# SEC Scouts Football Power Rankings Week 9: Kentucky Holds the Top Spot as Auburn's Upset Scrambles the Chase

**Published:** 2026-10-26 — **By:** Stacy Stanfield
**Category:** analysis — **Type:** power-rankings
**Source:** https://secscouts.com/news/sec-scouts-football-power-rankings-week-9-kentucky-holds-the-top-spot-as-auburn-s-upset-scrambles

**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/)


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# SEC Scouts Football Power Rankings — Week 9

The regular season has reached its sorting phase, and the SEC refuses to cooperate with anyone's preseason script. Kentucky, winners of five straight, sits atop the SEC Scouts power rankings at 7-1 (5-1 SEC) with a formula-best 85.3 Power Score — seven spots better than the AP poll's No. 12 assessment of the Wildcats. The computers reward winning, and nobody in the conference is winning more consistently right now.

The week's biggest tremor came in Athens' direction: Georgia fell 27-24 to Auburn, snapping the Bulldogs' grip on the top line. Georgia's resume remains formidable — a +190 point differential and the conference's best AP ranking at No. 5 keep them a close second at 83.4 — but the loss cracked the door open, and Kentucky walked through it.

Below the top two, the middle of this conference is a pileup. Spots three through seven are separated by just 7.5 Power Score points, and spots eight and nine are a dead heat at 58.4. Every result in the coming weeks will move real furniture.

## The Rankings

**1. Kentucky (7-1, 5-1 SEC) — Power Score: 85.3**
Five straight wins, the latest a comfortable 34-17 handling of Vanderbilt. The +65 point differential is modest for a No. 1 team, but the formula's heavy weighting of win percentage and recent form rewards a team that simply keeps banking results. The AP poll has the Wildcats at No. 12; the formula says the poll is behind.

**2. Georgia (6-1, 4-1 SEC) — Power Score: 83.4**
The 27-24 loss to Auburn stings, but the underlying profile barely budged. Georgia's +190 point differential is second-best in the conference, and the No. 5 AP ranking remains the league's highest. At 4-1 over their last five, the Bulldogs are one result from reclaiming the top line.

**3. LSU (6-2, 3-2 SEC) — Power Score: 70.8**
Nobody in the SEC has a better point differential than LSU's +193, and the Tigers just posted their most emphatic statement yet — a 38-17 road dismantling of Auburn. Winners of four of their last five, LSU at AP No. 18 looks significantly undervalued by the voters relative to the 70.8 Power Score.

**4. Alabama (6-2, 4-2 SEC) — Power Score: 70.4**
The Crimson Tide took care of business against Texas A&M, 31-20, to stay within a rounding error of LSU at 70.4. The 4-2 conference record is tied for second-best in the league, though a 3-2 mark over the last five keeps Alabama from climbing higher. A +136 differential says the floor here is high.

**5. Ole Miss (5-2, 3-2 SEC) — Power Score: 67.1**
The Rebels carry the AP poll's No. 7 ranking — tops among teams outside our top two — but the formula docks them for the 34-27 road loss at Texas. The +75 differential is middling for a team ranked this high by the voters. Ole Miss has lost two of five and needs to stop the slide.

**6. Tennessee (6-2, 3-2 SEC) — Power Score: 65.7**
A 27-24 road loss at South Carolina drops the Volunteers out of the top five. The profile is still strong — six wins, a +128 differential, an AP No. 11 ranking — but 3-2 over the last five against this schedule means the margin for error is gone.

**7. Florida (5-2, 3-2 SEC) — Power Score: 63.3**
The Gators own the week's most valuable road win, a 27-24 victory at Texas. At 3-2 in conference with a +79 differential, Florida is quietly in the thick of the race, and the AP's No. 20 ranking undersells a team one game off the pace in the loss column.

**8. Missouri (5-2, 2-2 SEC) — Power Score: 58.4**
The 31-3 loss at Ole Miss was the week's ugliest result — a 28-point no-show from a team that had been building a case. The overall numbers (5-2, +81) keep Missouri eighth, in a flat tie with Texas at 58.4, but another performance like that will cost real ground.

**9. Texas (5-2, 2-2 SEC) — Power Score: 58.4**
Statistically inseparable from Missouri — identical 58.4 Power Scores, identical +81 differentials, identical 5-2 records. The Longhorns rebounded from the home loss to Florida by beating AP No. 7 Ole Miss 34-27, exactly the kind of quality win the formula will reward going forward.

**10. Oklahoma (4-3, 2-2 SEC) — Power Score: 52.1**
The Sooners ground out a 23-15 road win at Mississippi State to get back to winning. A +27 differential is the thinnest of any team in the top twelve, which tells you how narrow the edges have been, but 3-2 over the last five is honest work.

**11. South Carolina (4-3, 2-3 SEC) — Power Score: 51.6**
The Gamecocks just beat Tennessee 27-24, their best result of the season. The 2-3 stretch over the last five holds the Power Score down, but a +76 differential — better than four teams ranked above them — suggests South Carolina is better than its record.

**12. Mississippi State (4-3, 2-3 SEC) — Power Score: 46.6**
The gap between the AP poll (No. 16) and the formula (46.6, twelfth) is one of the widest in the league. The 23-15 home loss to Oklahoma and a +16 differential explain the computer's skepticism. Two losses in the last three conference outings have stalled the momentum.

**13. Auburn (4-3, 2-3 SEC) — Power Score: 46.2**
Whiplash week on the Plains: the Tigers knocked off No. 5 Georgia 27-24, then got flattened at home by LSU, 38-17. A +9 point differential — essentially break-even — captures a team capable of beating anyone and losing to anyone, often in consecutive weeks.

**14. Texas A&M (4-4, 1-4 SEC) — Power Score: 37.8**
The oddest profile in the rankings: a +75 point differential, better than six teams above them, attached to a 1-4 conference record. The 31-20 loss at Alabama made it four SEC defeats. The Aggies' margins say they're close; the standings say it hasn't mattered.

**15. Arkansas (3-4, 1-3 SEC) — Power Score: 30.2**
The Razorbacks snapped out of their funk with a 31-21 road win at Vanderbilt. The -40 differential and unranked status keep them fifteenth, but back-to-back weeks of competent football would start moving the number.

**16. Vanderbilt (3-5, 0-5 SEC) — Power Score: 19.9**
The most jarring poll-versus-formula split in the sport: the AP has Vanderbilt at No. 15, while the formula has the Commodores dead last at 19.9. The ledger is unambiguous — 0-5 in SEC play, 0-5 over the last five, a -60 differential, and a 34-17 loss at Kentucky in the latest outing.

## Stock Up

**LSU** — A +193 point differential leads the conference, the Tigers have won four of five, and the 38-17 road win at Auburn was a statement in both phases. The AP's No. 18 is well behind the 70.8 Power Score.

**Florida** — Winning 27-24 at Texas is the kind of road result that changes a season's trajectory. At 3-2 in the SEC with a +79 differential, the Gators have climbed to seventh and are trending toward the poll respect they currently lack at No. 20.

**South Carolina** — Beating Tennessee 27-24 gives the Gamecocks a marquee scalp, and the +76 differential has always suggested a team sturdier than 4-3. The formula will catch up if the wins keep coming.

## Stock Down

**Missouri** — A 31-3 road loss at Ole Miss is the kind of result that lingers in a formula weighted toward recent form. The Tigers kept the No. 8 spot on accumulated equity, but they're now in a flat 58.4 tie with Texas and trending the wrong way.

**Tennessee** — The 27-24 loss at South Carolina is the Volunteers' second defeat in their last five and knocked them from the top-five conversation to sixth. The talent profile (+128 differential) remains top-tier; the results lately have not.

**Vanderbilt** — Five straight losses, zero SEC wins, and a 34-17 defeat at Kentucky. The 19.9 Power Score is less than half of the next-closest team's, and the distance between the Commodores' AP No. 15 ranking and their on-field ledger grows harder to reconcile each week.

## What to Watch

Three ranking battles will define the next stretch. First, the top line: Kentucky's 85.3 and Georgia's 83.4 are separated by less than two points, so any Wildcat stumble hands the Bulldogs the spot right back. Second, the three-through-seven logjam — LSU, Alabama, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Florida sit within 7.5 points of each other, and with every one of those teams carrying two conference losses except Georgia above them, head-to-head results down the stretch will function as elimination math. Third, the dead heat at eight: Missouri and Texas are tied at 58.4 with identical records and differentials, and the Longhorns' win over AP No. 7 Ole Miss gives them the quality-win momentum in that argument. The formula doesn't do ties for long.

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*Original article: [SEC Scouts Football Power Rankings Week 9: Kentucky Holds the Top Spot as Auburn's Upset Scrambles the Chase](https://secscouts.com/news/sec-scouts-football-power-rankings-week-9-kentucky-holds-the-top-spot-as-auburn-s-upset-scrambles) — SEC Scouts*