SEC Football Rankings: Breaking Down the Preseason Media Poll

SEC Football Rankings: Breaking Down the Preseason Media Poll originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

Coaches shouted about parity from their podiums all week long at SEC football media days in Atlanta, calling their conference not only the best but the deepest in the country. The release of Friday’s preseason media poll for the 2025 season reflected that, as more than half of the 16 teams received at least one vote to win the conference.

A team not named Alabama or Georgia was also picked to win the SEC for the first time since Auburn in 2015. That honor belongs to Texas, as the Longhorns enter their second season in the conference with a target on their back after finishing as runners-up to the Bulldogs in their debut.

Texas led the poll with 96 votes, followed by Georgia (44), Alabama (29), LSU (20), South Carolina (five), Oklahoma (three), Florida (two) and Vanderbilt (two). Tennessee, Ole Miss and Auburn also each received a single vote after just seven teams received at least one vote a season ago. Texas A&M, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi State were the five programs that did not receive a championship prediction.

THE 2025 SEC FOOTBALL MEDIA POLL 🚨

Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/bq4bxITRyp

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) July 18, 2025

“I still feel that the SEC, top to bottom, is as strong as you'll find,” Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer said at SEC media days. “We experienced that last year. We had games where you showed what your ceiling was, but you also had to back it up and play the next week. It showed every team could win on any given Saturday.”

That chaos reared its head when Kentucky upset Ole Miss for its lone SEC win and Oklahoma blew out Alabama late in the year. And who can forget Vanderbilt’s historic victory against the top-ranked Crimson Tide? But beyond one-off upsets, the SEC standings were tighter in 2024.

Texas won the regular-season title with a 7-1 record, marking the first time since 2017 no SEC team went undefeated in conference play. There were changes, like the addition of the Longhorns and Sooners and the elimination of divisions, which saw the race for a spot in the conference championship game come down to the final week of the season.

Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said he noticed how level the league was last year and predicted that balance would continue for years to come.

“There's an old saying, to be the best you gotta beat the best, and I think we get that opportunity competing in this league,” said Florida coach Billy Napier. “I think about this league, I think about the history, the tradition, the venues, going on the road to play in this league, the rivalries, the great players and great coaches, the level of investment by the administrations, the depth that's required to play week in and week out in this league.”

ESPN’s Football Power Index projects the 11 toughest schedules in the FBS belong to SEC teams. The conference also accounts for 16 of the top 20 with three Big Ten teams and one from the ACC rounding out that group.

It doesn't get any tougher than the SEC 😤🏈 pic.twitter.com/KGANIaA2x6

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) July 16, 2025

“I don't think you could have an easy schedule in the SEC,” said Arkansas coach Sam Pittman. “I just don't think it would happen. You could have easier, but the word 'easy' and nothing left on the back end of it never happens in the SEC.”

Still, a team from the SEC hasn’t won the national championship since Georgia went back-to-back in 2021-22. SEC coaches point to the expanded playoff as the reason for increased parity across the sport.

“The more teams you add to the tournament, there's greater variance to it,” Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “So I don't necessarily think that we're that far off.”

The SEC sent three representatives to the College Football Playoff — one fewer than the Big Ten — and none of its teams advanced to the title game for the second season in a row. This follows a decade of the four-team CFP format that saw six SEC champions and two all-SEC title games.

“I think we pride ourselves on being the premier league in college football,” said Texas A&M coach Mike Elko. “In order to do that, you have to be the last team standing at the end. It's a gauntlet going into the SEC season. It's a gauntlet now getting through an expanded playoff.”

Beyond the expanded playoff — which could expand again in the near future — coaches point to the changing college sports landscape as a reason for the equality that some said extends well beyond the SEC footprint. The introduction of revenue sharing stands to turn the industry on its head once more, just a few years after NIL arrived.

“You're seeing that across college football where there's beginning to be a little bit more parity, I think,” said Georgia coach Kirby Smart. “And it's probably going to continue to go that way, so who does the best with what they have, which is what I enjoy about the game.”

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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 18, 2025, where it first appeared.