The Tennessee Volunteers took another dive in our SEC Power Rankings following Week 12 of the 2018 college football season.
Well, on the good side, we’re getting a clearer picture of how the SEC Power Rankings should shake out. On the bad side for Tennessee football, however, they are making it clear that they truly do belong near the bottom of the pack.
A 50-17 blowout loss to the Missouri Tigers leaving them in the pack of teams needing this week to make a bowl game clarifies that. And one final bit of good news shows that at least it makes this weekend’s slate of games even more exciting.
With one more week left in the regular season, our SEC Power Rankings are still a bit of a cluster. But there’s a clear-cut team who belongs at the bottom, and No. 1 through No. 3 is clear-cut as well. Also, it’s clear which three teams belong just above that last-place spot, but they could be in any order.
The trick, however, is everybody else. No. 4 through No. 10 could still be rearranged however you want. And all but two of those teams either played Group of Five or FCS opponents over the weekend. One of those two played the worst team in the conference. So only one was legitimately tested. But none of them played each other.
Simply put, there wasn’t much to change the standings in the top half of the league. But hey, that’s what this final weekend’s slate of games is set to do, right? The league is still extremely deep. Only one team is eliminated from bowl contention. Three are playing this weekend for bowl eligibility, and one will inevitably make it while one will certainly come up short.
With the conference championship game set, the only other things left to see are which team goes to the College Football Playoff and which teams in the league finish off in the Top 25. So let’s go ahead and see how the conference shakes out. These are our SEC Power Rankings following Week 12 of 2018.