Want more from Front Office Sports
in your search results?
Ten SEC teams entered Week 3 ranked in the top 25, guaranteeing that many of college football’s highest-powered rosters would face off on Saturday.
The result was a shakeup in Sunday’s latest AP poll. Those 10 teams—Texas, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, LSU, Tennessee, Missouri, Florida, Texas A&M, and Mississippi State—mostly beat up on each other.
Texas and Georgia held their ground at No. 1 and 2, respectively, with wins over No. 14 Tennessee and unranked Oklahoma, respectively. (Oklahoma was No. 24 in the coaches’ poll.) Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi State also moved up in the rankings. Meanwhile, Tennessee and Mississippi slipped, and Texas A&M fell out of the rankings. LSU moved down despite a win over the Aggies.
Eleven of the 20 most expensive college football rosters hail from the SEC, according to estimates from The Athletic. And, at least early on, the rankings reflect the money.
Tennessee, which hosted ESPN College GameDay on Saturday as well as President Trump, came into the game against No. 1 Texas looking for continued momentum. But after a 20–17 loss, it fell from No. 14 to 17. Although there had been questions in the week leading up to the game about whether Trump’s movements would affect the coaches’ headsets for communicating from the sidelines, that appears not to have been an issue. But ESPN’s broadcast booth did have early technical issues.
Elsewhere, Georgia dominated Oklahoma to keep its grip on the No. 2 spot, but Oklahoma is under a bright spotlight now. The Sooners extended coach Brent Venables’ contract before the season began for $63 million. While Oklahoma opened the year at No. 10, it’s out of the Top 25 early in the season. At 2–2 overall, Oklahoma’s schedule doesn’t let up, either. It has a bye this upcoming week but still has six more ranked games remaining, including a showdown with No. 1 Texas on Oct. 10.
Florida’s 52–28 win over Mississippi backed up their status as unusual favorites: It was just the fifth time since 1978 that a top-5 team was an underdog to a team ranked outside of the top 20.
The Gators recorded their first top-5 win since 2020, lifting them from No. 21 all the way to No. 8 in the AP poll while sending Ole Miss from No. 4 to No. 9. It’s a marquee victory for first-year coach Jon Sumrall as he looks to earn Florida its first trip to the SEC title game since 2020.
Mississippi’s other SEC team—Mississippi State—did better. It knocked off No. 19 Missouri to move from No. 24 to No. 16 in the poll.
Quarterback Kamario Taylor is one of the fastest rising stars in college football this season, and continued that trajectory on Saturday with another three-touchdown performance. The win gave the Bulldogs their first back-to-back 4–0 starts since 1944–1945. Next up for Mississippi State: a huge, home matchup against Alabama, which moved up one spot, to No. 7, with a 49–18 win over South Carolina.
In the day’s most expensive matchup, LSU jumped on Texas A&M early and cruised to a home win, but dropped to No. 11 amid several injury concerns and movement elsewhere in the poll. Texas A&M, like Oklahoma, opened the season with a top-10 ranking and has steadily slid as the season has progressed. After starting the weekend at No. 23, the loss means it now joins the Sooners outside of the top 25. At 2–2, the Aggies play struggling Arkansas next Saturday as they try to salvage a season that began with big expectations and big investment; the Aggies were just one of two SEC teams (Texas) that finished Top 10 nationally in high school recruiting and Top 15 in transfer portal recruiting.
For the second straight week, though, the SEC will have 10 teams in the top 25. Kentucky (No. 24) moved into the rankings after beating non-conference opponent South Alabama, 45-21.
Download the FOS App
The business of sports, in your pocket.
Scan the QR code to get the app now.
