After a 35-13 loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Tennessee Volunteers at least did not fall in our SEC Power Rankings following week eight of 2019.
Did you really think we were going to punish Tennessee football for losing on the road to the Alabama Crimson Tide? Of course we wouldn’t. There’s no shame in that. And given the collection of events that took place throughout the day before the two played, they actually got a bit of a boost in our SEC Power Rankings.
How much remains to be seen. But what’s clear is this is the hardest week of rankings we’ve had to do in a while. A major upset in the SEC East for a second straight week has us questioning exactly where we can put everybody.
After all, we can’t use head to head circular logic anymore. Those two upsets in the East in back to back weeks threw everything for a loop, and with the season over halfway finished, we have no idea how things will end up.
What’s clear right now, though, is who the bottom team is in our SEC Power Rankings. There is also a clear-cut top two and a clear-cut No. 3 and No. 4. So that leaves five spots safe and easy to break down for now.
Beyond that, though, anything goes. And we really are leaving anything up in the air. Our power rankings have always been a combination of factors, including head to head, margin of victory, schedule strength and whether or not it was a home or road game. The most heavily weighted factor, though, is combining all of those things to analyze the most recent outing.
In this case, the most recent outing for some teams directly contradicts what they have done every week up until that point. And we can’t just throw all of that out the window. So we’re at a loss. How did we break it all down? Let’s take a look here. These are our SEC Power Rankings following Week Eight of the 2019 college football season.