2026 College Football Predictions: Southeastern Conference

The debate will continue to rage about whether or not the SEC is the best conference from top-to-bottom. The top of the conference is very good. And then they lose to teams in the middle or the bottom, and that makes people lift up those bottom teams, instead of saying “meh, maybe the top is not that good.” I mean, the playoffs last year proved that the tops of other conferences are just as good, or better. 

With that being said, I think Georgia, Texas, Texas A&M, Alabama, and Oklahoma are all incredible teams who could win the National Championship. That is one of the great things about the playoffs. These teams can rough each other up, and still have a chance at the end of the season.

Georgia feels like a team that is just loaded up and ready to go. Texas has Arch Manning, and he looked good at the end of the year, so I could see the Longhorns being a dominant force. Oklahoma needs Mateer to progress to the next level if they are going to win it all. Everyone will be talking about LSU. Lane Kiffin brought in Sam Leavitt and they hit the portal hard to overhaul their roster. They will be good, but I do not think they will be that elite team this season.

Intriguing Team: Auburn. Ugh…I hate talking about Auburn, but I think Alex Golesh is a great coach, who needs some time to turn things around for the Tigers. I like that he brought Byrum Brown with him. He seems like a QB that was ready for a bigger stage.

Hot Seat: Another conference that has no one on the hot seat. They have five new coaches this year! Kirby Smart is the longest tenured coach in the conference at ten years.