The Southeastern Conference, as is often the case, has the most teams in the latest AP Top 25 college football rankings with nine.
Another quirk: There are five two-loss teams in the poll and every one of them is from the SEC. Auburn, another two-loss SEC team, is just outside the Top 25 after knocking off the No. 1 team in the country on the road last week.
The rankings speak to the parity and talent within the conference, where, as Georgia coach Kirby
Smart puts it, “on any given Saturday somebody can get their butt beat in our league.”
It also underscores that some of these two-loss teams still have realistic hopes of not only reaching the SEC championship game but the College Football Playoff. The CFP, after all, has selected 10 two-loss teams and two with three losses since expanding to 12 teams two years ago.
Still, for two-loss teams like No. 13 Alabama, No. 18 LSU, No. 19 Texas, No. 20 Florida, No. 22 Missouri and Auburn, the margin for error is thin. Only Clemson in 2024 and Alabama in 2025 made the playoff with three losses.
And the road ahead is rugged.
Arch Manning and Texas, for instance, still have to navigate a schedule that includes three more ranked SEC opponents in Ole Miss, LSU and Missouri. Same for LSU and Missouri.Florida will play both Georgia and Kentucky.
Alabama has by far the easiest remaining schedule of the bunch with its toughest SEC competition behind them. Still, a crucial matchup with Lane Kiffin and LSU in Death Valley awaits on Nov. 7.
A closer look at remaining schedule for each of the SEC's two-loss ranked teams and Auburn:
— Alabama: vs. Texas A&M, at No. 18 LSU, at Vanderbilt, vs. Chattanooga, vs. Auburn.
— LSU: at Auburn, vs. No. 13 Alabama, vs. No. 19 Texas, at No. 11 Tennessee, at Arkansas.
— Texas: vs. No. 7 Ole Miss, vs Mississippi State, at No. 22 Missouri, at No. 18 LSU, vs. Arkansas, at Texas A&M.
— Florida: at No. 5 Georgia, vs. Oklahoma, at No. 12 Kentucky, vs. Vanderbilt, at Florida State.
— Missouri: at Arkansas, vs. No. 19 Texas, at No. 5 Georgia, vs. No. 12 Kentucky, vs. Oklahoma.
— Auburn: vs. 18 LSU, at No. 7 Ole Miss, vs. Arkansas, at Mississippi State, vs. Samford, at No. 13 Alabama.
Georgia's loss to Auburn on Saturday means there are no more unbeaten teams in the SEC, which is the earliest in a season that has happened since 2007.
It also means that no fewer than a dozen teams are within one “loss” of the lead in the SEC standings and still have a legitimate shot at making it to the championship game, which would almost certainly entail a berth in the CFP given the degree of difficulty it takes to reach that pinnacle.
“What does that trajectory look like? Is it going to be the SEC champion with three (losses) or two? I don’t know," Smart said.
After the Crimson Tide’s 26-10 loss to Tennessee, coach Kalen DeBoer talked about the challenge of “resetting” in the SEC on a week-to-week basis.
“We are going to have our backs to the wall here, and other teams are too in the conference,” DeBoer said after his team's second straight loss. ”(Given) the depth in the conference, you know you’re going to be in a dog fight every week.”
That's why Kiffin, along with several other SEC coaches, has been an outspoken proponent of moving to a 24-team playoff next season after the SEC moved to a nine-game conference schedule.
He believes the current 12-team format fails to account for the SEC's overall depth and competitiveness.
“When the decision was made by the league to go to nine games, I felt we have to go to 24,” Kiffin said this week. “Because we’re going to play these nine conference games, we’re going to have seasons with a lot of nine-win teams that may be really good teams. So, you need to go to 24, or else you’re just going to knock out teams that might be really good."
As for this year, the playoffs in essence begin this week for many SEC teams.
One more loss could spell doom.
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