Sports Illustrated’s Michael McDaniel dropped a piece over the weekend doing what every red-blooded college football fan does in May by arguing about rankings that don’t exist yet.
Specifically, McDaniel laid out five programs with a legitimate shot at landing the preseason AP No. 1 spot when the poll comes out this summer. It’s a well-reasoned list. It’s got some genuinely interesting takes.
From an SEC perspective, it’s got one glaring omission that’s going to ruffle some feathers in Oxford, Mississippi.
But we’ll get to the Rebels in a minute.
First, let’s give McDaniel his credit because the man did his homework, leaning on Bill Connelly’s returning production rankings and spring SP+ power ratings to build his case.
This wasn’t a hot take thrown at the wall. This was a structured, thoughtful breakdown of where the 2026 college football landscape actually stands heading into the summer.
It just happens to be missing one team that a whole lot of people in the SEC think belongs in the conversation.
Let’s walk through what McDaniel got right and where the list might’ve left some points on the field.
The SEC Representatives McDaniel Chose
McDaniel did give the SEC two spots on his list and to be fair, both picks are defensible.
Georgia and Texas are waving the SEC banner in his piece, and neither one is a surprise.
The Georgia Bulldogs come in at No. 4 in the preseason SP+ ratings and No. 8 in returning production at 68 percent.
McDaniel points out that quarterback Gunner Stockton is back for his second full season as the starter and while the playmaking was there when Georgia still made the College Football Playoff a year ago, the arm talent has been the question hanging over this program.
If Stockton hasn’t improved in the pocket heading into 2026, McDaniel notes, the national title aspirations get shaky fast.
Opponents will load the box to stop star running back Nate Frazier, and if Stockton can’t make them pay for it, that’s a problem.
The defense, though? McDaniel agrees it should be one of the best units in all of college football.
Georgia reloaded in the portal with cornerback Gentry Williams from Oklahoma and edge rusher Amaris Williams from Auburn, of all places.
Then there’s Texas, which McDaniel puts at No. 6 in both returning production at 68 percent and preseason SP+ rankings.
The Longhorns have Arch Manning and the expectation, as McDaniel lays it out, is that 2026 is Manning’s final season at the college level. If the second half of last season was any indication, Texas is going to be very hard to slow down.
Wide receiver Cam Coleman transferred in from Auburn to line up opposite star wideout Ryan Wingo, and Texas added two NC State running backs in Hollywood Smothers and Raleek Brown to replace Quintrevion Wisner.
That’s an exciting offense on paper.
McDaniel does flag the big Texas concern, though and it’s a real one.
Steve Sarkisian let defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski go and hired Will Muschamp as his replacement. Muschamp has a track record with elite defenses, but swapping coordinators mid-cycle is always a gamble.
McDaniel notes the Longhorns will get an early answer to that question when Ohio State comes to Austin in Week 2. That game might define Texas’s entire season before September’s even over.
The Rest of McDaniel’s List
Beyond the SEC duo, McDaniel’s other three picks are hard to argue with on the surface even if SEC fans will absolutely try.
Ohio State sits at No. 1 in the preseason SP+ ratings and returns Heisman finalist quarterback Julian Sayin, star running back Bo Jackson Jr., and All-American wide receiver Jeremiah Smith.
Blue-chip freshman wide receiver Chris Henry Jr. is waiting in the wings. McDaniel also credits the Buckeyes’ portal work with defensive end Qua Russaw and defensive lineman James Smith both coming over from Alabama as evidence that the rich are very much getting richer in Columbus.
The one real concern McDaniel raises is a new offensive coordinator in veteran NFL play caller Arthur Smith, plus a brutal schedule that starts with that trip to Austin.
Notre Dame ranks No. 1 nationally in returning production at 72 percent, which McDaniel correctly identifies as a massive advantage.
Quarterback C.J. Carr is positioned to be one of the best signal-callers in the country in 2026, the schedule is soft, and Marcus Freeman has been quietly building one of the more talented rosters in college football.
McDaniel notes Freeman also snagged two wide receivers from Ohio State in Quincy Porter and Mylan Graham and loaded up the defensive trenches with Keon Keeley from Alabama, Francis Brewu from Pittsburgh, and Tionne Gray from Oregon.
Oregon comes in at No. 2 in the SP+ ratings and gets its case built largely on the return of quarterback Dante Moore, who McDaniel points out was projected as one of the top quarterback prospects in the 2026 NFL draft before choosing to stay.
The Ducks are replacing both their offensive and defensive coordinators after Will Stein left for Kentucky and Tosh Lupoi departed for Cal which is a significant coaching overhaul.
But Moore’s return is the kind of development that makes everything else manageable.
So About Those Ole Miss Rebels…
Here’s where McDaniel’s piece leaves the door wide open for criticism and it’s the kind of omission that happens more frequently than hits in these early-offseason rankings exercises.
Ole Miss isn’t on the list. Not even a mention.
Maybe that’s a completely reasonable editorial decision in May. These things happen.
Preseason lists leave teams off all the time, and sometimes those exact teams are the ones making deep runs in January.
The history of college football is absolutely littered with preseason snubs who ended up crashing the party anyway.
But the absence of the Rebels is at least worth talking about, because Oxford isn’t exactly a program that’s been sleepwalking through the SEC lately.
Lane Kiffin’s built something real in Mississippi and leaving the Rebels completely off a five-team national title contender list without even an honorable mention is the kind of call that either ages really well or becomes the most-screenshotted tweet of November.
That’s the nature of the beast with these early lists and they’re educated guesses dressed up in SP+ ratings and portal grades, and the misses are just as memorable as the hits.
McDaniel’s piece is thoughtful and well-sourced.
But in a 2026 SEC landscape where Georgia’s got a quarterback question and Texas has a brand-new defensive coordinator, leaving Ole Miss entirely off the board feels like the kind of oversight that the Rebels would genuinely love to prove wrong somewhere around week eight of the season.
Will they? That’s what fall is for.
But in May, the absence is noticeable and in the SEC, noticeable absences have a funny way of becoming bulletin board material before the season even kicks off.
3 Key Takeaways
1. McDaniel’s SEC picks — Georgia and Texas — are legitimate, but both carry real question marks. Stockton’s arm development at Georgia and Texas’s brand-new defensive coordinator under Muschamp are genuine concerns, not minor quibbles. Both teams have the talent. Both teams have something to prove.
2. Ohio State is the most complete team on McDaniel’s list right now. Sitting at No. 1 in the preseason SP+ ratings with returning star power at quarterback, running back, and wide receiver — plus aggressive portal additions — the Buckeyes are the team everyone else is chasing.
3. Ole Miss not making McDaniel’s cut is the most interesting editorial decision in the piece. These lists miss more often than they hit, and the Rebels’ absence from a national title contender conversation in the SEC is the kind of thing that becomes very relevant, very fast, once real games get played.
