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Cecil Hurt | Sports Editor
Florida running back Jordan Cronkrite (32) runs for yardage against Massachusetts on Saturday
John Raoux | AP
It was a lovely empire, a land of stadiums filled with happy, cheering fans in a landscape of bowl trophies and confetti, All-Americans and pixies on unicorns -- or at least cheerleaders on ATV's.Well, it's over. Done. Forget it. Week One of the 2016 has turned the Southeastern Conference, once the mightiest kingdom in College Football Land, into a smoldering wasteland, the once-proud teams trudging in the shredded rags of Nike and Under Armour. Only Alabama, safe in its riverside castle guarded by giant defensive linemen and an infinite army of analysts, can look to winter with hopes of anything other than ridicule. Not just regular ridicule, but the sting and burn of the barbs of Danny Kannell and Joel Klatt, cruel arrows that hurt all the more for their crude design.
Well, it seems that way if you read the Internet or listen to the radio. However, in the vain hope that the SEC will not collapse under its own weight before September ends, we once again present the annual SEC Power Poll.
1. Alabama (1-0) -- The Crimson Tide is far ahead of the rest of the SEC in the initial Power Poll that it isn't even visible. The only way to even prove their existence is to follow the trail of empty and cracked USC helmets.
2. Georgia (1-0) -- Nick Chubb is the second-greatest Nick in the SEC and every other name can forget about being mentioned.
3. Texas A&M (1-0) -- I trust Texas A&M in the No. 3 spot about like I would trust Ryan Lochte to do my next brain surgery. But they did have the second-best opening weekend win (over UCLA) despite a concerted effort to give it away.
4. Florida (1-0) -- The Gators are here not because they really accomplished anything last Saturday. They just didn't egregiously mess anything up. In the new SEC landscape, that's an achievement.
5. LSU (0-1) -- New year, same Les. LSU still has too much talent to be truly bad this season, but looked as if they showed up against Wisconsin determined to do the identical things that have made them America's leading waster of promising players.
6. Tennessee (1-0) -- If the Power Poll ranked on "performance relative to expectations," Tennessee would be right at the bottom, ahead of only the second season of "True Detective." But the Vols managed to fumble their way to a win and thus land here.
7. Ole Miss (0-1) -- First-half Ole Miss might have edged Alabama with the way it looked in the opening 25 minutes against FSU. Second-half Ole Miss might have edged Vanderbilt out of the basement.
8. Arkansas (1-0) -- Last year, the Razorbacks lost to Toledo in this spot, so there is something to be said when a 1-point home win over Louisiana Tech is "progress."
9. Auburn (0-1) -- The Tigers battled (excuse me, I have to switch quarterbacks) the No. 2 team, Clemson (excuse me, I have to switch quarterbacks again) right down to (wait, time to switch quarterbacks again) a final Hail Mary.
10. South Carolina (1-0) -- Yes, the Gamecocks won. It's still hard to rate them much higher than this with the talent-poor roster that Steve Spurrier left behind when he skipped town.
11. Mississippi State (0-1) -- There is the greatest proof of what a bad weekend it was for the SEC. The Dak-less Bulldogs lost to South Alabama, the first SEC win ever for the Jags, and MSU isn't even in the bottom three.
12. Missouri (0-1) -- The Tigers played a tougher opponent than some (West Virginia on the road) but let's face facts. The Missouri offense isn't going to get into a Southeastern Conference end zone unless it gets a ride from Uber.
13. Kentucky (0-1) -- Extra style points for blowing a 25-point lead at home nearly propelled UK into the bottom spot, but our lawyers still haven't figured out a way to evict Vanderbilt from its ironclad basement lease.
14. Vanderbilt (0-1) -- To be fair, Vanderbilt's home loss to South Carolina probably wasn't any worse than some of the other losses that teams like Kentucky or Mississippi State suffered in Week One. But it was bad enough, and there's just something comforting about putting the Commodores in this spot, like wrapping yourself in the quilt Grandma made back when she was a girl and Vanderbilt was at the bottom of the league, just like today.
TideSports.com - SEC Power Poll: League stumbles through openers
Florida running back Jordan Cronkrite (32) runs for yardage against Massachusetts on Saturday
John Raoux | AP
It was a lovely empire, a land of stadiums filled with happy, cheering fans in a landscape of bowl trophies and confetti, All-Americans and pixies on unicorns -- or at least cheerleaders on ATV's.Well, it's over. Done. Forget it. Week One of the 2016 has turned the Southeastern Conference, once the mightiest kingdom in College Football Land, into a smoldering wasteland, the once-proud teams trudging in the shredded rags of Nike and Under Armour. Only Alabama, safe in its riverside castle guarded by giant defensive linemen and an infinite army of analysts, can look to winter with hopes of anything other than ridicule. Not just regular ridicule, but the sting and burn of the barbs of Danny Kannell and Joel Klatt, cruel arrows that hurt all the more for their crude design.
Well, it seems that way if you read the Internet or listen to the radio. However, in the vain hope that the SEC will not collapse under its own weight before September ends, we once again present the annual SEC Power Poll.
1. Alabama (1-0) -- The Crimson Tide is far ahead of the rest of the SEC in the initial Power Poll that it isn't even visible. The only way to even prove their existence is to follow the trail of empty and cracked USC helmets.
2. Georgia (1-0) -- Nick Chubb is the second-greatest Nick in the SEC and every other name can forget about being mentioned.
3. Texas A&M (1-0) -- I trust Texas A&M in the No. 3 spot about like I would trust Ryan Lochte to do my next brain surgery. But they did have the second-best opening weekend win (over UCLA) despite a concerted effort to give it away.
4. Florida (1-0) -- The Gators are here not because they really accomplished anything last Saturday. They just didn't egregiously mess anything up. In the new SEC landscape, that's an achievement.
5. LSU (0-1) -- New year, same Les. LSU still has too much talent to be truly bad this season, but looked as if they showed up against Wisconsin determined to do the identical things that have made them America's leading waster of promising players.
6. Tennessee (1-0) -- If the Power Poll ranked on "performance relative to expectations," Tennessee would be right at the bottom, ahead of only the second season of "True Detective." But the Vols managed to fumble their way to a win and thus land here.
7. Ole Miss (0-1) -- First-half Ole Miss might have edged Alabama with the way it looked in the opening 25 minutes against FSU. Second-half Ole Miss might have edged Vanderbilt out of the basement.
8. Arkansas (1-0) -- Last year, the Razorbacks lost to Toledo in this spot, so there is something to be said when a 1-point home win over Louisiana Tech is "progress."
9. Auburn (0-1) -- The Tigers battled (excuse me, I have to switch quarterbacks) the No. 2 team, Clemson (excuse me, I have to switch quarterbacks again) right down to (wait, time to switch quarterbacks again) a final Hail Mary.
10. South Carolina (1-0) -- Yes, the Gamecocks won. It's still hard to rate them much higher than this with the talent-poor roster that Steve Spurrier left behind when he skipped town.
11. Mississippi State (0-1) -- There is the greatest proof of what a bad weekend it was for the SEC. The Dak-less Bulldogs lost to South Alabama, the first SEC win ever for the Jags, and MSU isn't even in the bottom three.
12. Missouri (0-1) -- The Tigers played a tougher opponent than some (West Virginia on the road) but let's face facts. The Missouri offense isn't going to get into a Southeastern Conference end zone unless it gets a ride from Uber.
13. Kentucky (0-1) -- Extra style points for blowing a 25-point lead at home nearly propelled UK into the bottom spot, but our lawyers still haven't figured out a way to evict Vanderbilt from its ironclad basement lease.
14. Vanderbilt (0-1) -- To be fair, Vanderbilt's home loss to South Carolina probably wasn't any worse than some of the other losses that teams like Kentucky or Mississippi State suffered in Week One. But it was bad enough, and there's just something comforting about putting the Commodores in this spot, like wrapping yourself in the quilt Grandma made back when she was a girl and Vanderbilt was at the bottom of the league, just like today.
TideSports.com - SEC Power Poll: League stumbles through openers
