The Southeastern Conference has been a perennial college football powerhouse for the last few decades, but lately, there has been a lull in the league's dominance, having now gone three straight seasons without a team being crowned with a national title.
Despite the recent championship doldrums, the SEC remains a powerhouse on the collegiate gridiron with nine member schools cracking the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll. Having expanded its intraconference schedule to nine games, the league slate is a veritable gauntlet that provides a superlative level of competition that can only be matched by the Big Ten.
Ahead of the 2026 campaign, The Athletic's Dan Santaromita and Austin Mock put together their SEC odds, win totals and projections for this fall based on the latter's simulation model. The results have the Georgia Bulldogs leading the way when it comes to expected wins (9.6), as well as their chances for a College Football Playoff appearance (65.1%) and a conference championship (28.3%).
The Florida Gators landed in the lower third of the pack, with an expected win total of 6.5 along with an 11% chance of making their first CFP appearance and a 2.2% chance of winning the SEC title. That ranks the Orange and Blue at No. 11, between the South Carolina Gamecocks and Missouri Tigers.
Take a look at the projections for the conference from Mock’s model below.
The Athletic's SEC football projections for 2026TEAMXWINSW ODDSCFPCONFGeorgia9.69.565.1%28.3%Texas8.79.549.9%19.6%Alabama8.48.536.0%11.0%Oklahoma7.78.527.4%8.6%Texas A&M8.18.526.3%7.3%LSU7.78.524.2%6.2%Ole Miss7.47.519.8%5.2%Tennessee7.27.515.9%3.2%Auburn7.16.514.3%2.7%South Carolina6.86.511.9%2.6%Florida6.57.511.0%2.2%Missouri6.46.59.0%1.5%Vanderbilt5.95.55.2%0.7%Mississippi State5.44.53.7%0.5%Kentucky4.84.52.1%0.2%Arkansas4.73.52.0%0.2%XWINS is the average number of wins a team got through Mock’s simulations. W ODDS is the currently listed win total line for each team on DraftKings. CFP is the chance Mock’s model projects a team to make the 12-team Playoff.CONF is the chance Mock’s model projects a team to win the SEC.
Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.
This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: The Athletic projects SEC football win totals, CFP and title chances