The College Football Playoff race is still wide open as November approaches, and the SEC remains the conference that could scramble the bracket the most. ESPN’s Football Power Index currently gives eight SEC teams at least a 16.9% shot to make the CFP, which tells you just how crowded this picture still is.
On Wednesday morning, Joel Klatt tried to sort through the mess and settled on four SEC teams making his 12-team field: No. 2 Georgia, No.
7 Texas, No. 8 Ole Miss and No.
11 LSU.
Klatt had Georgia winning the SEC, then turned to Texas as an at-large team. “We get into some of these at-large teams, I think Texas gets an at-large spot,” Klatt began after anointing Georgia the SEC Champions.
“I can see Texas actually being a 10-2 team. And if they’re 10-2… they would probably be the seven seed and hosting a first-round game.”
He slotted Ole Miss in at No. 8 as the “SEC Championship game loser,” but placed the Rebels behind Texas because of their head-to-head loss. LSU finished out his SEC quartet, with Klatt projecting the Tigers to land at 9-3.
“I do think a 9-3 team gets in this thing,” Klatt said. “Look for [LSU] to get a couple big wins late in the season as they begin to play better.”
Not everyone in the SEC made the cut in Klatt’s projection. Alabama was one of the biggest omissions, even though the Crimson Tide have FPI’s second-highest playoff odds in the conference at 62.9%, behind only Georgia.
Kentucky also missed out, despite sitting fourth among SEC teams in CFP odds at 52.1%. The Wildcats still have Tennessee, Florida and Missouri ahead before closing with in-state rival Louisville.
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Reese Alstons recruitment, though, has carried an extra layer of intrigue because of the public comments from his father, former NBA guard Rafer Alston, about LSU coach Will Wade. With those tensions hanging over the process, the Tigers are waiting to see whether the appeal of the program outweighs the noise around it, and Thursday should provide a clear answer on just how strong LSUs position really is. [Read more 🡒]
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LSUs Playoff Hope Now Comes Down To A Brutal SEC Debate
The playoff math around LSU is already getting weird in the kind of way that tends to happen when the SEC starts beating itself up. FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt floated a scenario in which the Tigers could still reach the 2026 College Football Playoff even with three losses, comparing the seasons volatility to 2007 and pointing to a path where November changes everything. In his view, LSU would handle Alabama and Tennessee, while Kentucky would stumble twice, leaving the Tigers positioned to slide into the No. 11 seed.
What makes the discussion even trickier is how much the selection process may end up rewarding timing as much as record. If LSUs losses come early and its best head-to-head results land late, the Tigers could be judged very differently than another team with the same number in the loss column. It is the sort of SEC debate that can feel absurd in September and absolutely central by the time the bracket is drawn. [Read more 🡒]