How would you rank the top teams in the SEC?

Georgia’s win over Tennessee on Saturday was further proof of how even the league is at the top of the conference. The Bulldogs have wins over the Vols and Texas, but lost to Ole Miss and Alabama. The Rebels lost to LSU and Kentucky. Alabama has losses to Vanderbilt and Tennessee.

At the very least, Missouri and LSU took themselves out of playoff consideration on Saturday with their losses. The Tigers from Columbia lost 34-30 after they gave up a late TD drive to South Carolina and LSU lost 27-16 at Florida.

Assuming South Carolina is also out of playoff contention with three losses, there are six SEC teams in the mix for the College Football Playoff. And deciphering how the committee will rank those teams feels like something out of an advanced-level calculus class.

Here’s our best guess as to how the playoff bracket will look on Tuesday. We think the committee could surprise us with Boise State and BYU.

First-round byes

1. Oregon (11-0, projected Big Ten champion)

The Ducks shouldn’t move off the top spot despite a close shave against Wisconsin. Dan Lanning’s decision to go for a fake field goal late in the game would have been the most second-guessed decision of the season had Wisconsin won the game. Instead, Matayo Uiagalelei sealed the game with an interception and the Ducks head into a bye in Week 13.

2. Texas (9-1, projected SEC champion)

The Longhorns got a brief second-half scare from Arkansas but made that a short-lived experience with a clutch touchdown drive. Texas’ downfield passing game needs to get sorted out, however. Quinn Ewers was 20-of-32 against the Razorbacks but threw for just 176 yards. The Longhorns host Kentucky in Week 13.

3. Miami (9-1, projected ACC champion)

Miami was off on Saturday and should move up a couple spots in the rankings thanks to losses by Tennessee and BYU. The Hurricanes are in great shape to make the ACC title game with two more wins. They hold the tiebreaker over Clemson thanks to a win over Louisville.

4. Boise State (9-1, projected Mountain West champion)

Yes, the Broncos could find themselves in the top four on Tuesday. We’re not sure what the committee was doing last week when BYU moved up three spots after a 22-21 win at Utah. It wasn’t a convincing win, and it was clear from the first set of rankings that the committee wasn’t sold on the Cougars. Given that initial ranking, we think BYU will get dropped below Boise State after it lost at home to Kansas.

First-round matchups

No. 12 BYU (9-1, projected Big 12 champion) at No. 5 Ohio State (9-1, at-large)

Similar to Georgia after Week 12, this could only be a temporary demotion for the Cougars. A win at Arizona State in Week 13 could boost them back up above Boise State. But a loss could be devastating and drop the Cougars out of the Big 12 title game entirely. Ohio State started slowly but scored 21 points in the second quarter to put Northwestern away at Wrigley Field on Saturday. The Buckeyes should stay at No. 2 in the rankings.

No. 11 Georgia (8-2, at-large) at No. 6 Penn State (9-1, at-large)

Welcome back to the playoff field, Georgia. Our line of thinking in the SEC goes like this: The Bulldogs should be ahead of Tennessee because of Saturday’s win and Ole Miss should be ahead of Georgia because of its win in Week 12. And by that logic, you can’t put Alabama ahead of Georgia either. Like Oregon and Ohio State before it, Penn State got a blowout win against Purdue on Saturday.

No. 10 Ole Miss (8-2, at-large) at No. 7 Indiana (10-0, at-large)

Both teams were off on Saturday. Ole Miss moves up a spot thanks to Tennessee’s loss and we’d be surprised if Indiana wasn’t the No. 5 team once again in the rankings. The Hoosiers head to Columbus in Week 13 for the marquee game of the day. A win puts Indiana in the Big Ten title game against Oregon. A loss means the Hoosiers need Michigan to beat the Buckeyes in the final week of the season to have a shot at the conference title.

No. 9 Alabama (8-2, at-large) at No. 8 Notre Dame (9-1, at-large)

Yes, we’re fully aware that our SEC rankings logic above ignored Tennessee’s win over Alabama. However, we think there will be some recency bias at play with the committee. And that could be devastating for the Vols. Tennessee has games against UTEP and Vanderbilt remaining. A 10-2 season may not be good enough for the playoff if Alabama, Ole Miss and Georgia all finish with that same record and the Crimson Tide sneak into the SEC title game.

Alabama had an easy win over FCS opponent Mercer on Saturday, while Notre Dame made quick work of Virginia. The Fighting Irish play undefeated Army in Week 13.

The New Orleans Saints were just one of many teams represented at Saturday’s Southeastern Conference clash between the No. 6 Tennessee Volunteers and the No. 11 Georgia Bulldogs.

In addition to New Orleans, there were also scouts in attendance for the Indianapolis Colts, Cleveland Browns, Miami Dolphins, New York Giants, New York Jets, New Orleans Saints, Philadelphia Eagles, Seattle Seahawks, Tennessee Titans and Chicago Bears.

Who exactly the Saints are looking at here could be anyone’s guess, and is obviously impossible to provide a definitive answer for. And especially when it comes down to a pair of programs that both put first-rounders in the NFL — something Georgia does every year and will continue to do in 2025.

Among the most major prospects to watch for the 2025 cycle include quarterback Carson Beck, defensive back Malaki Starks and defensive lineman Mykel Williams, just to name a handful.

It will be interesting to see what happens come April with the college football regular season beginning to wind down and the 2025 NFL draft closer than it appears.

Georgia and Tennessee remain tied at 17-17 at the half, but the Bulldogs pulled away in a 31-17 win. The Saints have drafted players from both schools in recent years, most notably Alvin Kamara and Alontae Taylor from Tennessee, so they could have been eyeing the next member of the black and gold at this SEC showdown.

ATHENS, Ga. — On one of those nights that not much of anything went right for Tennessee after its quick first-quarter start, the clincher might have come afterward in the bowels of Sanford Stadium during coach Josh Heupel’s postgame news conference.

With the 31-17 loss to Georgia still gnawing at everybody in orange — Tennessee’s eighth straight setback to the Bulldogs and a glancing blow to the Vols’ College Football Playoff hopes – Heupel was twice drowned out Saturday night while trying to answer questions when a cell phone ringtone began blaring the Georgia “Battle Hymn” just outside the interview area.

Heupel wanted no part of any playoff talk, but was as bullish as ever about the caliber of his football team.

“Man, I have no idea,” Heupel said when asked where the Vols stood in the playoff chase. “All I know is this league, in college football, is as good as it gets. It is. Teams get beat on the road sometimes. It’s hard to win, man, in this league. That’s a good football team that we just played that lost a couple of close ones on the road against good football teams and had turnovers in those games.

“It’s a good football team. We’re a good football team, too.”

The Vols (8-2, 6-2) joined Alabama, Georgia and Ole Miss as SEC teams with two conference losses. Texas and Texas A&M each have just one loss, and the teams at the top have all beaten each other. Alabama beat Georgia. Tennessee beat Alabama. Georgia beat Tennessee, Ole Miss beat Georgia, which beat Texas. In last week’s CFP rankings, Tennessee was No. 7 and Georgia No. 12, meaning the Bulldogs would have been out of the playoff.

“Definitely, we knew what was at stake,” Tennessee defensive tackle Jaxson Moi. “Obviously we treat it like another game, but we had that (playoff ramifications) in the back of our minds. But we’re moving on. This is the past. There’s nothing you could change now, so we’re just trying to focus on what’s next and control the controllables.”

The Vols jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, but Georgia quarterback Carson Beck and the Bulldogs’ offensive line took over the game after that against a Tennessee defense that had not given up more than 19 points in a game all season.

There were also at least two penalties that went against Tennessee in the second half that changed the complexion of the game, one a 15-yard facemask penalty against cornerback Rickey Gibson III on a second-and-24 play leading to Georgia’s go-ahead touchdown. The second came in the fourth quarter when the Vols were hit with an illegal participation penalty after officials ruled Moi didn’t get off the field in time. Two plays later, Georgia went ahead 31-17.

Heupel was clearly steamed about both calls and cut off a reporter who asked about the Georgia drive where the facemask penalty was called.

“Yeah, on the second-and-24?” Heupel asked tersely.

Asked how pivotal those two calls were in flipping the game, Heupel responded, “Pretty big.”

A few minutes later, a reporter mentioned the replay on the facemask, and Heupel said, “What did it look like?”

Told that it appeared that the back of the helmet popped off and there wasn’t a hand on the facemask, Heupel turned the microphone toward the reporter and said, “Can you repeat that?”

Heupel said “next question” when asked if officials gave him an explanation. A Tennessee media relations official asked if there were any other questions for Heupel, and he looked at a reporter and said, “Do you want to ask about the 12-men-on-the-field penalty?”

When the reporter said he would, Heupel again turned the microphone in his direction and said, “What did it look like?”

At that point, Tennessee media relations officials ended the news conference.

Heupel said this team has been too good and too invested this season to allow this loss to linger. The Vols have UTEP next week at home and then end the regular season on the road against Vanderbilt.

“We did a lot of the right things in the lead-up to the game tonight,” Heupel said. “But it’s what happens out on that field that defines tonight. It’s the reality of it, and it’s the nature of being a competitor. Where do we go from here? Man, let it soak in, let it hurt, watch it, grow from it, get our next opportunity. You know what I mean? We’ve got two more guaranteed, but the only one that matters is next week, and so this group will continue to grow.

“We don’t control what we don’t control. We control our preparation. We can control how we get ourselves ready to go play next Saturday. We’ve got a good football team in that locker room, man. It’s a good football team. We’ve got to coach a little better, got to play a little better.”

Quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who played in the game after being cleared from concussion protocol during the week, added: “There’s a lot of frustration, a lot of anger. We put a lot of work in to come out with a win in this game, and yeah, we came up short, didn’t play smart in the second half and it’s going to sting. We’ve got to let it sting and just learn from this.”