As always, our Power Poll ballot is taken directly from the RTT computer rankings for the BlogPoll.
- Florida Gators
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- LSU Tigers
- South Carolina Gamecocks
- Mississippi Rebels
- Tennessee Volunteers
- Georgia Bulldogs
- Auburn Tigers
- Kentucky Wildcats
- Arkansas Razorbacks
- Mississippi St. Bulldogs
- Vanderbilt Commodores
First, the table:
SEC | Team | WL | SOS | PED | RD | 3DO | TD | PEO | OPPG | TO | 3DD | SCORE |
1 | Florida | 1.892 | 0.420 | 2.013 | 1.105 | 0.897 | 2.178 | 1.484 | 1.940 | 1.457 | 2.374 | 146.225 |
2 | Alabama | 1.892 | 0.805 | 1.908 | 1.792 | -0.171 | 1.985 | 0.123 | 1.768 | 0.610 | 1.356 | 135.925 |
3 | LSU | 1.303 | 0.878 | 1.283 | 0.355 | -0.110 | 0.903 | 0.479 | 1.424 | -1.253 | -0.363 | 84.657 |
4 | South Carolina | 0.861 | 0.512 | 1.113 | -0.123 | 0.122 | 1.162 | 0.015 | 0.919 | -0.176 | 0.281 | 60.270 |
5 | Mississippi | 0.714 | -0.239 | 1.794 | 0.212 | 0.232 | 0.971 | 0.084 | 1.464 | 0.288 | 2.241 | 58.245 |
6 | Tennessee | -0.465 | 1.163 | 1.323 | 0.659 | -0.194 | 1.490 | -0.053 | 0.790 | 0.165 | 0.846 | 41.791 |
7 | Georgia | 0.124 | 1.604 | -0.366 | 0.348 | -0.043 | -0.153 | 0.002 | -0.498 | -0.746 | 0.955 | 28.901 |
8 | Auburn | 0.345 | 0.685 | 0.706 | -0.733 | 0.122 | -0.205 | 0.227 | -0.383 | 0.986 | 0.244 | 26.202 |
9 | Kentucky | 0.124 | 1.295 | 0.699 | -0.737 | -0.202 | 0.075 | -1.296 | 0.156 | -0.700 | -0.777 | 17.014 |
10 | Arkansas | -0.465 | 2.017 | -1.165 | -0.287 | -1.802 | -1.079 | 0.812 | -0.459 | 0.726 | -0.054 | -11.311 |
11 | Mississippi St. | -0.686 | 0.595 | 0.272 | 0.002 | -0.814 | -0.013 | -0.883 | -0.070 | -0.090 | 0.743 | -19.259 |
12 | Vanderbilt | -1.202 | -0.526 | 0.995 | -0.505 | -0.899 | 0.628 | -2.335 | 0.884 | -0.957 | 0.751 | -56.466 |
As always, the green highlights are the best in each column and the red highlights are the worst. Since Florida doesn't have Alabama on the schedule and they can't play themselves, they will likely never sniff the 'toughest schedule' mark, but they're close to a clean sweep on everything else. Some other observations:
- Teams are settling into niches. The spread between teams is growing. The only team with a real opportunity to make wholesale changes in their favor is Tennessee, who plays both of the teams immediately ahead of them. Win those, and Tennessee shoots up to #4.
- Somebody tell Arkansas that defense matters. Seriously.
- While you're at it, have them look at third downs. The Hogs are great when it's not an obvious passing down but seem to struggle when it's either obvious or trying to run for 3rd and short. Boom or bust + bad defense is not a good combination.
- And the worst schedule to boot. Poor Vandy. Poor, poor Vandy.
- Third and Chavis gets a respite. Kentucky takes the 'worst 3rd down defense' award for the week.
- Spurrier/Nutt are close, as are Richt/Chizik. UGA and AU appear to be on a collision for 7th in the SEC.
And in graphical form, for those who prefer pretty charts to raw numbers:
Other thoughts:
The "no Win/Loss" modification that Incipient_Senescence is a pretty neat trick and helps gauge teams without their win/loss records (i.e. purely by on-field performance without regards to end result). Doing so produces the following grid:
SEC | Team | WL | SOS | PED | RD | 3DO | TD | PEO | OPPG | TO | 3DD | SCORE |
1 | Florida | 1.892 | 0.420 | 2.013 | 1.105 | 0.897 | 2.178 | 1.484 | 1.940 | 1.457 | 2.374 | 127.024 |
2 | Alabama | 1.892 | 0.805 | 1.908 | 1.792 | -0.171 | 1.985 | 0.123 | 1.768 | 0.610 | 1.356 | 112.126 |
3 | Tennessee | -0.465 | 1.163 | 1.323 | 0.659 | -0.194 | 1.490 | -0.053 | 0.790 | 0.165 | 0.846 | 81.214 |
4 | LSU | 1.303 | 0.878 | 1.283 | 0.355 | -0.110 | 0.903 | 0.479 | 1.424 | -1.253 | -0.363 | 64.282 |
5 | Mississippi | 0.714 | -0.239 | 1.794 | 0.212 | 0.232 | 0.971 | 0.084 | 1.464 | 0.288 | 2.241 | 52.390 |
6 | South Carolina | 0.861 | 0.512 | 1.113 | -0.123 | 0.122 | 1.162 | 0.015 | 0.919 | -0.176 | 0.281 | 48.742 |
7 | Georgia | 0.124 | 1.604 | -0.366 | 0.348 | -0.043 | -0.153 | 0.002 | -0.498 | -0.746 | 0.955 | 36.258 |
8 | Auburn | 0.345 | 0.685 | 0.706 | -0.733 | 0.122 | -0.205 | 0.227 | -0.383 | 0.986 | 0.244 | 22.487 |
9 | Kentucky | 0.124 | 1.295 | 0.699 | -0.737 | -0.202 | 0.075 | -1.296 | 0.156 | -0.700 | -0.777 | 19.064 |
10 | Arkansas | -0.465 | 2.017 | -1.165 | -0.287 | -1.802 | -1.079 | 0.812 | -0.459 | 0.726 | -0.054 | 4.405 |
11 | Mississippi St. | -0.686 | 0.595 | 0.272 | 0.002 | -0.814 | -0.013 | -0.883 | -0.070 | -0.090 | 0.743 | 2.775 |
12 | Vanderbilt | -1.202 | -0.526 | 0.995 | -0.505 | -0.899 | 0.628 | -2.335 | 0.884 | -0.957 | 0.751 | -28.019 |
And also in pretty graphic form:
Tennessee is the team whose on-field performance is most above their win/loss record. South Carolina dips the most because of being passed by Tennessee and losing a sliver of ground to Ole Miss, but that's really inconsequential. For this, you would expect Tennessee to outperform their remaining competition, assuming everybody plays to their typical level. But Florida and Alabama are still clearly the best, without or without the wins and losses.