Everybody keeps talking about Oregon's five 5-stars or Georgia reloading, but nobody wants to admit the SEC pecking order has already shifted. Texas finished 2025 ranked higher than Alabama and Georgia in SP+. That's not a fluke, that's a program that has closed the talent gap while the traditional powers are dealing with portal hemorrhaging and coaching turnover.
The real story nobody is tracking: Texas has the highest returning production percentage among the SEC's top 6 teams per Bill Connelly's numbers. Meanwhile Alabama is installing a new offensive system with a portal-heavy line and Georgia lost their entire secondary to the draft. The Longhorns have the continuity advantage in a league where everybody else is scrambling.
Ole Miss fans want to get mad at Sarkisian for the academic comments but the APR data doesn't lie. Texas sits at 985 while Ole Miss hovers around 960. That gap matters when you're trying to build sustained excellence, not just a flash-in-the-pan 10-win seaso...