Three overrated and three underrated teams from preseason media SEC poll

The media has released their preseason poll for the SEC, and there are a few teams that needed to be shifted around.
SEC logo seen during SEC Media Days at the Hyatt Regency  in Hoover, Ala., Monday, July 19, 2021. [Staff Photo/Gary Cosby Jr.]

Sec Media Days
SEC logo seen during SEC Media Days at the Hyatt Regency in Hoover, Ala., Monday, July 19, 2021. [Staff Photo/Gary Cosby Jr.] Sec Media Days / Gary Cosby Jr. via Imagn Content
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Overrated SEC teams in preseason poll: Oklahoma

This may cause some whiplash, but I'm about to make what seems like the exact opposite argument when it comes to Oklahoma. Here's the thing: I think OU will again be fine, but I have them finishing in the bottom of that second tier of SEC teams—that fifth place-to-ninth place group.

Where I think Mizzou and Ole Miss have a chance to be good, though, I don't think the Sooners will be much more than decent, and I think their schedule—as opposed to Mizzou and Ole Miss—will expose that fact sooner rather than later.

An early game against Tennessee will help in hashing out the pecking order between two teams that I have almost neck-and-neck. A visit from Alabama won't be pleasant. Nor will trips to Oxford or Baton Rouge. South Carolina placed right in between Red River and the Ole Miss game is a tricky one to navigate, too.

OU could miss bowl eligibility this year. Is it too much of a stretch to think that they lose to Tennessee, Texas, at Ole Miss, at Mizzou, Alabama, and at LSU? Those are all teams who are either right at their level of quality or well above it. Add in an unexpected dropped game on the road at Auburn or home to the Gamecocks, and that's seven losses.

The funny thing is that I think OU could be well underrated by the end of the year if things play out that way. This is a Sooner team who I would pencil in for nine or ten wins in the Big 12, but things are different in the SEC.