USA TODAY Sports analyst's 'crazy' prediction for which team will win 2025 SEC title
In the preseason SEC football media poll following SEC media days in Atlanta, Texas received 96 votes to win the conference championship in 2025, followed by Georgia with 44 votes. The Alabama Crimson Tide placed a distant third with 29 votes.
But this is still the offseason and thus a time when media and non-media alike can make some outside-the-box predictions heading into a new year. With regard to the former, one longtime college football writer has a "crazy" prediction for who will win the SEC in 2025.
Veteran columnist Matt Hayes of USA TODAY Sports believes the Oklahoma Sooners will take home the conference crown on Dec. 6 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Hayes told the hosts of "That SEC Podcast" recently:
"I know many people here told me that I'm crazy, but I said I think Oklahoma is going to win the SEC. I think (John) Mateer is going to play really well, and that defense will be as good as any defense in the league. They're going to shock some people this year."
Sound like a stretch? Oklahoma went 6-6 during the regular season in their first year in the SEC. The Sooners memorably stunned Alabama in a 24-3 upset in Norman but finished just 2-6 in conference play. They fell to Navy in a bowl game, and head coach Brent Venables enters 2025 on the hot seat.
Oklahoma brought Mateer in from Washington State via the transfer portal along with his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Ben Arbuckle. Entering his junior season, Mateer is coming off a banner year in Pullman after throwing for 3,139 yards and 29 touchdowns to seven interceptions. He also rushed for 826 yards and 15 touchdowns on 178 carries (4.6 AVG).
The Sooners were picked to finish in the middle of the pack in the preseason SEC media poll. That doesn't matter to Hayes, who added:
"I think Mateer is a lot better than people think he is. He's a very good player, number one. Number two, I think he is going to have that type of impact (where) it's not just on the field, it's also in the locker room. I think you're going to see that, I really do. I may be way out there, and you guys in three months may say, 'Remember when you said Oklahoma was going to win the SEC and they finished such and such?' Yeah, I think they're going to win it."
It's been a while since the SEC had a truly unexpected conference champion. The last team to come out of nowhere and win the league title was Gus Malzahn's first Auburn team in 2013. The Tigers were picked to finish 10th in the preseason, but they made it all the way to the national championship game off the backs of Alabama's agony in that year's Iron Bowl.
The Crimson Tide will host Oklahoma on Nov. 15 at Bryant-Denny Stadium, a week after Alabama's annual showdown with LSU. Time will tell if Hayes' pick has any merit or if it's just another in a long line of wild offseason predictions that pop up every year.
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