Anyone trying to determine who the best teams in the SEC are faces a herculean-sized task.
Georgia’s three-point loss to Auburn last weekend ensured no team from the conference would go undefeated. But it goes further than that.
Texas has gone from No. 1 to No. 19 overall after losses to Oklahoma and Florida. Texas A&M has completely fallen out of the top 25 rankings. Florida beat Ole Miss, but then lost badly to South Carolina and Missouri before facing the Longhorns.
Ole Miss beat LSU before falling to Florida and then responded with a pair of dominant wins against Vanderbilt and Missouri.
Alabama lost a second-straight regular season game for the first time since the early days of Nick Saban’s tenure.
Even Arkansas is confusing after going on the road and beating Vanderbilt.
The SEC standings are a mess and several teams could make arguments for being considered one of the best teams in the conference. That includes Ole Miss.
Appearing on The Pat McAfee Show, ESPN’s Rece Davis said as much about the Rebels.
“You still look at Ole Miss as a contender,” Davis said. “Based on the way things are unfolding in the SEC, you could make a pretty good argument that they’re probably the second-best team in the league behind Georgia at the moment.”
"[Ole Miss] is probably the 2nd best team in the SEC behind Georgia."@ReceDavis breaks down Ole Miss' performance and what the team needs to do against Texas ✍️
(via @PatMcAfeeShow) pic.twitter.com/fM3fVYZWgv
— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) October 21, 2026
Ole Miss is the second-highest ranked SEC team in the latest AP Top 25 Polls, so Davis isn’t stepping onto thin ice or anything. But the fact there’s still some doubt about the pecking order shows how evenly-matched the SEC has become.
“To maintain that standing, they’ll need to play well Saturday night and find a way to win on the road,” Davis said. “That’ll be very difficult because desperate teams often bring their best ball. We’ll find out if Texas can do that against a really, really good Ole Miss team.”
One day, you’re the belle of the ball. The next, you’re hoping nobody notices you.
That was the case for Ole Miss earlier this season. The Rebels won the most-anticipated game of the season against LSU, but fell on their faces the following week at Florida.
“I think a lot of us were shaken by the Florida performance, not necessarily that Ole Miss lost, but that they got handled,” Davis said. “I thought it was a really good response against Missouri in their most recent game. But now you go on the road to take on a desperate team.
“This is sort of an ‘if not now, when?’ type of game for Texas.”
The Longhorns are desperate. They began the season with expectations of competing for a national championship. Now they’re barely hanging on to a sliver of hope they can just make the playoffs.
That makes Texas a dangerous team, especially against Ole Miss who has some flaws that could be exposed.
“I think we still look at Ole Miss the same way, but they have some vulnerabilities on defense, particularly in the secondary,” Davis said. “I thought their defensive line would be a little more dominant than it has been up to this point, though they certainly played well Saturday.”
Maybe Davis is right. Maybe Ole Miss is the second-best team in the SEC right now.
The problem is nobody really knows.
Not after Georgia lost on a last-second field goal to Auburn. Not after Texas tumbled from No. 1 to the edge of the rankings. Not after Alabama lost twice. Not after Florida beat Ole Miss and then looked completely different the following two weeks.
The SEC doesn’t have a clear hierarchy anymore.
What it has is a collection of flawed, talented teams capable of looking elite one week and vulnerable the next.
Ole Miss fits that description as much as anyone.
