There are just 23 days remaining until the Alabama Crimson Tide kick off the 2026 college football season against East Carolina on Sept. 5 at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
As the anticipation builds toward another season with preseason polls, rankings and annual watch lists in fully swing, ESPN on Thursday released the final preseason update for its popular SP+ metrics. Those metrics feature a slight drop for coach Kalen DeBoer and the Tide from the spring.
In Thursday's update from ESPN SP+ founder Bill Connelly, Alabama fell two spots to No. 13 from its initial ranking in April. The Crimson Tide have a 17.6 overall SP+ rating. To take a closer look at the numbers, Alabama is awarded a 31 rating on offense, which is 33rd nationally, and a 13 rating on defense
that ranks sixth best.
Special teams were given a -0.4 rating, which places in the bottom half of FBS schools at 109th nationally.
The two teams that jumped the Tide in the metrics were the Oklahoma Sooners and Southern California. Alabama is one of 11 SEC teams in the top 25 of the final preseason SP+ metrics.
As Connelly points out about the metrics:
"As always: SP+ is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking, and, along those same lines, these projections aren't intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the year. These are simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have been able to gather to date."
SEC football teams ranked worst to first in final presason ESPN SP+ 2026 ratings
Here's a look at SEC teams ranked 1-16 in ESPN's final SP+ rankings ahead of 2026.
- 16. Mississippi State Bulldogs (4.8 overall SP+ rating, 52nd nationally
- 15. Kentucky Wildcats (5.2 SP+ rating, 47th nationally)
- 14. Arkansas Razorbacks (5.6 SP+ rating, 44th nationally)
- 13. Vanderbilt Commodores (9.8 SP+ rating, 29th nationally)
- 12. Auburn Tigers (11.5 SP+ rating, 26th nationally)
- 11. South Carolina Gamecocks (12.6 SP+ rating, 24th nationally)
- 10. Florida Gators (15.2 SP+ rating, 20th nationally)
- 9. Missouri Tigers (15.4 SP+ rating, 19th nationally)
- 8. Ole Miss Rebels (16.5 SP+ rating, 16th nationally)
- 7. Tennessee Volunteers (17.3 SP+ rating, 14th nationally)
- 6. Alabama Crimson Tide (17.6 SP+ rating, 13th nationally)
- 5. Oklahoma Sooners (18.8 SP+ rating, 11th nationally)
- 4. LSU Tigers (20.4 SP+ rating, 10th nationally)
- 3. Texas A&M Aggies (20.9 SP+ rating, ninth nationally)
- 2. Texas Longhorns (22.8 SP+ rating, sixth nationally)
- 1. Georgia Bulldogs (26.4 SP+ rating, fourth nationally
What are ESPN SP+ rankings?
Per Connelly, SP+ is "simply a measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football. If you're lucky or unimpressive in a win, your rating will probably fall. If you're strong and unlucky in a loss, it will probably rise."
"SP+ is not a résumé ranking, so it does not automatically give credit for big wins or particularly brave scheduling -- no good predictive system does," he adds.
Alabama football freshman could make 'instant impact' in 2026
— Roll Tide Wire (@RollTideWire) August 13, 2026
📸 Gary Cosby Jr., Gary Cosby Jr. / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images https://t.co/ranaexyEi9 pic.twitter.com/wg1kvJJ6WW
Alabama football schedule 2026
- Sept. 5: vs. East Carolina, 11 a.m., ABC
- Sept. 12: at Kentucky, 2:30 p.m., ABC
- Sept. 19: vs. Florida State, 2:30 p.m., ABC
- Sept. 26: vs. South Carolina, prime time
- Oct. 3: at Mississippi State, early window
- Oct. 10: vs. Georgia, prime time
- Oct. 17: at Tennessee, TBA
- Oct. 24: vs. Texas A&M, TBA
- Nov. 7: at LSU, TBA
- Nov. 14: at Vanderbilt, TBA
- Nov. 21: vs. Chattanooga, 1 p.m., SEC Network+
- Nov. 28: vs. Auburn, TBA
Preseason SEC football power rankings entering 2026 season
— Roll Tide Wire (@RollTideWire) August 13, 2026
📸 Maria Lysaker, Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images https://t.co/s1FUcyxGav pic.twitter.com/zsnZz79V9B
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This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: Where Alabama football sits in final ESPN SP+ rankings entering 2026
