# SEC Scouts Football Power Rankings Week 3: Alabama Claims the Top Spot as Ole Miss Shakes Up the Regular Season **Published:** 2026-09-14 — **By:** Stacy Stanfield **Category:** analysis — **Type:** power-rankings **Source:** https://secscouts.com/news/sec-football-power-rankings-week-3-alabama-ole-miss **Teams:** [Alabama](https://secscouts.com/alabama/), [Arkansas](https://secscouts.com/arkansas/), [Auburn](https://secscouts.com/auburn/), [Kentucky](https://secscouts.com/kentucky/), [LSU](https://secscouts.com/lsu/), [Miss State](https://secscouts.com/mississippi-state/), [Oklahoma](https://secscouts.com/oklahoma/), [Ole Miss](https://secscouts.com/ole-miss/), [South Carolina](https://secscouts.com/south-carolina/), [Texas A&M](https://secscouts.com/texas-am/), [Vanderbilt](https://secscouts.com/vanderbilt/) --- # SEC Scouts Football Power Rankings Week 3: Alabama Claims the Top Spot as Ole Miss Shakes Up the Regular Season Three weeks into the 2026 regular season, one team has already separated itself from the pack. Alabama sits alone atop the SEC Scouts Power Rankings with a 70.8 Power Score — more than 10 points clear of second-place Texas — on the strength of the league's only conference win to date, a 45-17 dismantling of Kentucky in Lexington. The story of the week, though, belongs to Ole Miss. The Rebels walked into Athens and beat Georgia 39-34, a result that ripples through the entire top half of these rankings. Add in Vanderbilt's 45-24 road rout of Tennessee and Missouri's 31-17 win at Arkansas, and the SEC's early-season pecking order looks far less settled than the preseason polls suggested. Our formula weighs win percentage (25%), conference win percentage (20%), point differential (15%), quality wins over ranked teams (15%), form over the last five games (15%), and an AP Poll bonus (10%). Here is where all 16 teams stand entering Week 3. ## The Rankings **1. Alabama (2-0, 1-0 SEC) — Power Score: 70.8** The Crimson Tide are the only team in the league with a conference win on the ledger, and it was emphatic: 45-17 at Kentucky. A +66 point differential and that early SEC credit produce a Power Score no one else approaches. The AP voters have Alabama at No. 13 — our formula says that badly undersells this resume. **2. Texas (2-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 60.1** The Longhorns are the only team on this list riding a perfect 5-0 mark over their last five games. A 27-17 win over Texas A&M and a +53 differential back up their No. 5 AP ranking, the second-highest poll position in the conference. **3. Georgia (2-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 57.0** Georgia owns the SEC's best point differential at +110 and the league's top AP ranking at No. 3, but the Bulldogs' latest result — a 39-34 home loss to Ole Miss — costs them dearly here. The margin of that defeat was slim; the ranking damage was not. **4. Florida (2-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 52.2** A +94 differential is the second-best in the conference and keeps the No. 13 Gators fourth despite a 31-11 loss to Tennessee in their most recent outing. That 20-point defeat is the widest margin of any loss among the top six. **5. South Carolina (2-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 52.1** No team can feel more aggrieved by a single point. The No. 11 Gamecocks fell 31-30 at Texas A&M, but a +93 differential keeps them a razor-thin 0.1 behind Florida in the formula. **6. Ole Miss (2-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 51.3** The Rebels delivered the win of the week, 39-34 at Georgia, and the No. 9 AP ranking reflects it. The modest +35 differential — lowest among the top nine — is what holds them at sixth for now; keep stacking results like Athens and that changes fast. **7. Texas A&M (2-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 50.4** The No. 8 Aggies own a 31-30 escape against South Carolina, but their latest result was a 27-17 loss at Texas, and their 2-3 mark over the last five drags on the formula. A +78 differential says the ceiling remains high. **8. Vanderbilt (2-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 48.9** The Commodores made the loudest statement of the week outside of Athens, hammering Tennessee 45-24 in Knoxville. The No. 15 AP ranking is real, and the +28 differential is the only thing keeping Vanderbilt out of the top six. **9. Missouri (2-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 48.4** Missouri handled its business on the road, 31-17 at Arkansas, and checks in at No. 25 in the AP Poll with a +57 differential. Quietly, the Tigers have one of the cleaner profiles in the league's crowded middle. **10. LSU (2-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 48.1** A 17-13 loss at Oklahoma is the blemish on an otherwise strong profile — the No. 11 Tigers carry a +72 differential, third-best in the SEC. The 2-3 form line over the last five is what separates LSU from the teams just above. **11. Auburn (2-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 47.3** The No. 22 Tigers took Alabama to the wire before falling 27-20. A +36 differential and 3-2 recent form keep Auburn in the thick of a middle tier where barely three Power Score points separate seventh from eleventh. **12. Tennessee (2-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 45.9** The Volunteers own a 31-11 win over Florida, but the 45-24 home loss to Vanderbilt was the kind of result a formula does not forgive. The AP still has Tennessee at No. 20; a +68 differential suggests the talent is there to climb back. **13. Mississippi State (2-0, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 42.2** Here is the oddity of the week: a +74 point differential — fourth-best in the SEC — attached to an unranked team coming off a 38-19 loss to Ole Miss. The Bulldogs have fattened up, but the formula wants proof against quality. **14. Oklahoma (1-1, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 36.2** No team has a wider gap between poll perception and formula output. The AP has the Sooners at No. 10; our numbers have them 14th after a 34-24 loss to Alabama. The 17-13 win over LSU and a +44 differential are genuine assets, but the loss column matters here. **15. Kentucky (1-1, 0-1 SEC) — Power Score: 26.2** The Wildcats absorbed the league's only conference loss so far, 45-17 to Alabama at home, and their +4 differential is barely above water. The 2-3 stretch over the last five offers little cushion. **16. Arkansas (1-1, 0-0 SEC) — Power Score: 22.2** The Razorbacks are the only SEC team with a negative point differential (-16) and the only one at 1-4 over their last five. The 31-17 home loss to Missouri leaves Arkansas with the most ground to make up in the conference. ## Stock Up **Ole Miss.** A 39-34 road win at a Georgia team carrying a +110 differential and a No. 3 AP ranking is the best result any SEC team has posted this season. The Rebels jumped to No. 9 in the poll, and the formula will keep rewarding them if the point margins widen. **Vanderbilt.** Winning 45-24 in Knoxville is not a survive-and-advance result — it is a statement. The No. 15 Commodores sit eighth with a Power Score within 1.5 points of the seventh-place Aggies. **Missouri.** A 31-17 road win at Arkansas, a +57 differential, and a return to the AP Poll at No. 25. The Tigers' profile is trending up in every component the formula measures. ## Stock Down **Oklahoma.** The Sooners' 34-24 loss to Alabama dropped them to 1-1 and created the league's largest disconnect between poll standing (No. 10) and Power Score (36.2, 14th). Something has to give. **Tennessee.** Beating Florida 31-11 bought goodwill; losing 45-24 at home to Vanderbilt spent all of it. The Volunteers fell to 12th in the formula despite a No. 20 AP ranking and a +68 differential. **Arkansas.** A -16 differential, a 1-4 run over the last five, and a 14-point home loss to Missouri. Every input is pointing the wrong direction in Fayetteville. ## Games to Watch The defining feature of this week's board is how little conference football has actually been played: Alabama and Kentucky own the SEC's only league results. That means the coming stretch of conference openers will scramble these rankings more than anything we have seen yet. Watch three things. First, whether Alabama can defend its 1-0 SEC head start once the rest of the league starts banking conference wins of its own. Second, the logjam from fourth through seventh — Florida (52.2), South Carolina (52.1), Ole Miss (51.3), and Texas A&M (50.4) are separated by fewer than two Power Score points, and one result will reorder all four. Third, Georgia's response: a team with a +110 differential and a No. 3 ranking coming off a home loss to Ole Miss is exactly the kind of profile that tends to make the next opponent pay. --- *Original article: [SEC Scouts Football Power Rankings Week 3: Alabama Claims the Top Spot as Ole Miss Shakes Up the Regular Season](https://secscouts.com/news/sec-football-power-rankings-week-3-alabama-ole-miss) — SEC Scouts*