u/cartgold

>Over 40
LSU
Texas
Texas A&M

Over 30
Alabama
Auburn
Florida
Georgia
Oklahoma
Ole Miss
Tennessee

Over 20
Arkansas
Kentucky
Mississippi State
Missouri
South Carolina
Vanderbilt

>In the final category, you have two schools with new coaches (Arkansas, Kentucky), two schools with coaches who could be on the hot seat (Mississippi State, South Carolina) and two rising SEC programs (Missouri, Vanderbilt). There were a few rival SEC sources who believe Missouri may actually be in the $30 million range, but our sources put their number right at the mid-$20 million zone. Vanderbilt is riding high off a successful 2025 season and flipping No. 2 overall recruit Jared Curtis away from Georgia. 

>Smith, Missouri running back Ahmad Hardy and Notre Dame cornerback Leonard Moore are returning AP first-team All-America picks who are on the preseason team.

>First team offense
Running backs — Kewan Lacy, third year, Mississippi; Ahmad Hardy, third year, Missouri.

Only twice before has Mizzou been ranked in the AP's preseason football and men's basketball polls heading into the same season.

Football was ranked No. 17 and men's basketball No. 11 heading into their 1980-81 seasons.

And football was ranked No. 21 with men's basketball No. 25 heading into 2011-12.

Indiana had 100-1 odds (+10,000) to win the natty this time last year before they went on their historic run. Here are the teams that have similar odds to Indiana for this year:

Auburn: 80-1

BYU: 90-1

SMU: 100-1

Mizzou: 100-1

Utah: 110-1

South Carolina: 120-1

Washington: 120-1

Louisville: 120-1

Obviously it’s really hard to say because I really can’t imagine any team going on a run like Indiana did, but probably no one imagined that last year.

SMU has made a 12-team playoff, similar to Indiana did prior to their run and the ACC does provide a wide open path to the playoffs. BYU is also another good choice because Texas Tech should be the only formidable opponent again in the Big 12 to get to the playoff and they were close last year.

How Auburn has better odds that both of those teams is beyond me lol.

But I’d say SMU and BYU would be my two picks. And if I had to pick between the two, I’d say BYU. I’m high on Bachmeier and think he’s going to have a great follow up year and should hook up well with Lyons from USC and Kasper from Oregon.