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Kelley Ford on SEC Ratings and Tiers · The Jake Wimberly Podcast

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  I'm Kelly Ford. Segment number two on your radio. Kelly, we might
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  get off into the defenses. You said that you had kind of a rough
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  draft that you feel pretty good about at least to talk about on the Southeastern
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  Conference. I do want to kind of go there with you, so you
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  know, kind of take us through what you're seeing as we head towards summer
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  with the SEC. Yeah. So, Jake, again, as we talked
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  about earlier, getting really close to the twenty twenty four preseason ratings version one
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  power rating for all the teams, feel good about where I am really with
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  the power five and with your neck of the woods there in the SEC.
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  Thought we might want to talk about some of the kind of the tiers,
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  if you will, of that SDP team right now based on what I'm looking
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  at. So for me and my numbers, and again, Jake, this
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  is a combination, going back to what we talked about before, it's a
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  combination of power ratings, so how strong is any given team projected to be?
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  But also, almost equally importantly, it's their schedule that they're going to
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  play, because even though all these teams are in the same conference, they
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  do not play equal schedules. Because of those two things. You know,
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  Georgia and Texas, those are two teams that most people, including myself are
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  going to have, you know, at the top of their power ratings.
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  In that top five. Georgia is certainly going to be number one for most,
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  including myself. But when you look at the schedule that Georgia has to
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  play within the SEC and you compare that to Texas, they actually end up
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  pretty darn closed with regard to projected conference wins. By my numbers, I
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  mean, those two teams are neck and neck right now for me at the
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  top of the conference with regard to projected wins. Georgia of course on paper,
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  the better team, but Texas might have the easiest schedule in all the
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  SEC. No, I agree with you, and I'm sitting here. I
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  just pulled up my stuff here on the quote unquote hour glass that I run,
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  and what one hundred percent agree with what you said. I mean,
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  Georgia a little bit better as far as a football team, but when you
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  look at schedules, I mean their bookend, like literally the whole conference.
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  I mean Georgia Florida at one end, Texas Missouri. Uh, you know,
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  for me right there at the other end, yep, one hundred percent.
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  So that to me is how you get Texas and Georgia kind of I'll
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  call that that tier one and we're splitting hairs here in the SEC. There's
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  so many good teams, So if you want to draw a dividing line with
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  only two making the Commerce Championship game, those two teams right now probably the
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  odds on favorite to make it to Atlanta and play in the SET championship game
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  for me. Then there's a bunch of teams right after that, Alabama,
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  LSU, Ole, miss Missouri again all for you know, a combination of
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  reasons, the projected strength of those teams and the schedule they play. You
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  mentioned Missouri certainly has one of the easier schedules in the conference as well to
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  go at Texas. Like you said, I agree with that, those are
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  probably the four teams that i'd have kind of in that next step down.
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  Wouldn't be surprised at all if one or two of those teams played for the
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  SEC Championship in Atlanta. But just right now, as we're still three months
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  away from the start of the season, they're probably a half step behind Texas
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  and Georgia for projected strength and also combination of strength or scheduled difficulty as I
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  call it. So Alabama LSU, ol Miss Missouri kind of that next group
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  for me. So Alabama Ole Miss. You said Texas A and M in
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  Missouri, LSU lur would be the ones. Yeah, Texas A and M
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  and Tennessee, Jake, they would comprise the next tier and they'd be by
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  themselves for me. So if you're looking at kind of a tier one see
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  or a Tier three if you want to call it that, it beat Texas
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  A and M and Tennessee, then there's kind of a significant drop down,
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  and it's about a game, which is that's a large difference when you're talking
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  about an eight game conference schedule, which of course the SEC is playing.
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  Once you get after Texas A and M and Tennessee, it's about a one
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  game drop to that next group of teams that include you know, Oklahoma and
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  Kentucky. So that's going to surprise some folks. I think when I debut
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  this later this week is where Oklahoma falls. Because Oklahoma is a really good
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  team, they play a really difficult schedule than the SCC, and because there
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  are so many really good teams in the SEC. Oklahoma can be a top
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  fifteen or top twenty team nationally but still be in the bottom half of that
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  conference because of just how good that conference is. So I think some people
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  might be surprised to see Oklahoma where they are in my projections. I haven't
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  even mentioned Auburn Florida, two teams that again on paper, should be pradar
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  and good. Florida might have or probably does. I think I could say
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  that depending in the now have the most difficult schedule in the entire country.
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  It's absolutely brutal for the Gators, and it's been that way for a couple
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  of years now twenty twenty four is no exception. Jake, You're a lot
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  of your listeners probably want to know Mississippi State. You know Mississippi States.
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  I go to their actual team page here in my computer on my end,
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  they are right now for me, you know, projecting to be in the
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  mid sixties so without FBS average. But when you stack that up against other
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  teams in the SEC, it might be that, you know, Mississippi States
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  only better projected to be better than Vanderbilt this year, and again as I
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  go down their schedule, it's not easy, right, I mean any conference
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  game that you're looking at right now, my numbers make the Bulldogs most likely
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  an underdog in all of them. The home game against Arkansas looks like the
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  most winnable my my numbers there in week nine, but it's a really difficult
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  schedule for Mississippi State. So a dec A team, but when you look
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  at the SEC standards, just not quite there, at least by my projections
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  right now, looking at twenty twenty four,