Former Florida head coach and current ESPN analyst Dan Mullen recently shared his predictions for how he thinks the SEC standings will look in the upcoming 2024 season, and he has Texas, not Georgia, finishing atop the conference.
Mullen still has Georgia finishing second in the SEC in 2024, but he believes Texas will defeat the Bulldogs in this season’s SEC Championship.
Considering this is the Longhorns’ first year as a member of the SEC, it would be very impressive if they are able to immediately emerge as the top team in the conference.
Texas is coming off a 2023 season that saw them win at least 12 games for the first time since 2009. The Longhorns finished the 2023 campaign with a 12-2 record, including an 8-1 record in Big 12 conference games, and their season came to an end in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff against the University of Washington.
With a number of players from the school’s 2023 roster returning for the upcoming season, Mullen and many others believe Texas can finish among the best teams in college football once again this season. The Longhorns are currently ranked No. 4 in the AP Top 25.
As for Georgia, they’re definitely not going to give up the top spot in the SEC without a fight. The Bulldogs have finished first in the SEC standings in each of the last three years, and the school has competed in six of the last seven SEC Championship Games.
Georgia has only come away with a win in two of these six SEC Championship appearances, so it’s certainly believable that they could lose to Texas or another team in this season’s conference championship game.
However, the Bulldogs not finishing first in the SEC’s regular-season standings in 2024, as Mullen predicts, would be a big shock.
If Georgia and Texas actually do end up meeting in this season’s SEC Championship, everyone will get a preview of the matchup on Oct. 19 when the Bulldogs travel to Austin, Texas, to take on the Longhorns in a showdown that both schools likely already have circled on their calendars.
Georgia is currently the No. 1 ranked team in the AP Top 25, and they will begin their 2024 season on Aug. 31, inside Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium against No. 14 Clemson.