For each team, I’m looking at the whole body of work and it includes strength of schedule, and I’m looking at the eye test, stats, and close wins/losses. Everything matters, as it should.

1. Georgia- No one is close to this team. They play close to flawless football and they humiliate their opponent. Impressive win- smashing Oregon in week 1. Biggest letdown- allowing SC to score a TD

2. Alabama- smothered an usually OK Utah st team, and small LA Monroe. Struggled to beat a Texas team who appears to still be mediocre. Noticeable gap between them and UGA.

3. Tennessee- I’m basically saying Utah st is better than Akron, and Pitt and Texas are about the same. The current gap between UT and Bama, may be closer than we think. Tennessee is good, I think Bama is better.

4. Kentucky- I don’t like UK. But they’re undefeated and beat a decent (maybe) Florida team. They play clean as usual.

5. Arkansas- I would have had Arkansas above Kentucky, but they struggled too much against a good, and motivated FCS school. Their win against SC is less impressive than Kentucky’s win over Florida. For now.

6. Ole Miss- Ole played a maybe OK Troy team closer than necessary to open the season and smashed a couple bad teams, but 1 is a power 5 team, so they get the nod for bottom of the best for now.

7. LSU- disappointed the conference losing to a trending and seemingly good (too early) FSU team. Win games since the and we’ll see how they fare from here.

8. Florida- The curious case of Florida is difficult. All 3 games were close. Struggled to beat 2 and put up a fight to lose 1. They all could be decent teams, but overall Florida has work to do. I would not have them ranked.

9. Miss St- Has ok wins to ok teams. Lost to LSU who isn’t a barn burner so far but could be decent. I almost put them tied with Florida for 8th.

10. Texas A&M- The loss to App St is unacceptable. The close win against Miami is unknown but better than a loss.

11. Vandy- 3-1! Impressive season opener, followed by a loss to decent Wake, and a win to a maybe okay N Illinois team. I’m not saying they’re contenders, but they’ve done better than the bottom 3.

12. Auburn- Barely beat San Jose St. Has 1 good win against a small Mercer team. Penn St destroyed them. They have time to get it better, but it looks bad right now.

13. Missouri- Looks like a team struggling to find themselves. We find out who they are on Saturday against Auburn. At least they are 2-1. Won against a maybe OK la tech team big, beat a small fcs school, got smashed by an at beat mediocre K State.

14. South Carolina- playing 2 top 10 teams is not fun to start the season. The offense has problems, the defense has problems. The loss to Arkansas was worse than the score indicates. Barely beating GA State (or I guess uncomfortably beating them) is their only win. The next quarter of the season is easier and they can slide up. But for now, no team has had a worse start. I think they’re better than some of these teams, but so far, no one has played worse than our Gamecocks.