SEC Daily: Reviewing Players on the Maxwell Award Watch List

The 2025-2026 college football season is officially under a month away. With the looming season comes preseason predictions, rankings and watch lists.

The watch list for one of the country’s most prestigious awards has been released and there are plenty of SEC players that are mentioned. The Maxwell Award watch list features 17 players from the SEC on the list of 80 players on the preseason list.

In addition to Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia being listed for his performance in injecting new life into the Commodore football program, there are five SEC schools with multiple players up for preseason offensive player of the year: Auburn, Texas, LSU, Oklahoma and Texas A&M.

Just about all the SEC schools with playoff hopes has at least one player named to the watch list: Ryan Williams from Alabama, Nate Frazier of Georgia, Garrett Nussmeier and Caden Durham of LSU, Quintrevion Wisner and Arch Manning of Texas and LaNorris Sellers of South Carolina.

It makes sense that Heisman hopefuls Nussmeier, Manning and Sellers were all named to the watch list.  All three quarterbacks have high expectations to have their teams competing at or near the top of the conference while fighting for postseason spots.

However what is interesting is that there is one school who was just short of last season’s College Football Playoff that did not have one player mentioned on the preseason watch list for the Maxwell Award: Ole Miss.

The Rebels were picked to finish seventh in the conference this season in the media poll that was selected at the conclusion of SEC Media Days. They did lose plenty of production after last season, including quarterback Jaxson Dart, who was drafted by the New York Giants.

Another thing that is interesting is the plethora of quarterbacks on the list. Of the 80 players, 47 are quarterbacks, which speaks to how valuable the position is in the modern game of football. Nine of the quarterbacks mentioned are in the SEC. The conference is loaded with quarterback talent that makes the conference the most talented in the country as well as why plenty of teams from the SEC will be vying for the postseason. 

The SEC is tied with the ACC for the most players on the watch list at 17. The Big 12 and Big Ten have 14 and 13 players listed, respectively. While the list will be narrowed by the end of the season, the SEC is almost certainly going to be in play when the finalists are announced.

Week 0 of the college football season will take place on Aug. 23 and will feature five games, including a Big 12 game between Kansas State and Iowa State. Missouri will be the first SEC team in action as it starts its season against Central Arkansas on Aug. 28.

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