Women’s SEC Power Rankings for Jan. 16: Did loss drop Lady Vols?

Last week: Lost to the Alabama Crimson Tide; Defeated the Florida Gators

Last rank: 3rd

We were giving the LSU Tigers a ton of love last week. After all, they were 10-4 and 2-1 in the conference with their only loss coming to the Mississippi State Bulldogs. There was no shame in that whatsoever. Meanwhile, that road win over the Missouri Tigers remains huge and still counts for something.

However, this past week, Nikki Fargas’s team had to drop significantly. That loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide was bad enough. But the way other teams played in the conference was more than enough for us to drop them to No. 8. After all, those other squads deserved a boost.

And losing to Alabama by 14 does way more damage than a single-digit win over the Florida Gators provides benefits, which is what happened this week. So LSU is a middle of the pack SEC team, but they are significantly above anybody below them in our SEC Power Rankings.

After all, LSU has a No. 50 ranking in the RPI. So they are right on the cusp of the NCAA Tournament right now.

This week, they have what looks like a sure win and a sure loss with the Auburn Tigers at home and Texas A&M Aggies on the road. Next week, they then have two home games against the Tennessee Vols and Georgia Bulldogs. A 2-2 split assures them at least one quality win.

But with three of these four games at home, they need to shoot for 3-1 if they want to be in the upper-echelon of the conference.