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Every Wednesday, we rank the SEC and Big 12 teams in one power poll. The order of the SEC teams is based on the Week 7 SDS SEC Power Poll.
The Big 12 looks better by the week, and is now a clear No. 2 in the country behind the SEC.
TCU has emerged to give the Big 12 three legitimate national contenders. The Horned Frogs would be playoff favorites if the team hadn’t blown a 21-point fourth-quarter lead to Baylor.
As of now, the Baylor-Oklahoma winner has an excellent chance to make the four-team playoff — assuming that team wins the rest of its games.
That’s become a troubling assumption. The Bears, for example, still must face Top 25 teams Oklahoma State and Kansas State in addition to traveling to West Virginia this weekend. The Mountaineers have proven feisty in 2014.
Those hoping for two SEC bids need Baylor to fall at least once and may also need an additional loss or two between TCU, Baylor and Oklahoma.
The SEC still claims four of the top five in the combined rankings, giving us some idea of the gap between the two best conferences in college football.
NATIONAL ELITE
Don’t get confused. There’s still a lot of season remaining. Seven more Saturdays in the SEC, and that’s not including the SEC championship game. But if it ended tomorrow, these three teams all would be in the College Football Playoff, leaving just one spot for which the ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 and Notre Dame could grovel.
1. Mississippi State
2. Ole Miss
3. Baylor
ONE-LOSS PLAYOFF CONTENDERS
This group of five is the biggest argument in favor of the relative strength of the Big 12 and SEC this season. The eighth-ranked team in the combined power rankings, Georgia, may have the best chance to get into the playoff from an analytics standpoint. The computers like the Bulldogs because UGA may only need to beat Auburn at home to make the SEC title game, while the SEC West schools each have multiple games left against Top 10 teams. What other conferences can claim this many legitimate contenders through mid-October?
4. Auburn
5. Alabama
6. Oklahoma
7. TCU
8. Georgia
GOOD, BUT LIMITED
All three of these teams are capable of wracking up wins against the South Carolinas and Texas Techs of the conference, but struggle with the Auburns and Mississippi States. They all have a great shot at finishing the season in the Top 25 and could even make the conference championship game in some divisions — I’m looking at you, ACC Coastal. But these teams will lose to the best of the best most every time.
9. Kansas State
10. Texas A&M
11. Oklahoma State
AT THE INTERSECTION OF GOOD AND MEDIOCRE
Analysts have framed each of these teams as alternately underrated/dangerous and weak/overvalued. The truth usually falls in the middle, as it does with this group. In conferences as strong as these, going from bad to just OK doesn’t necessarily translate to wins, just closer games, as Arkansas has discovered.
12. LSU
13. Arkansas
14. West Virginia
15. Kentucky
16. Florida
PRIDEFUL FANS, BRUISED EGOS
Texas and Tennessee have some of the best football traditions in the country. Missouri is a proud football school who has been among the best in the country periodically for decades and decades. South Carolina’s success is more recent. But all four have prideful fan bases spending this season pretty disappointed. Who will turn it around, the new coaches or the old?
17. Texas
18. Missouri
19. South Carolina
20. Tennessee
FOOL’S GOLD
Kliff Kingsbury and the Red Raiders started 7-0 last season. My, have times changed. Iowa State, meanwhile, knocked off Iowa earlier this season, preventing their in-state rivals from what would otherwise be a Top 20 ranking at this juncture. Both have proven to be fool’s gold to this point, as the programs are sinking fast.
21. Texas Tech
22. Iowa State
WINNING A CONFERENCE GAME WOULD BE SHOCKING
After jettisoning Charlie Weis, Kansas almost did just that last weekend, falling to Oklahoma State, 27-20, on a late touchdown. These teams wouldn’t win a conference title in the MAC and probably won’t win a conference game in the SEC and Big 12.
23. Vanderbilt
24. Kansas
An itinerant journalist, Christopher has moved between states 11 times in seven years. Formally an injury-prone Division I 800-meter specialist, he now wanders the Rockies in search of high peaks.
