Tennessee football in top-five in Week 1 SEC football power rankings

Week One is in the books, and the SEC and college football seasons are officially underway. Tennessee football opened the season with a dominant 69-3 win over Chattanooga, and the Vols look to begin their climb up the SEC and College Football Playoff rankings. 

The top SEC teams stay at the top, while the bottom half of the conference shuffles around after some unexpected performances — good and bad. Here is how the SEC power rankings shake out after Week One of the college football season.

As I mentioned in the College Football Playoff rankings prediction, Georgia has been the best team in college football over the past three seasons and will remain at the top until proven otherwise. 

Alabama and Texas are right behind Georgia as they look to win the SEC in the first year of new eras for both programs. Alabama is in year one of the Kalen Deboer era, while Texas is in the first year of its SEC era and will look to make a statement early and get to the SEC Championship Game like Missouri in 2013 and 2014. 

Tennessee makes its first appearance in the top five after their dominant win behind the efforts of redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava. Ole Miss rounds out the top five after scoring 76 points against Furman.

The three Tigers — Missouri, Auburn, and LSU — are the next three teams in the power rankings, and Oklahoma and Arkansas round out the top ten after dominant performances by the Sooners and Razorbacks. LSU is the only top-ten team to suffer a loss in Week One. 

11 through 16 is where things can get messy as we get deeper into the season. Texas A&M is the No. 11 team this week after losing to Notre Dame, but after that, it could be any version of these five teams any given week. 

After Week One, Kentucky holds the No. 12 spot, while Mississippi State and Vanderbilt make waves after big-time season-opening wins. Florida continues to struggle as the Billy Napier era has light at the end of the tunnel, and South Carolina comes in at No. 16 after a disappointing four-point win over Old Dominion. 

Week Two in the SEC

Week two in the SEC begins conference matchups for a handful of teams, while others will face tough non-conference opponents. Kentucky and South Carolina open SEC play in a game that could be a Grade A snooze fest. 

In Week Two, No. 9 Texas will face No. 4 Michigan, and No. 15 Tennessee will face No. 24 North Carolina State, the two ranked matchups among SEC teams. We should get a better idea of where some SEC teams stand after this week as we dive into many more SEC matchups in the weeks ahead.