SEC Power Rankings: Auburn paying Minutemen $32K per minute? Believe it | Goodbread
As your humble purveyor of the world's most accurate weekly power rankings of SEC football, let me offer up-front acknowledgement that judging the first wave of SEC action is going to be a bit like judging a slam dunk contest. That Ole Miss-Mercer matchup? SLAM! Two-handed tomahawk. Georgia vs. the Skyhawks of Tennessee-Martin? A 360-spin off an alley-oop for the throw-down. It's about style points and creativity with much of the Week 1 slate. LSU-FSU? Not so much. There are a few big ones. But mostly, it's big margins. Onto the rankings!
1. Georgia
This week: vs. UT-Martin
What to know: File this under easy season-opening predictions — defending national champions 50, schools named after somebody 0.
2. LSU
This week: vs. FSU in Orlando (Sunday)
What to know: Tigers DL Maason Smith just can't catch a break against Florida State.
3. Alabama
This week: vs. Middle Tennessee State
What to know: If Nick Saban's one-handed reverse jam here doesn't look good at quarterback, he can't get higher than an 8 from the judges.
GOODBREAD: Alabama football game vs. Tennessee circled in red for Crimson Tide fans
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Alabama football's four biggest question marks, starting with quarterback, entering 2023
4. Tennessee
This week: vs. Virginia in Nashville
What to know: At ACC Media Days, the Cavaliers were picked to finish dead last in a 14-team league. Maybe they should be opening against the SEC's other school in Tennessee.
5. Texas A&M
This week: vs. New Mexico
What to know: "No, Bobby, let's call someone else."
6. Ole Miss
This week: vs. Mercer
What to know: Games like this are the best argument for the FBS big boys to break off their own division and only play one another.
7. South Carolina
This week: vs. North Carolina in Charlotte
What to know: Prediction — within 10-12 years, this will be an SEC game. And they might as well keep it in Charlotte, where the TV market makes UNC an attractive expansion option.
8. Kentucky
This week: vs. Ball State
What to know: Entering his 11th season, Mark Stoops has sat in the UK head coaching seat longer than anyone in program history. And he's only had to go 66-59 to stay in the gig.
9. Florida
This week: at Utah (Thursday)
What to know: ESPN analytics is giving the once-mighty Gators just a 26.3% chance to win here. That's also the over-under for the Rotten Tomatoes rating on the new doc "Swamp Kings," which washes the dirt from Urban Meyer's former program so clean, it might as well have been produced by his agent.
10. Arkansas
This week: vs. Western Carolina
What to know: For the first time since 2017, the Razorbacks will open a season without Bumper Pool on the roster. A moment of silence, please, for the absence of the best name in the league.
11. Mississippi State
This week: vs. Southeastern Louisiana
What to know: SELA bookended its offseason with Bulldogs, losing to Samford in the FCS playoffs to finish last year, only to open 2023 against a much tougher litter.
12. Auburn
This week: UMass
What to know: So what do the Minutemen charge per minute for 60 of them at Jordan-Hare Stadium? Try $32,500. That's what Auburn will pay UMass for every minute of game clock — a school-record haul of $1.95 million for the visitors — just to make sure Hugh Freeze's career starts with a feel-good Saturday.
13. Vanderbilt
This week: vs. Alabama A&M
What to know: The time to be optimistic about the 'Dores is now.
14. Missouri
This week: vs. South Dakota (Thursday)
What to know: Missouri's new state NIL law gives the Tigers seven points to begin every home game. I kid, but if you read this brazen bill that more or less says "we'll pay players whatever we want and neither the NCAA nor the SEC is allowed to scrutinize us," it might as well throw in the free touchdown.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23 and the Talkin' Tide podcast. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Goodbread: Auburn paying Minutemen $32K per minute? Believe it
