Georgia is the clear front-runner in the SEC preseason football race, and the gap between the Bulldogs and everyone else is hard to miss.
When the press votes from SEC Media Days were tallied, Georgia came out with 88 championship votes, comfortably ahead of Texas, which finished second with 57. After that, the field drops off fast. No other program got more than six votes to win the league in 2026.
That makes this look like a two-team fight for Atlanta, with Georgia and Texas standing apart from the rest of the conference. The Bulldogs, coming off a two-year run as SEC champions, are the heavy favorite to make it three straight.
Kirby Smart’s team brings back Gunner Stockton at quarterback, now an older and wiser starter, and he’ll be operating behind what should be an experienced offensive line. Nate Frazier leads the backfield, with Kentucky transfer Dante Dowdell also in the mix.
On defense, Georgia again looks loaded in the secondary and along the front, with 21 tacklers back who logged serious playing time a year ago. The one area that still needs to sharpen up is the pass rush and the sack total.
Texas is the team closest to Georgia in the voting, but still well behind. Arch Manning is a major reason the Longhorns are in the conversation at all. After a rough start last season, he made a major leap in efficiency and cleaned up the technical issues that had shown up early, and that improvement showed up in wins over Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, undefeated Texas A&M in the regular-season finale, and Michigan.
The Longhorns also added key transfers in wide receiver Cam Coleman and running backs Hollywood Smothers and Raleek Brown. On the other side of the ball, Will Muschamp takes over a defense that has playmakers everywhere, led by edge rusher Colin Simmons, who paced the SEC with 12 sacks last fall.
Behind the top two, the vote total falls off sharply. Ole Miss finished third with six championship votes, Texas A&M was fourth with five, and LSU picked up two. Kentucky also got a vote, a surprising nod that appears to show a lot of confidence in first-year head coach Will Stein.
Ole Miss has enough to stay in the mix with Trinidad Chambliss at quarterback, Kewan Lacy at running back, and a defense that gives Pete Golding a workable foundation in his first full season.
Texas A&M’s case rests on better play from Marcel Reed, an elite receiver group, and the defensive edge Mike Elko always brings, though the schedule is tougher.
LSU enters with plenty of attention on Lane Kiffin to deliver right away. There will be bumps, but the Tigers do have help coming at quarterback with Sam Leavitt, along with speed at receiver and blue-chip defenders for Blake Baker to build around.
Alabama and Oklahoma were the other teams singled out in the preseason discussion. The Crimson Tide should lean on another strong defense while sorting out the quarterback spot and a ground game that was among college football’s worst in 2025. Oklahoma is in a similar spot, with an elite defense expected, but John Mateer and the Sooners’ backs need to produce more yards and the blocking has to improve a lot from last season.
In Other News...
Texas Just Handed Oklahoma Fans More Red River Fuel
Texas and Oklahoma did not need much help adding another layer to the Red River rivalry, but Parker Livingstones move to Norman did the trick. Steve Sarkisian addressed the transfer during SEC Media Days, where he also explained that the Longhorns had to clear some roster room for portal additions, a reminder of how aggressively teams are managing personnel now. On the Oklahoma side, Brent Venables handled the departure of former cornerback Gentry Williams with the kind of respect that usually comes when a coach knows a player well and expects him to keep climbing elsewhere.
The transfer chatter also reached Arch Manning, who noted that Livingstones move fits the way college football operates in this era, even if the personal angle is obvious given their connection. For Oklahoma fans, the bigger point is less the mechanics of the portal than the tone around it, because Texas is already making clear it views the matchup through a competitive lens and the Sooners now have one more storyline attached to a game that rarely needs any extra help. [Read more 🡒]
Former Texas Receiver Is Already Turning Heads At Oklahoma
Parker Livingstones move from Texas to Oklahoma has already become one of the more interesting subplots of the Sooners preseason work, and it is easy to see why. The former Longhorn receiver arrives with a reputation that extends beyond the rivalry, and quarterback John Mateer has been quick to note how smoothly Livingstone has fit into the new environment while picking up the playbook.
Mateer has been especially impressed by Livingstones size, his ability to win at the catch point and the way he processes information as he learns. There is obvious curiosity around any player who crosses that line from Austin to Norman, but Mateer said their conversations have centered more on personal experiences at Texas than on anything schemed for the Sooners, which only adds to the intrigue as the season approaches. [Read more 🡒]
SEC Just Sent Oklahoma A Message About Brent Venables' Team
Oklahomas second year in the SEC comes with a little more respect attached to it, as the Sooners were slotted seventh in the leagues preseason media poll for 2026 after being picked 10th a year ago. The jump is modest, but it does suggest the conference sees Brent Venables group as more than just a newcomer trying to find its footing, especially with a strong cluster of Sooners landing on preseason All-SEC teams.
David Stone, Taylor Wein, Kip Lewis, Peyton Bowen, Eli Bowen, Isaiah Sategna, Michael Fasusi, Tate Sandell, Ben Anderson and Grayson Miller all earned recognition, a sign that Oklahoma has talent spread across the roster and not just in one spot. The challenge now is turning that preseason nod into something sturdier, because the schedule does not offer much room to ease in with Georgia and Texas on deck and Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Florida, South Carolina, Mississippi State, Kentucky and Missouri all waiting later in the year. [Read more 🡒]