The 2016 Southeastern Conference football season was the 84th season of SEC football and took place during the 2016 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The season began on September 1 with Tennessee defeating Appalachian State on the SEC Network. This is the fifth season for the SEC under realignment that took place in 2012 adding Texas A&M and Missouri from the Big 12 Conference. The SEC is a Power Five conference under the College Football Playoff format along with the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big 12 Conference, the Big Ten Conference, and the Pac-12 Conference.
The SEC consists of 14 members: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M, and Vanderbilt; and is split up into the Western and Eastern divisions, with the champion of each division meeting in Atlanta to compete for the SEC Championship on December 3. Alabama enters the season as defending SEC champions as they defeated Florida in the previous year's championship game. The Tide would then go on to defeat the Washington Huskies in the Peach Bowl, but lost to Clemson 35–31 on January 9, 2017, in the National Championship Game.
Preseason
Recruiting classes + National rankings Team ESPN Rivals Scout 24/7 Total signeesAlabama #2 #1 #1 #1 25Arkansas #24 #33 #32 #25 20Auburn #9 #9 #12 #9 21Florida #12 #14 #10 #13 25Georgia #7 #10 #9 #7 20Kentucky #35 #29 #38 #34 25LSU #3 #5 #4 #3 23Ole Miss #4 #7 #5 #6 24Mississippi State #33 #35 #35 #31 18Missouri #51 #52 #57 #53 20South Carolina #27 #26 #26 #26 24Tennessee #14 #15 #17 #14 21Texas A&M #20 #16 #21 #18 22Vanderbilt #48 #60 #68 #54 20
SEC Media Days The SEC conducted its annual media days at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham – The Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Alabama between July 11 and July 14. The event commenced with a speech by commissioner Greg Sankey, and all 14 teams sent their head coaches and three selected players to speak with members of the media. The event along with all speakers and interviews were broadcast live on the SEC Network and streamed live on ESPN.com. On Monday, the teams and representatives in respective order were as follows: Auburn (Gus Malzahn, Carl Lawson, Montravius Adams, Marcus Davis), Florida (Jim McElwain, David Sharpe, Jarrad Davis, Marcus Maye), and Vanderbilt (Derek Mason, Ralph Webb, Zach Cunningham, Oren Burks). On Tuesday: Georgia (Kirby Smart, Jeb Blazevich, Brandon Kublanow, Dominick Sanders), Mississippi State (Dan Mullen, Richie Brown, Fred Ross, A.J. Jefferson), Tennessee (Butch Jones, Joshua Dobbs, Jalen Reeves-Maybin, Cameron Sutton), and Texas A&M (Kevin Sumlin, Myles Garrett, Trevor Knight, Ricky Seals-Jones). On Wednesday: Alabama (Nick Saban, Jonathan Allen, O.J. Howard, Eddie Jackson), Arkansas (Bret Bielema, Brooks Ellis, Deatrich Wise Jr., Jeremy Sprinkle), Kentucky (Mark Stoops, Jojo Kemp, Courtney Love, Jon Toth), and Missouri (Barry Odom, Sean Culkin, Charles Harris, Michael Scherer). On Thursday: South Carolina (Will Muschamp, Deebo Samuel, Marquavius Lewis, Mason Zandi), Ole Miss (Hugh Freeze, Chad Kelly, Evan Engram, D.J. Jones), and LSU (Les Miles, Leonard Fournette, Ethan Pocic, Tre'Davious White).
Media Polls The SEC Media Days concluded with its annual preseason media polls. Since 1992, the credentialed media has gotten the preseason champion correct just five times. Only eight times has the preseason pick even made it to the SEC title game. Below are the results of the media poll with total points received next to each school and first-place votes in parentheses.
SEC Champion Voting Alabama – 223 LSU – 59 Tennessee – 29 Georgia – 7 Florida – 5 Ole Miss – 4 Texas A&M – 1 South Carolina – 1 Arkansas – 1 Vanderbilt – 1
West Division Alabama – 2,220 (246) LSU – 1,984 (76) Ole Miss – 1,479 (5) Texas A&M – 1,130 (3) Arkansas – 1,047 (1) Auburn – 890 Mississippi State – 518
East Division Tennessee – 2,167 (225) Florida – 1,891 (57) Georgia – 1,860 (45) Kentucky – 933 Vanderbilt – 810 (2) Missouri – 807 South Carolina – 800 (2)
References:
Preseason All-SEC: Media + First Team Offense Position Player Class Team QB Chad Kelly SR Ole Miss RB Leonard Fournette JR LSU RB Nick Chubb JR Georgia WR Calvin Ridley SO Alabama WR Christian Kirk SO Texas A&M TE O. J. Howard SR Alabama OL Cam Robinson JR Alabama OL Dan Skipper SR Arkansas OL Greg Pyke SR Georgia OL Alex Kozan SR Auburn C Ethan Pocic SR LSU
+ First Team Defense Position Player Class Team DL Jonathan Allen SR Alabama DL Myles Garrett JR Texas A&M DL Carl Lawson JR Auburn DL Derek Barnett JR Tennessee LB Reuben Foster SR Alabama LB Kendell Beckwith SR LSU LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin SR Tennessee DB Eddie Jackson SR Alabama DB Teez Tabor JR Florida DB Tre'Davious White SR LSU DB Cameron Sutton SR Tennessee
+ First Team Special Teams Position Player Class Team P J. K. Scott JR Alabama K Daniel Carlson JR Auburn RS Christian Kirk SO Texas A&M AP Christian Kirk SO Texas A&M
(*) Indicates tie
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Head coaches
Three SEC teams hired new head coaches for the 2016 season. All three were in the Eastern Division, and all three were replacing coaches who had spent at least 11 seasons at their respective schools. Former Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart was hired to replace long-time coach Mark Richt at Georgia, who left for the same position at Miami. Missouri promoted defensive coordinator Barry Odom to head coach to replace long-time coach Gary Pinkel who resigned at the end of the season. Former Florida head coach Will Muschamp was hired to replace long-time head coach Steve Spurrier at South Carolina, who resigned halfway through the season. Muschamp had spent the previous season as defensive coordinator at Auburn.
After losing to Auburn in dramatic fashion and falling to 2–2 for the first time since 2001, LSU fired head coach Les Miles and offensive coordinator Cam Cameron on September 25, 2016. During his 11+ seasons as head coach, Miles led the Tigers through one of the most successful periods in school history during which they averaged nearly 10 wins per season, won the 2008 BCS Championship and appeared in the 2011 Championship Game, won 2 SEC titles, appeared in the post-season each year with 7 bowl victories, signed 9 top 10 recruiting classes, and had 69 players drafted by the NFL. Defensive line coach Ed Orgeron was named interim head coach for the remainder of the season, and on November 26 after compiling a 5–2 record, Orgeron was named permanent head coach.
Note: All stats shown are before the beginning of the season. Team Head coach Years at school Overall record Record at school SEC recordAlabama Nick Saban 10 191–60–1 100–18 57–12Arkansas Bret Bielema 4 86–44 18–20 7–17Auburn Gus Malzahn 4 36–16 27–13 13–11Florida Jim McElwain 2 32–20 10–4 7–1Georgia Kirby Smart 1 0–0 0–0 0–0Kentucky Mark Stoops 4 12–24 12–24 4–20LSU Les Miles 12 139–53 112–32 61–27Ole Miss Hugh Freeze 5 64–25 34–18 17–15Mississippi State Dan Mullen 8 55–35 55–35 26–30Missouri Barry Odom 1 0–0 0–0 0–0South Carolina Will Muschamp 1 28–21 0–0 0–0Tennessee Butch Jones 4 71–44 21–17 10–14Texas A&M Kevin Sumlin 5 71–33 36–16 17–15Vanderbilt Derek Mason 3 7–17 7–17 2–14
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Rankings + Legend Increase in ranking Decrease in ranking Not ranked previous week RV Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll
Pre Wk1 Wk2 Wk3 Wk4 Wk5 Wk6 Wk7 Wk8 Wk9 Wk10 Wk11 Wk12 Wk13 Wk14 FinalAlabama AP 1 (33) 1 (54) 1 (56) 1 (50) 1 (50) 1 (53) 1 (56) 1 (60) 1 (60) 1 (60) 1 (60) 1 (61) 1 (61) 1 (61) 1 (61) 2C 1 (55) 1 (62) 1 (62) 1 (59) 1 (61) 1 (57) 1 (58) 1 (61) 1 (63) 1 (63) 1 (62) 1 (63) 1 (63) 1 (64) 1 (58) 2CFP Not released 1 1 1 1 1 1 Arkansas AP RV 24 17 20 16 22 17 RV RV RV RV RV C RV RV 24 18 22 17 22 17 RV RV RV RV RV RVCFP Not released 25 Auburn AP RV RV RV RV RV 23 21 15 11 8 18 16 18 17 24C RV RV RV RV RV RV RV 24 17 12 8 16 16 19 17 22CFP Not released 9 9 15 13 14 14 Florida AP 25 RV 23 19 23 18 18 15 14 10 22 21 13 15 20 14C 25 25 23 16 21 18 14 12 12 9 16 18 13 16 18 13CFP Not released 11 23 15 15 17 Georgia AP 18 9 16 12 25 RV RV C 16 9 13 11 20 RV RV RVCFP Not released Kentucky AP RV C RV CFP Not released LSU AP 5 (1) 21 20 18 RV RV RV 25 19 15 19 16 25 21 19 13C 6 22 22 17 RV RV 25 23 19 14 19 14 RV 21 20 14CFP Not released 13 24 16 21 20 Mississippi State AP C RV CFP Not released Missouri AP C CFP Not released Ole Miss AP 11 19 19 23 16 14 12 23 RV C 12 18 17 21 17 14 13 22 RV RV CFP Not released South Carolina AP C CFP Not released Tennessee AP 9 17 15 14 11 9 9 18 18 RV RV RV 24 RV RV 22C 10 (1) 14 15 12 11 9 11 19 18 RV RV RV 24 RV RV 24CFP Not released 19 17 22 21 Texas A&M AP RV 20 17 10 9 8 6 6 9 7 10 23 22 RV RV C RV 24 20 13 10 7 6 6 10 7 11 22 22 RV RV CFP Not released 4 8 25 Vanderbilt AP C CFP Not released
Regular season Index to colors and formattingNon-conference matchup; SEC member wonNon-conference matchup; SEC member lostConference matchup All times Eastern time. SEC teams in bold.
Rankings reflect those of the AP poll for that week until week 10 when CFP rankings are used.
Week One Date Time Visiting team Home team Site Broadcast Result Attendance Reference September 1 7:30 p.m. Appalachian State #9 Tennessee Neyland Stadium • Knoxville, Tennessee SECN W 20–13 OT 100,074 September 1 8:00 p.m. South Carolina Vanderbilt Vanderbilt Stadium • Nashville, Tennessee ESPN SCAR 13–10 30,304 September 3 12:00 p.m. Missouri West Virginia Mountaineer Field • Morgantown, West Virginia FS1 L 11–26 60,125 September 3 12:00 p.m. South Alabama Mississippi State Davis Wade Stadium • Starkville, Mississippi SECN L 20–21 57,075 September 3 3:30 p.m. #16 UCLA Texas A&M Kyle Field • College Station, Texas CBS W 31–24 OT 100,443 September 3 3:30 p.m. #5 LSU Wisconsin Lambeau Field • Green Bay, Wisconsin ABC L 14–16 77,823 September 3 4:00 p.m. Louisiana Tech Arkansas Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium • Fayetteville, Arkansas SECN W 21–20 69,132 September 3 5:30 p.m. #22 North Carolina #18 Georgia Georgia Dome • Atlanta ESPN W 33–24 75,405 September 3 7:30 p.m. Southern Miss Kentucky Commonwealth Stadium • Lexington, Kentucky ESPNU L 35–44 57,230 September 3 7:30 p.m. UMass #25 Florida Ben Hill Griffin Stadium • Gainesville, Florida SECN W 24–7 88,121 September 3 8:00 p.m. #20 USC #1 Alabama AT&T Stadium • Arlington, Texas ABC W 52–6 81,359 September 3 9:00 p.m. #2 Clemson Auburn Jordan–Hare Stadium • Auburn, Alabama ESPN L 13–19 87,451 September 5 8:00 p.m. #11 Ole Miss #4 Florida State Camping World Stadium • Orlando, Florida ESPN L 34–45 63,042
Players of the week: Offensive Offensive lineman Defensive Defensive lineman Special teams Freshman Player Team Player Team Player Team Player Team Player Team Player Team Nick Chubb Georgia Erik McCoy Texas A&M Jonathan Allen Alabama Deatrich Wise Jr. Arkansas Elliott Fry South Carolina Jonah Williams AlabamaReference:
Week Two