Where does 2025 LSU rank? Connor O'Gara of SDS predicts LSU will win a National Championship this year.

 Where does 2025 LSU rank? Connor O'Gara of SDS predicts LSU will win a National Championship this year.

I was disappointed yesterday after reading a Saturday Down South article by Adam Spencer entitled "We asked Grok to fill out its All-SEC first-team ballot" . Not one LSU player was listed on Grok's first team All-SEC ballot. Not one! I hesitated to even go back to the Saturday Down South (SDS) site again today.  I am glad that I did.

Today SDS's Connor O'Gara, who was probably as shock as I was that Grok couldn't find a single LSU player to include in it's All-SEC ballot, posted an article entitled “How I filled out my 2025 preseason All-SEC ballot”. O’Gara’s First Team SEC preseason ballot included LSU players at the QB, RB, WR, LB and Return Specialist positions. However, no LSU players were picked for TE, OL, DL, DB, Punter or Placekicker. But even better news was included after his ballot. O'Gara predicted where teams would finish in SEC standings this year. This is his ranking order:

 

Connor O'Gara's predicted order of finish

1. LSU

   

2. Georgia

3. Texas

4. Alabama

5. Ole Miss

6. Texas A&M

7. Florida

8. South Carolina

9. Mizzou

10. Tennessee

11. Oklahoma

12. Vanderbilt

13. Auburn

14. Arkansas

15. Kentucky

16. Mississippi State

O'Gara even goes one step further at the conclusion of his post. He repost a video from his X account with the words "LSU is winning a national title in 2025".

While I hate the Grok assessment that Adam Spenser posted; I love what O'Gara is predicting. I will give O'Gara a pass on the omissions of LSU players from key positions of his SEC ballot because I kind of have to agree with him. The most important battle of any game begins in the trenches. LSU O-line is made up of good sized, athletic, extremely talent men but they have not all played on the same field at the same time. I believe that they will be a surprisingly better O-line than last year but we do know until we see it. LSU's defensive line also has something to prove. Defensive linemen that LSU retained from last year were for the most part young and inexperienced and LSU lost two talented and very experience defensive ends. With a year of SEC experience and with outstanding portal acquisitions LSU's defensive line ought to be able to go toe-to-toe with the best offensive lines in college football and may likely dominate this year. Yet, once again, LSU's defensive line has something to prove. I hope both lines play with a chip on their shoulders all year. O'Gara missed the call on Tight Ends - the Greens (Trey'Dez and Donovan) and Bauer Sharp are all three All-SEC caliber and I would be surprised if at least one of them did not have a NFL hall of fame caliber career. Freshmen DBs D.J. Pickett is the next Patrick Peterson, D.J. Stingley, to be added to future all world DBs from the true DBU, LSU. This year marks the beginning of the return of DBU at LSU. Punter Grant Chadwick is new to LSU but you might want to take a look at his numbers and given the chance Aeron Burrell can kick a field goal from almost anywhere on the field. There is no way that O'Gara could have made an objective judgement based on any of this.

I have to admit that I was trying to decide where LSU fits into the overall picture this year. While I can talk about the merits of individual LSU players and coaches for a very long time, it still does not answer my question: Where does LSU rank as a team this year? The games are played for a reason and ultimately the answer will be definitively answered on the field. I think it still might be interesting to try to make an educated guess. For the record, my uneducated guess would be that LSU will finish #1, Texas A&M #4, and Mizzou #7. My bias is that those are the schools that I went to and got a couple of degrees from. I went to games as a student at LSU and then as a graduate student that was also a football team tutor at Texas A&M. I earned a masters at the University of Missouri (main campus/COMO) but have not stepped foot on the campus or seen a football game live. My Mizzou masters was earned 100% online. Enough about me, let's try to get somewhere close to an educated guess at where LSU ranks with expert opinions accounted for.

Sports Illustrated, ESPN, and Althon Sports all have ranked LSU as the 3rd best team in the SEC this year. The ESPN ranking that was penned by Mark Schlabach ranked all NCAA teams and noteworthy: Clemson was ranked #2 and LSU was ranked #6 of all NCAA teams in 2025.

More recently USA Today ranked LSU #4 in the SEC and a top 10 ranking by College Football News ranked LSU #4 in the SEC and #8 overall. College Football News ranked Clemson #9 overall in that same article.

Objectively, without any clear way to know how all the new transfer pieces will fit into key positions at LSU this year, the experts are guessing that LSU is likely the 3rd or 4th best team in the SEC and probably a top 10 team overall in 2025.

Using the five sources listed and linked above I came up with this top 12 ranking of SEC football for 2025:

Composite 2025 SEC Top 12 (SI, USA Today, ESPN, CFN, and Althon Sports)

1. Texas 

2. Georgia 

3. LSU 

4. Alabama 

5. Florida 

6. South Carolina 

7. Ole Miss 

8. Texas A&M 

9. Oklahoma 

10. Tennessee 

11. Missouri

12. Auburn 

Left out: Vandy, UK, Ark, Miss St.

The preseason ranking are fun, interesting, and totally meaningless. Once again,

for the record, my uneducated guess would be that LSU will finish #1, Texas A&M #4, and Mizzou #7.

Geaux Tigahs! Gig'em Aggies! and M-I-Z! I am ready for some football!!!