Are SEC teams being continually overrated by voters in the Associated Press top 25 poll? That’s what college football analyst Joel Klatt thinks, and he might have a point. 

Klatt, appearing on “The Next Round” show recently, was asked about his views on how the polls treat SEC teams compared to other conferences. One of his chief complaints is that because the conference is given the benefit of the doubt, the back end of the rankings are “littered with bad SEC teams.” That then allows other programs to claim a “good win” or a “good loss,” because they can point to beating teams ranked in the bottom of the top 25. Other conferences though, are quickly punished with wild fluctuations from week to week.

“I think the back end of the top 25 is littered with bad SEC teams,” Klatt said. “I’ve thought that for years. Now that’s an opinion that is not shared by SEC fans, but that’s fine. And I don’t think that has anything to do with the fact that the top end of college football is not as great as it once was. And then when you couple that with, you know, right now teams that are bad or have bad records… Have some talent because of revenue sharing and NIL and the transfer portal and the dispersion of talent across the country. Now all of a sudden, well, you have a 1-3 Florida team that’s actually a really good football team and has a five-star quarterback. You’ve got an 0-4 team in UCLA that has not looked like anything. But oh, by the way, that quarterback, while no one likes him, especially from Tennessee because of everything that happened in the offseason, he’s still really a talented player, and you put that team on their back. 

“So I think that the margin between bad and good in college football is shrinking drastically, but I think those two things are mutually exclusive. Like, what happened to Penn State and Clemson so far this year, and Texas so far this year, it is not the same thing as me saying…like I think at the back end, the middle of the SEC always gets the benefit of the doubt. Which is like this, it’s like a perpetuating overrating of the conference because, well, that’s a good win and then that’s a good loss. Meanwhile, other conferences fluctuate wildly. You know when teams lose and everything and the people just fall out, and then it’s no longer a good one for the people at the top, but in the SEC it just always sits there, you know, you’re just always ranked in there from 18 to 25.” 

That…that’s a pretty accurate assessment of what happens in the SEC. And it needs to be fixed.

Apr 24, 2024; Detroit, MI, USA; NFL Network analyst Joel Klatt speaks to the media at the Play Football Prospect Clinic at The Corner Ballpark. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

SEC Still Has Top Quality Depth, But Gets Overrated In Polls

Here’s an example of how this works in the SEC’s favor. 

South Carolina was overrated and over-ranked to start the 2025 season. Whether that’s due to their conference affiliation or not is up for debate. But because they were considered a top-25 team, when the Vanderbilt Commodores beat the Gamecocks 31-7 as LaNorris Sellers was injured, Vanderbilt jumped into the rankings. 

They moved all the way up to #16, after wins over Georgia State and Utah State. This past Saturday, they were handily beaten by Alabama, 30-14, getting outscored 30-7 after the first quarter. But because that’s a quality SEC loss, and because Vanderbilt was overrated thanks to a win over overrated South Carolina, the Commodores dropped just four spots to #20. 

Change their conference affiliation, and the rankings change with it. Take a look at the USC Trojans, to compare. 

USC was underrated by human voters in the preseason polls, relative to their expected talent level. Efficiency-based computer ranking systems consistently had the Trojans as one of the top 10-15 teams in the country. Through most of the first half, they played that way. Blowout wins over bad teams, and solid wins over mid-tier teams like Purdue and Michigan State kept SC around the top-10 in ESPN’s SP+. 

But the Trojans only got to #21, ahead of their road game against the Illinois Fighting Illini. SC lost a close game in which they led with under two minutes to play, with the Illini escaping 34-32 on a walk-off field goal. SC dropped out of the polls entirely. 

Again, per SP+, USC, which efficiency wise is the 13th best team in the country, would be heavily favored over Vanderbilt. But Vanderbilt is ranked, USC isn’t. That’s the benefit of the doubt SEC teams get. South Carolina is 41st in SP+, well behind Big Ten teams like Maryland, or even Kansas in the Big 12. But because South Carolina is in the SEC, Vanderbilt is credited with a quality win they don’t deserve. 

Does this mean all SEC teams are bad? Of course not. But it’s an example of how this works. Some teams, usually in the SEC, are assumed to be better because of their brand name and crowd support. As well as playing their games in the Eastern Time Zone, benefitting from a lack of travel, and overblown preseason expectations. Klatt has a point.Â