number six, and two weeks into the season have already blown out Memphis and Power-5 Arizona. That 2-0 is worth more than Ole Miss’s Troy and Central Arkansas 2-0, so they get to enjoy the high rises this week...until they travel to Death Valley to play LSU this Saturday. Grade: A

7. Ole Miss

As mentioned above, Ole Miss’s schedule stinks. But at least they’ve pulverized their opposition. Wins are wins, after all. Grade: A+

8. Florida Gators

I think the Gators have fallen down to earth a bit. If Utah had shrugged them off without too much trouble, they would’ve come into the UK game with something to prove and probably played a lot better than they did as “the #12 team in the country.” But while they got outplayed by the Wildcats they should be happy about the Utah win and where they are now compared to last season—Anthony Richardson has proved he can lead the Gators to big wins and will likely do it again. This might not be the #12 team, but they are still very good. All that being said though, yeesh they folded against that Kentucky defense (woohoo!). That won’t get you wins even in The Swamp. Grade: C

9. South Carolina Gamecocks

Absolutely fantastic fighting on the road against one of the best teams in the country. Keep that up every week and the rest of the league should watch out. Grade: B

10. Vanderbilt Commodores

Well they lost by 20 but Wake Forest was ranked and they are still 2-1. They’ll take a big hit if they fall on the road against Northern Illinois this week, though, which would be a totally Vanderbilt thing to do. Grade: C+

11. Texas A&M

Yeeeeesh. Well, nobody saw that coming. Many thought that the Aggies would have their CFP hopes dashed at some point, but in Week 2? That sure was quick. It’s how you respond, though, that’s important. Learn from this, improve, and go beat up some SEC teams that overlook you. Just make sure you never, ever, ever schedule Appalachian State again. They are a Power 5 team’s worst nightmare. Grade: F

12. LSU Tigers

One week after starting 0-1 (gasp!), the Tigers jumped out on Southern with a 44-0 lead with 14:20 remaining in the second quarter. So they obviously wanted to be 1.5-1 or something because I have never seen that much demolition handed down so quickly even on the FCS. A+ football and much better than several other teams in these rankings. Grade: A+

13. Auburn Tigers

When you open the season with Mercer and San Jose State, that can only mean one thing—you’re gearing up for a massive non-conference smackdown with Penn State in 2 weeks! Until then not much is going to move you up these rankings, even if you are really good and we don’t know it yet. Yes I know that’s the exact blurb I wrote last week, but it’s still true and Penn State’s still going to define the course of their season, probably. Also, yuck: you only won by eight. Grade: C

14. Missouri Tigers

I think we’ve found our last place team. Grade: F