Am I missing something with ole miss. I'm surprised they are so high. On the flip side I'm surprised Auburn is so low
Just like last year I think there are clear groupings of teams with a large gap between the top tier (South Carolina, Texas, LSU and Oklahoma) and the rest of the SEC. In my mind, the first four teams are sweet 16 candidates and then from Ole Miss to Auburn it's basically a coin flip on the pecking order. Those are the teams in the fuzzy tier of "better than average but not quite top 25". Ole Miss gets the benefit of the doubt since Coach Yo tends to exceed expectations. They've built that reputation over the past few years, so the media will lean into it.