Jeff Lebby: 'I don't know if I see a single team being undefeated in this league'

We’ve seen a number of SEC teams finish undefeated in recent years, but Jeff Lebby doesn’t see that happening in the new-look league. Georgia most recently went 15-0 in 2022 to win the national championship, while Alabama did so in 2020 and LSU in 2019.

The SEC is set to add two more perennial powers in 2024 with Oklahoma and Texas joining the fold. That in mind, the conference schedule looks a lot tougher than it has in years’ past with every team adding one of the Sooners or Longhorns to their slate.

Lebby, a first-year coach at Mississippi State, believes that will make it much more difficult for anybody to get out without at least one loss.

“I think it’s completely different than it was five, six, seven years ago,” he said on the College GameDay podcast. “I just don’t see multiple SEC teams being undefeated. I don’t know if I see a single team being undefeated in this league.

“I just think it is so incredibly tough to do to be able to run the table then go win an SEC Championship Game before you get in the playoffs. I think that’s just where we’re at from a college football landscape now. I think there’s a little more parity than there’s been and that bodes well for us.”

Georgia nearly pulled off back-to-back unbeaten seasons before falling to Alabama in the SEC title game this past year. The Bulldogs will surely be among the top candidates to win the conference this season, along with Texas.

Those two schools will face off against each other on Oct. 19, while Georgia is also set to play Alabama and Ole Miss in the regular season. That’s certainly a tough task to take down all three, and it might actually be the Longhorns who have the better chance at an unblemished record if they can manage to beat Georgia.

Other than Georgia and Oklahoma, all of the SEC teams that Texas will play finished with seven wins or below in 2023.

One of those teams happens to be Mississippi State, which Jeff Lebby takes over after the Bulldogs finished 5-7 this past season with just one SEC victory. The Bulldogs will aim to improve upon that in Year 1 under their new coach and reach bowl eligibility.

All in all, there should be a lot more parity within the SEC this season. It’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility for any team to finish undefeated, but as Lebby mentioned, it definitely got a lot more difficult.