Alabama football riding high after thrilling win over Georgia: SEC vibes rankings

In this season of change, we can debate the merits of conference realignment, College Football Playoff expansion and whatever's happening at UNLV . There should be unanimity about one change: conference scheduling, thanks to the end of divisions, which is giving the world much better matchups.

Georgia and Alabama , for all their epic postseason games, only played twice in the regular season between 2009-23. If you loved watching Kirby Smart and Kalen DeBoer's teams play Saturday night , there's some good news: It will happen again next year and is guaranteed to happen twice every four years.

-5 clash

Ditto for every matchup. And if the powers-that-be yield to sanity they'll add a ninth game for the 2026 season, and rivalries like Texas -Texas A&M, Auburn -Georgia and Alabama- Tennessee will remain annual.

The end of divisions is not without some issues, including inequitable scheduling that could produce some odd SEC championship matchups: Georgia probably has less of a chance of playing in the SEC championship than Texas A&M, Missouri and LSU , based on the remaining schedules. And the disparity in schedules may lead to some fearsome arguments about Playoff at-large bids come December.

But so be it if that's the price to be paid to get a handful of intriguing matchups and more diverse scheduling. The good people of Auburn got to see a visit from Oklahoma, the fans at Ole Miss got to see Kentucky come to their stadium, and ... OK, maybe not everybody's crazy about the new system.

Here's our weekly vibe check in the SEC, which we kindly remind you is not a pure ranking of how good each team is, but the feelings around each program, taking into account wins and losses, expectations, momentum and just ... the vibes. Good, bad and in between:

Yeah, it got dicey at the end, but winning means the takeaway is DeBoer is keeping things going , and he very well may have the two best offensive players in the country. There are still some pitfalls ahead (mainly trips to Tennessee and LSU), but the Tide's vibes are high, and they are your No. 1.

A little underwhelming to only be up 7-6 late in the first half on the worst team in the SEC? Sure, but the Longhorns earned themselves an underwhelming week. That can't dull the vibes .

Do the wins over Oklahoma and NC State look all that impressive right now? Nah, and neither would a win at Arkansas this week (and certainly not the week after against Florida ). But it's more about how impressive the Volunteers have looked, on both sides of the ball, so the shine isn't off.

Maybe the Texas A&M fans have regrets. Mark Stoops, we all apologize for doubting you. After a decade of solid but not spectacular results, it turns out Stoops just needed to bottom out (a loss to South Carolina) to finally break through . Well, breakthrough may be too strong if it's not followed with good results. But the next three weeks — Vanderbilt, at Florida, Auburn — offer a clear path to 6-2. And while trips to Tennessee and Texas still await, going into the final stretch with some momentum would feel a lot better than what things looked like just a few weeks ago.

. 6 Ole Miss' high hopes a reality check

After two mediocre home performances, Mizzou had a week to work on things and now heads to College Station. This may be the swing game that means a lot for its Playoff bid: Other than a trip to Alabama, the Tigers figure to be favored in the rest of their games. But with this schedule, it may take 11-1 to make it into the Playoff field.

So, yeah, to reiterate what was mentioned earlier: The Aggies don't have a hard schedule the rest of the way. Their hardest games are at home (Missouri, LSU, Texas), and the road games are winnable (Mississippi State, South Carolina , Auburn). Of course, the way Mike Elko's team is playing, it easily could still finish 4-4 in the conference.

Georgia lost in the regular season for the first time in four years , and the sky is falling, per sources in the fan base. In the grand view of things, these people are ridiculous. But in the context of this season, things are dicey for the Bulldogs, who still have to go to Texas and Ole Miss and host Tennessee. We're going to need to see another performance like the Clemson game before assuming Georgia is still a favorite to make the Playoff.

? Conflicted

Defense no longer wins championships by itself. But apparently, it does allow a team to stay barely ranked despite struggling quarterbacks, an infirmary full of receivers and a generally ineffective offense. So there's that!

The Razorbacks in Year 5 of the Sam Pittman era are looking a lot like they did the first three years, putting out a competitive product but not always winning. That's a big improvement over Year 4, but will that be enough?

As they begin a stretch of four straight ranked opponents, the key for the Gamecocks was getting LaNorris Sellers healthy and also back to wearing goggles. Let's be clear, this will help with NIL and everyone's general viewing pleasure, so if this doesn't happen this week, the Gamecocks will drop massively in these rankings, win or lose.

The Commodores have been installed as 25-point underdogs against Alabama this week. But with the game in Nashville, a big home-crowd advantage should make the Crimson Tide even heavier favorites.

There's a team like LSU every year: We dismiss it after a (close) season-opening loss, and it doesn't do anything too impressive during the next month, but then we look at its record and go: Hey wait LSU is 4-1. The vibes are still not great. The record and the brand name are much better.

Well, that was a disaster. No, it's not a season-ender. Lane Kiffin and the Rebels built a lot of credibility the past year, even the first four weeks of the season. And maybe this was just the dreaded early kickoff sleep walk game. But the expectation this year wasn't just to be in the Playoff but make some hay in it, and whew, is that suddenly an uphill fight now.

A week off meant watching a certain coach lose unexpectedly, meaning that certain coach might not make the Playoff and thus could be available. There is still the matter of the current coach, who faces UCF at home this week, which could be the last time the Gators are favored this season. Probably a good idea to go bank that win.

Well, not getting completely blown out, and in fact, keeping it competitive into the second half, is mild progress. There was nowhere to go but up after last week, so slightly up is something. Congratulations, Bulldogs.

Kirby Smart on Saturday night: "We've got to get ready for another tough opponent coming to our place." It was not clear if Smart knew he was actually playing Auburn.

Ba-da-bing! Of course, given this is Hugh Freeze, giant-scarer who also loses to New Mexico State , the Tigers surely will win this week, right? Well, it has been close in Auburn — Georgia is 5-3 there since 2010 — but during the same time in Athens (where the game is this week), it has been Georgia 6-0 by an average of 24 points.

So there's a decent chance Auburn hugs the basement in these rankings for another week.