SEC Scouts Football Power Rankings — Week 1

The regular season is here, every record in the league reads 0-0, and the SEC Scouts formula still found plenty to argue about. With no 2026 results on the books yet, this week's rankings lean on recent form — the Last 5 metric — quality of most recent results, and the AP poll bonus. What emerges is a league where the poll voters and the power formula disagree loudly, and where the gap between No. 3 and No. 11 is a razor-thin 7.0 points.

Texas opens the season at No. 1 with a 29.5 Power Score, the league's best Last 5 mark at 4-1 and a 27-17 win over Texas A&M in its most recent outing. Georgia checks in second at 26.5 despite dropping its last game to Ole Miss, propped up by the SEC's best AP standing at No. 3. The most interesting story lives further down: Vanderbilt, fresh off a 45-24 road demolition of Tennessee, opens at No. 5 — ahead of four teams ranked above the Commodores in the AP poll.

The other headline is the disconnect at the bottom of the top half. South Carolina carries an AP No. 11 ranking into the season but sits 12th in our formula, dragged down by a 1-4 Last 5. The voters see a top-15 team. The data sees a team that has to prove it. Week 1 starts settling those arguments.

The Rankings

1. Texas (0-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 29.5 The Longhorns own the league's only 4-1 Last 5 and closed their most recent stretch with a 27-17 win over Texas A&M. The AP has them fifth, but the formula rewards sustained form, and nobody in the conference enters the regular season on steadier footing. The three-point cushion over Georgia is the largest gap anywhere in these rankings.

2. Georgia (0-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 26.5 The Bulldogs' AP No. 3 ranking — best in the SEC — does heavy lifting here, because the recent results are shakier: 3-2 over the Last 5, capped by a 39-34 home loss to Ole Miss. Georgia opens with a two-point edge over the Oklahoma–Ole Miss tie at No. 3, which is not much margin for a team that lost its last game.

3. Oklahoma (0-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 24.5 The Sooners went 3-2 over their Last 5 but enter off a 34-24 home loss to Alabama. The AP No. 10 ranking keeps them in the top tier, and the formula's tiebreak puts them a nose ahead of Ole Miss at an identical 24.5. That loss to the Crimson Tide — who sit five spots lower — is the kind of result Week 1 can start to reconcile.

4. Ole Miss (0-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 24.5 No team in the league owns a better most-recent result: a 39-34 win at Georgia, on the road, against the SEC's top AP team. The Rebels are 3-2 over the Last 5 and ranked ninth in the AP poll. Deadlocked with Oklahoma at 24.5, they have the stronger résumé argument and a real path to climb quickly.

5. Vanderbilt (0-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 22.5 The Commodores enter as the formula's clearest overachiever versus the poll: AP No. 15, but fifth here on the strength of a 3-2 Last 5 that ended with a 45-24 rout at Tennessee. Vanderbilt has also handled Kentucky 45-17 within this data set. Back-to-back 45-point outputs against SEC competition are not a fluke profile.

6. Texas A&M (0-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 21.5 The Aggies carry the AP's No. 8 ranking but a 2-3 Last 5, most recently a 27-17 loss at Texas. The formula splits the difference: top half of the league, but a full point behind Vanderbilt. A&M did edge South Carolina 31-30 in this data window, a one-point escape that hints at how thin the margins are here.

7. LSU (0-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 19.5 AP No. 11, but 2-3 over the Last 5 with a 13-17 loss at Oklahoma as the most recent data point. Thirteen points in that outing is the number to fix. LSU is tied with Alabama at 19.5 and holds the spot on tiebreak — a coin-flip separation that one Saturday will resolve.

8. Alabama (0-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 19.5 The formula's strangest output. The Crimson Tide's last two results in this data set are a 34-24 win at Oklahoma — the No. 3 team here — and a 27-20 win over Auburn. But the 2-3 Last 5 anchors the score, and the AP has Alabama just 13th. A team that beat two of the seven clubs ranked above it will not stay eighth long if the wins keep coming.

9. Auburn (0-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 17.5 The Tigers are 2-3 over the Last 5 and lost their most recent game to Alabama, 27-20. The AP No. 22 ranking gives them a modest bonus, and the formula's tiebreak keeps them ahead of Missouri and Tennessee at an identical 17.5. Auburn's opening stretch is about proving it belongs closer to the Alabama tier than the score gap suggests.

10. Missouri (0-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 17.5 The Tigers enter on a winning note, 31-17 at Arkansas, with an AP No. 25 ranking. The 2-3 Last 5 keeps the score modest, but Missouri is one of only five SEC teams whose most recent result is a win. In a three-way tie at 17.5, that recency matters.

11. Tennessee (0-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 17.5 AP No. 20, but the last data point is ugly: a 45-24 home loss to Vanderbilt. The 2-3 Last 5 completes a profile trending the wrong direction. The Volunteers open behind the Commodores by five ranking spots and three Power Score points, and that head-to-head result is why.

12. South Carolina (0-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 16.5 The widest poll-versus-formula gap in the league: AP No. 11, SEC Scouts No. 12 — with a 1-4 Last 5 that includes a 31-30 loss at Texas A&M. One point separated the Gamecocks from a very different opening ranking. Either the poll is early on this team or the formula is; the season will tell us fast.

13. Florida (0-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 16.5 The Gators are 1-4 over the Last 5, most recently an 11-31 home loss to Tennessee, and yet the AP still has them 13th. Eleven points in that last outing is the flashing light. Florida's poll bonus is doing all the work in a 16.5 score that ties three teams.

14. Kentucky (0-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 16.5 A genuinely odd profile: a 3-2 Last 5 — better than nine teams ranked above the Wildcats — but no AP ranking and a 45-17 loss at Vanderbilt as the final data point. The formula sees decent form undermined by a bad exit and no poll support. Kentucky is the unranked team most capable of jumping this list.

15. Mississippi State (0-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 7.5 The Bulldogs enter with an 0-2 mark in available Last 5 data, no AP ranking, and no most-recent result on file. The 7.5 Power Score reflects a résumé with more blanks than answers. Week 1 is a clean slate in the most literal sense in Starkville.

16. Arkansas (0-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 7.5 An 0-5 Last 5, capped by a 31-17 home loss to Missouri, gives the Razorbacks the league's worst form line. Tied with Mississippi State at 7.5, Arkansas holds the cellar because those five results all went the wrong way. There is nowhere to go but up, and one September win changes the math immediately.

Stock Up

Vanderbilt — A 3-2 Last 5 closing with 45-24 at Tennessee and a 45-17 handling of Kentucky, plus an AP No. 15 ranking. The formula already has the Commodores four spots ahead of the poll's view of Tennessee. Sustained scoring like that will push them toward the 24.5 tier quickly.

Ole Miss — The 39-34 win at Georgia is the best single result any SEC team carries into Week 1. At 24.5, the Rebels are dead even with Oklahoma and just two points behind the team they beat. The formula's quality-win component is primed to reward them.

Alabama — Eighth in these rankings, but with wins over No. 3 Oklahoma (34-24, on the road) and No. 9 Auburn (27-20) as the two most recent data points. The 2-3 Last 5 is the anchor; the trajectory inside it is straight up.

Stock Down

Arkansas — An 0-5 Last 5 is the worst in the conference, and the 31-17 loss to Missouri came at home. A 7.5 Power Score versus the league median tells the story without embellishment.

South Carolina — The AP says No. 11; a 1-4 Last 5 says otherwise. Four losses in five, including the one-point defeat at Texas A&M, is why the Gamecocks open four spots below their poll position.

Tennessee — Surrendering 45 at home to Vanderbilt dropped the Volunteers into a 17.5 tie they lose on tiebreak. AP No. 20 support keeps them afloat, but the gap between poll and formula is trending the wrong way.

Games to Watch

With every team at 0-0, the first results of the regular season carry outsized weight in a formula built on form. Watch three pressure points. First, the 24.5 deadlock between Oklahoma and Ole Miss: the Sooners lost their last outing to Alabama while the Rebels won at Georgia, so the first stumble by either breaks the tie. Second, the 19.5 tie between LSU and Alabama — the Crimson Tide enter with the far better recent results, and one clean opening win likely vaults them past both LSU and the 21.5 Texas A&M sits on. Third, the South Carolina question: an AP No. 11 team ranked 12th here either validates the voters with an early statement or confirms the 1-4 form line. And keep an eye on Vanderbilt — if the Commodores open the way they closed, the top four has a problem.