EA Sports has put its College Football 27 ratings on the board, and the SEC is sitting right at the top of the pile. Missouri leads the way with two players tied for the conference’s highest mark at 96 overall, a loud reminder of how much the Tigers have changed under Eli Drinkwitz.
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At the very top of the SEC list is Missouri running back Hardy, who checks in at 96 overall after a monster season. He ranked second nationally with 1,649 rushing yards last fall, and the rating is based on what he put on tape then, not the current situation. Hardy was shot in the upper leg on May 10 at a concert in Mississippi, and Drinkwitz said he is "progressing well" but "still working back" from the injury.
Sharing that 96 mark is Missouri offensive tackle Green, ranked No. 2 in my offensive tackle rankings. He passed on the 2026 draft and comes back after allowing just seven pressures in 750 snaps last season, according to Pro Football Focus.
He was Missouri’s top pass protector, and he says the next step is sharpening the finer points. "Definitely my hands," Green said.
"I think my hands can improve. It'll take my pass pro and my run blocking to another level."
Ole Miss running back Lacy also lands at 96 overall, giving the conference a three-way tie at the top. He led the nation in carries and paced the SEC in rushing touchdowns, and Ole Miss made sure he never reached the open market. Lacy is expected to make north of $2 million in 2026 after turning down other offers to stay in Oxford, where he returns as the focal point of a deeper backfield designed to take some of the load off him.
A step below that top tier, Georgia safety Bolden sits at 95 overall after a season that has evaluators talking like he’s a first-rounder in the making. He finished as Georgia’s second-leading tackler with 76 stops and gave up only 10 catches for 146 yards on 23 targets.
One SEC personnel staffer put it bluntly: "KJ is so well put together," the staffer said. "He's going to be the best they've had at that position in a while, which is crazy to say."
Texas edge rusher Simmons also comes in at 95 overall, and the numbers explain why scouts already treat him like a special case. Over his first two seasons in Austin, he collected 21 sacks and 29.5 tackles for loss, putting him on track as a potential top-10 pick whenever he leaves.
The Longhorns need more than pass-rush flashes from him in 2026, though. They need him to set the tone for a defense carrying national title expectations.
The 94 overall group features a pair of SEC standouts up front and in the secondary. Texas tackle Goosby earned first-team All-SEC honors while protecting Arch Manning’s blindside, giving up just one sack and posting a 1.5 percent pressure rate, the second-best figure among SEC starting tackles, per ESPN Research. His offseason took an unexpected turn after shoulder surgery, and he could miss a chunk of Texas’s offseason program as he works back.
Oklahoma lineman Stone is also at 94 overall after a sophomore breakout that nearly never happened in Norman. He finished with 42 tackles, eight for loss and 1.5 sacks while carving out a starting role up front. He’s expected to line up next to fellow 2024 signee, high school teammate and longtime friend Jayden Jackson on what should be one of the SEC’s stronger interior lines.
Alabama safety Hubbard rounds out the 94 overall tier after a junior year that pushed him onto early-round draft boards. He posted career highs in tackles, sacks, forced fumbles, interceptions and passes defensed in 2025 before choosing to return to Tuscaloosa. His goal is simple: help bring another national championship back to Alabama, with a secondary that brings back nearly every major piece from a CFP team.
South Carolina edge rusher Stewart opens the countdown at 93 overall, and the production came even while he battled through major pain for much of last season. Shane Beamer praised him for playing through what the coach described as a "broken back," and Stewart still managed a productive year. He enters his junior season with 22.5 tackles for loss and 11 sacks among 56 career tackles, and the expectations are high from here.
LSU tackle Seaton is also listed at 93 overall after one of the biggest offensive line transfers the sport has seen. Industry sources believe he landed a deal worth more than $4 million to leave Colorado for Baton Rouge, and he says the body transformation has already followed.
"I was 315 to 320 pounds," Seaton said. "Now I'm 305 to 307 with 15 to 16 percent body fat."
In Other News...
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The buzz has grown loud enough that analysts are already floating Russell as a potential Heisman Trophy dark horse for 2026, even if that kind of talk comes with a pretty obvious asterisk attached. For Alabama, the bigger question is still whether Russell can actually separate himself in the battle and then deliver in a way that fits everything else the Tide need to contend for at the top of the SEC. [Read more 🡒]