SEC
Contenders Or Pretenders?: The SEC through Week 7
By Carter Ball · October 14, 2025
Sorting every SEC team into cooked, pretender, contender, or national title frontrunner at the midway point.
Written by Carter Ball
The SEC has lived up to the hype this year. Missouri has looked good, Vanderbilt has looked elite, and even Mississippi State turned heads with a great early win over then-ranked ASU. However, not every team in the SEC is a true contender. In this article, we go through the current SEC standings and decide whether or not each team is a contender or a pretender.
Completely Cooked
- Kentucky (2-3)
- Auburn (3-3)
- Arkansas (2-4)
- Florida (2-4)
Pretenders
- LSU (5-1)
- Vanderbilt (5-1)
- Mississippi State (4-2)
- South Carolina (3-3)
SEC Championship / Playoff Contenders
- Georgia (5-1)
- Missouri (5-1)
- Texas (4-2)
- Oklahoma (5-1)
- Ole Miss (6-0)
- Texas A&M (6-0)
National Championship Frontrunners
- Alabama (5-1)
- Tennessee (5-1)