Sporting News ranked all the coaches in the FBS from 1 to 130, and the SEC placed more coaches in the top 25 than any other conference.
A total of eight SEC coaches made the top 25, and 11 ranked inside the top 40. That speaks to the depth in the best conference in college football. The conference adds four new coaches in Mississippi State's Mike Leach, Ole Miss' Lane Kiffin, Missouri's Eliah Drinkwitz and Arkansas' Sam Pittman.
All of those coaches will chase the top two in the league. Alabama's Nick Saban remains the top choice, but LSU's Ed Orgeron might surprise some by moving into the No. 2 spot.
How does the rest of the field shake out? Here's a deeper look at our SEC coach rankings for 2020 (record at current school):
2020 SEC Coach Rankings
| RANK | COACH | SCHOOL | W | L | PCT | OVR |
| 1 | Nick Saban | Alabama | 152 | 23 | .869 | 1 |
| 2 | Ed Orgeron | LSU | 40 | 9 | .816 | 3 |
| 3 | Kirby Smart | Georgia | 44 | 12 | .786 | 5 |
| 4 | Dan Mullen | Florida | 21 | 5 | .808 | 8 |
| 5 | Jimbo Fisher | Texas A&M | 17 | 9 | .654 | 10 |
| 6 | Gus Malzahn | Auburn | 62 | 31 | .667 | 13 |
| 7 | Mike Leach | Mississippi State | 0 | 0 | .000 | 19 |
| 8 | Jeremy Pruitt | Tennessee | 13 | 12 | .520 | 25 |
| 9 | Mark Stoops | Kentucky | 44 | 44 | .500 | 27 |
| 10 | Will Muschamp | South Carolina | 26 | 25 | .510 | 38 |
| 11 | Lane Kiffin | Ole Miss | 61 | 34 | .642 | 39 |
| 12 | Eliah Drinkwitz | Missouri | 0 | 0 | .000 | 58 |
| 13 | Derek Mason | Vanderbilt | 27 | 47 | .365 | 62 |
| 14 | Sam Pittman | Arkansas | 0 | 0 | .000 | 75 |
Quick reads
— Should Orgeron be ranked ahead of Georgia's Kirby Smart? The winning percentages the past three seasons are almost identical. Smart checks in at 36-8 (.818), and Orgeron is at 40-9 (.816). When it's that close, you look the last meeting in the SEC championship game and who has the national championship. Orgeron wins on both accounts.
— Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher and Tennessee's Jeremy Pruitt — both former Saban assistants — might draw some criticism for their high placement. Both have improved programs desperate to get back on the national stage, but the next step will be beating the top 10 programs around them.
— Kiffin is one spot behind South Carolina's Will Muschamp, who is coming off a 4-8 season and is 26-25 in four seasons with the Gamecocks. Kiffin hasn't been on the Power 5 stage since his stint with USC that ended during the regular season.
— Kentucky has the sixth-best record in the SEC the past three seasons at 25-14. That speaks to the remarkable job done by Mark Stoops in Lexington, though the improvements made at Florida and Tennessee will make that more difficult over the next few seasons.