1st and 10: The pre-SEC Media Days IT Poll

The Associated Press Poll has been around since 1936. It started out ranking the top 20 teams, had a brief stint in the 1960s where it was just a list of 10, and expanded to 25 teams in 1989. Sixty-two sports media members from across the nation participate in the weekly excercise.

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Inside Texas doesn’t have an AP Poll vote (yet), but it does have what we believe to be a more useful ranking: the IT Poll.

The IT Poll won’t be an attempt at a national top 10, top 25, or top 134. Instead, it’ll be a top-10 ranking of the best teams in the Southeastern Conference. With 16 members now in the league thanks to Texas and Oklahoma joining, a cutoff at 10 does provide a little air of exclusivity even among the league that professes to just mean more.

This top 10 is subject to change before week one as a result of preseason camp developments and the like. Without further ado before we’re influenced by what coaches and players might say at next week’s SEC Media Days…

July 10 IT Poll

1: Georgia – A three-point loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship last year knocked Kirby Smart‘s program out of contention for a three-peat. That small of a margin won’t dethrone them from the top spot, especially after Nick Saban‘s retirement turned the league upside down in some respects. Carson Beck, Trevor Etienne, Ben Yurosek, and Oscar Delp on offense plus Nazir Stackhouse, Malaki Starks, and other stars on defense have the Dawgs on top of the college football world and SEC ahead of the 2024 season.

2: Texas – Could the newcomer be the usurper? The Longhorns have the team to do it. We may parse over individual position groups and their potential weaknesses during the offseason, but on the whole the Longhorns are talented as they’ve been in some time. Between three offensive position groups labeled as top-10 in the nation by On3 and a defense looking to improve upon what was already a quality 2023 campaign, Texas enters the SEC as one of the strongest contenders to head to Atlanta and win.

3: Alabama – Kalen DeBoer has big shoes to fill in replacing Nick Saban, but the G.O.A.T. left him as good of a situation as a coach could walk into during the portal era. Sure, there were some defections like Caleb Downs and Isaiah Bond but there were some additions to what was an already stacked roster… like Kadyn Proctor? The talent lost is a factor, but the talent remaining is one as well. Plus, Jalen Milroe in a DeBoer offense should have the rest of the SEC worried after Saban and Tommy Rees tried to make Milroe fit the Alabama offense more than fitting the Alabama offense to Milroe.

4: Ole Miss – It’s a big year for Lane Kiffin. In what could be called the third act of his coaching career, Kiffin has the best roster he’s ever had at his disposal. His Rebels won 11 games for the first time in school history last season, and Kiffin recorded his second 10-win season in Oxford. The losses, however, stand out. Ole Miss was crushed by Alabama and Georgia, ensuring they were the first team in the second tier. Were the portal additions like Walter Nolen enough to put them over the top?

5: Missouri – Eliah Drinkwitz went from a warm seat to the catbird seat in Missouri, guiding the Tigers to their first top 10 finish since 2013 and their first ranked finish since 2014. With an experienced quarterback in Brady Cook plus standout wide receivers in Mookie Cooper, Luther Burden, and Theo Wease, the Tigers are going to score. Can the defense improve enough to put Missouri into conference title contention?

6: Tennessee – The Vols are an intriguing team, with a young prodigy at quarterback in Nico Iamaleava and a potential top-five NFL Draft pick at EDGE in James Pearce. Tennessee came back to earth just a bit after an 11-2 season in 2022 with a 9-4 campaign in 2023. By the way, Bru McCoy is still on this team and looking for success in his sixth year of eligibility.

7: LSU – The Tigers lost Heisman winner Jayden Daniels but return Garrett Nussmeier at quarterback, a significant plus for LSU. An experienced quarterback behind an offensive line that features two potential first-round picks along with typical LSU talent comes back from a team that was 9-3. But that’s the thing, the team was 9-3 with a Heisman winning quarterback. Can the defense improve a little bit after giving up over 400 yards seven times last season? Brian Kelly hired a lot of new coaches to make that happen.

8: Texas A&M – While the Aggies saw an exodus during the offseason, many of the players that remained were part of some highly ranked recruiting classes. Plus, considering how bad things got under late-stage Jimbo Fisher with Bobby Petrino, DJ Durkin, and Steve Addazio on staff in College Station, it’s not far-fetched to think Mike Elko, Collin Klein, Jay Bateman, and Adam Cushing are upgrades. Two questions exist: can the Aggies put what stayed for Elko together to find success in year one and can Conner Weigman stay healthy for the first time in his career?

9: Oklahoma – We might see the Oklahoma defenses of old under Brent Venables this year. Gone are many of the misfit players Venables inherited from the Alex Grinch days that made his system sputter like it did in Dallas in 2022. Instead, the Sooners have a senior-laden defense with program leaders Danny Stutsman and Billy Bowman in the defense’s central nervous system. For the first time in some time in Norman, offense is the unknown. The wide receiver corps is strong with Jalil Farooq, Nic Anderson, and Deion Burks. The running back situation is good, too. How good is Jackson Arnold? OU was content with turning the keys over to him in 2024. Maybe more importantly, will Oklahoma be able to block for Arnold? In the most recent Phil Steele’s, Oklahoma’s O-line was ranked as the 11th best in the conference. Bill Bedenbaugh didn’t forget how to coach O-linemen overnight, but he might not have the pieces he’s accustomed to working with and that could put a governor on a Sooner offense that may not even have to score that many points to win.

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10: Kentucky – After a phenomenal 10-3 2021 campaign, the Wildcats went right back to their seven-ish wins status that’s been a feature of the Mark Stoops era in the last 10 years. There are nice pieces on the UK roster like Dane Key, Barion Brown, Deone Walker, Octavious Oxendine, and Jamon Dumas-Johnson. How it all comes together on offense under transfer quarterback Brock Vandagriff and new offensive coordinator Bush Hamden will say a lot about whether or not the ‘Cats get off that seven-win plateau.

Just missed: Florida