Polling the SEC: Week 3 Poll Review

The AP Top 25

Five turnovers, an illegal pass and a miracle touchdown dropped the Tide 10 spots in this week's AP Top 25. The Big 10 holds the top two spots.

The narrative the first three weeks of the season has been that the SEC is down, but before the season it was that the Pac-12 is just as good, if not better than, the SEC. There are now three SEC teams in the AP Top 8, and the highest-ranked Pac-12 team is #9 UCLA.

The USA Today Coaches Poll

Who the hell is still voting for Auburn?! It's almost as if coaches don't care to waste their time watching games that have zero effect on their team to complete a ballot that has zero effect on the sport. Almost.

If the playoff started today using the Coaches Poll for seeding, it would be Big 10 vs Big 12 with two SEC teams on the outside looking in.

There are no Pac-12 teams in the Coaches Top 10.

SEC Composite Rankings

Show your work, CSL.

I don't know what formula CSL uses to crank out these rankings, but the team leading the country in scoring just beat the #2 team in the country on the road and CSL has them ranked #44.

Bama's Dynasty is Over, PAWL!

The Coaches and AP Voters overreacted to Bama's loss. I wrote two weeks ago that Auburn was severely overrated by the voters because the War Eagles had an average rank of 14.3 but were in the Top 7 in the human polls. By that same logic, the voters probably dropped Alabama too far after the 6-point loss to Ole Miss. The computers have Bama at #7 but the Tide is #12 in both human polls.

Auburn: Top 15 or Bottom 25?

I don't know how anyone could watch Auburn--#114 in total offense, #78 in rushing, #113 in passing, #88 in scoring, #101 in total defense and #92 in scoring defense--then look at their rankings that say Auburn is #15 and think "Yep, that's about right."

Team	AP	Coaches	Average	High	Low
Ole Miss Rebels	3	5	5.5	1	44
Georgia Bulldogs	7	6	5.7	2	13
Alabama Crimson Tide	12	12	6.7	1	20
LSU Tigers	8	9	10.3	1	56
Texas A&M Aggies	14	15	15.3	4	36
Mississippi State Bulldogs	26	31	29.1	13	83
Tennessee Volunteers	28	29	29.2	13	47
Missouri Tigers	25	23	29.4	8	58
Florida Gators	40	34	30.0	14	53
Auburn Tigers	33	25	35.9	14	103
Arkansas Razorbacks			44.3	19	82
South Carolina Gamecocks			55.1	34	88
Kentucky Wildcats			56.1	22	91
Vanderbilt Commodores			84.3	63	110

Starting 11

1

AP first-place vote for LSU after mauling Auburn. Leonard Fournette made that defense look foolish.

Auburn safety Rudy Ford said last week that it "shouldn't be difficult" to stop Fournette.

Ford is #23:

Vine by PDS

2

Georgia's highest AP ranking, by Gary Horowitz and Tom Murphy.

3

Texas A&M's highest ranking by an AP voter. John Adams has SEC teams ranked 1-3 (Ole Miss, LSU, A&M).

4

AP voters still have Auburn in their Top 25, including Bob Asmussen, who dropped them from #6 to #18. (Bob must be watching football a week behind everyone else.)

5

SEC teams in the AP Top 15.

6

SEC teams in the AP Top 25, down from a record 10 two weeks ago.

7

AP first-place votes for Michigan State, which continues to loosen Ohio State's hold on the #1 spot. Their meeting on November 21 could be The Game of the Century of the Year.

8

The highest ranking given to Missouri, by CSL.

9

SEC teams given their lowest ranking by CSL, which has Alabama at #20, Ole Miss at #44, LSU at #56 and Auburn at #103. (I'm starting to think CSL is a terrible rating system.)

10

SEC teams receiving AP Top 25 votes. Arkansas, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt didn't appear in the "Others Receiving Votes" section this week.

11

AP first-place votes for Ole Miss, who is now the highest-ranked team in the SEC.