The last time an SEC football championship was won by a first-time champion was in 1984 at Florida, but that is what is anticipated this year.
Texas is the favorite to win the conference title in its second season in the league after finishing second in the SEC in 2024. In the 79th annual SEC post-spring football report, which was first released by the Birmingham News in 1947, AL.com sports staff gave the Longhorns seven out of nine votes.
Georgia won its second SEC title in three years after defeating Texas 22–19 in overtime in Atlanta, fulfilling the AL.com panel’s prediction from the previous year. This year, the Bulldogs received one first-place vote and were selected to finish in second place.
In the overall preseason rankings, Texas, which has a star-studded defense with safety Michael Taaffe, linebacker Anthony Hill, and lineman Colin Simmons, outscored Georgia (130) by 140 poll points. After Quinn Ewers left for the NFL, Arch Manning, a highly regarded sophomore, took over as the Longhorns’ quarterback.
Georgia lost to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl College Football Playoff Quarterfinal after finishing 11-3 the previous season. In addition to 13 players selected by NFL teams, three of whom were selected in the first round, the Bulldogs now had to replace outstanding quarterback Carson Beck, who went to Miami.
The other first-place vote went to Auburn, which had a 5-7 record the previous season. Since 2014, the Tigers have not taken home the SEC championship.
Teams were ranked 1–16, with 16 points going to the top and 1 to the bottom (last). On eight out of nine ballots, Mississippi State, who finished 2-10 in 2024, was ranked worst.
Alabama is predicted to finish third in the SEC this season after a dismal 9-4 record under first-year coach Kalen DeBoer. For the first time in recent memory, the Crimson Tide did not garner any votes for first or second place, yet they still finished 118 poll points behind only Georgia and Texas.
With Ole Miss (90), Florida (87), South Carolina (82) and Texas A&M (81) completing the top half of the projected rankings, LSU (103 points) is the favorite to finish fourth. Following Tennessee (80), Oklahoma (73), Missouri (68), Auburn (64), Vanderbilt (46), Arkansas (31), Kentucky (21) and Mississippi State (10), Tennessee comes in eighth.
The SEC voting appears as follows in table form:
| Votes | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. TEX | 7 | 1 | 1 | 140 | |||||||||||||
| 2. UGA | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 130 | |||||||||||
| 3. BAMA | 5 | 2 | 2 | 118 | |||||||||||||
| 4. LSU | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 103 | ||||||||||
| 5. OM | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 90 | ||||||||
| 6. FLA | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 87 | |||||||||||
| 7. SC | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 82 | |||||||||||
| 8. TAMU | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 81 | ||||||||||
| 9. TENN | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 80 | |||||||||||
| 10. OK | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 73 | ||||||||||
| 11. MIZZ | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 68 | ||||||||||
| 12. AUB | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 64 | ||||||||||
| 13. VAN | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 46 | ||||||||||
| 14. ARK | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 31 | |||||||||||
| 15. KY | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 21 | ||||||||||||
| 16. MSU | 1 | 8 | 10 |
AL.com’s 2025 preseason All-SEC team will be announced on Saturday.
UPCOMING SUNDAY: Addressing important queries regarding the best players and teams in the SEC in 2025.
For AL.com, Creg Stephenson writes about sports. Since 1994, he has covered college football for numerous media. You can follow him on Twitter at @CregStephenson or reach him at [email protected].
