One of Don Henley’s best songs is “The Heart of the Matter,” during which he twice utters the line: “The more I know, the less I understand.” Henley clearly was talking about this year’s SEC football season.

In years past, we knew and understood a lot about the league by this time of the year. The team to beat was clear. A couple of fan bases started to book hotel rooms in Atlanta. One or more coaches had been fired. Vanderbilt stunk.

In the first year of this new world, there is no clear best team, and no coaches have been fired (yet). Most of the league — nine of 16 teams — is within one game of first place. One of those teams is … Vanderbilt.

Welcome to the new age of the SEC. It just means Dores.

Here are this week’s vibes rankings, which as always are not a pure ranking of how good each team is, but frankly that would be a lot harder this year anyway. The vibes are about the feelings around each program, taking into account wins and losses, expectations, momentum and how much money you owe this week for your fans storming the field. (Those new fines are really working, huh?)

1. Vanderbilt (6-3, 3-2 SEC)

Won at Auburn, 17-7

Last week: 4

What’s so impressive about this is it’s not just Diego Pavia. The Commodores won this game without a big offensive performance. They won their second SEC road game, and by now, they shouldn’t be sneaking up on anyone, yet are still playing good, competitive football. (Yes, it was against Auburn; don’t worry, we’ll get to the Tigers. But you’ll have to scroll for a while.)

South Carolina fans storm the field after the Gamecocks knocked off 10th-ranked Texas A&M on Saturday night. (Jeff Blake / Imagn Images)

Beat Texas A&M, 44-20

Last week: 7

The Gamecocks would be this year’s SEC feel-good story if not for the Commodores. And good news, they play them this week, so if you need some good vibes, head to Nashville and soak them in Saturday.

Note: And now there’s a huge drop-off:

3. Texas (7-1, 3-1)

Bye

Last week: 6

Yes, the team with a bye moves up three spots, which tells you how everyone else looked. Plus, the Longhorns had to enjoy seeing their rival Aggies go down hard, and now look at a remaining schedule (Florida, at Arkansas, Kentucky, at Texas A&M) that still sets them up very well for a College Football Playoff berth.

Beat Kentucky, 28-18

Last week: 3

You would like to see a lot more from Nico Iamaleava. And you would like to see a lot more than a nearly down-to-the-wire home win over a 3-6 team. But amid all this underwhelming-ness, this team is still in good position to make the Playoff, even if it falls in two weeks at Georgia, because 10-2 could be good enough, and it just has Mississippi State, UTEP and … well, a trip to Vanderbilt. So maybe not.

5. Texas A&M (7-2, 5-1)

Lost at South Carolina, 44-20

Last week: 1

Yeah, an ugly loss, but the Aggies were still playing with house money, at least as far as the vibes. The CFP hopes are on the brink but not a done deal yet.

Won at Arkansas, 63-31

Last week: 9

This is a most confounding team. Its two losses are by only 3 points each, with the wins by a zillion points. (Approximately.) But it has no ranked wins, and one of those losses was at home to Kentucky. But things may just get settled this week: Lose to Georgia, and that’s a wrap. But beat Georgia, and all the Rebels need to do is take care of Florida and Mississippi State, and they’re likely in.

GO DEEPER

Takeaways from Georgia win vs. Florida: Is Bulldogs’ resilience enough? What now for Gators?

7. Georgia (7-1, 5-1)

Beat Florida, 34-20

Last week: 2

The Dawgs have a very flawed team, whose quarterback can’t stop throwing the ball to the wrong team, whose defense looks great one week and vulnerable the next, and which failed to cover the spread against four teams with losing SEC records. And yet, this still might be the best team in the conference. So, who knows?

GO DEEPER

Georgia needs QB Carson Beck to solve his turnover problem

Bye

Last week: 8

Is this week’s game at LSU already the biggest game of Kalen DeBoer’s tenure? Well, if he loses, he may be thinking back to taking this job and invoking another Henley lyric: “A little voice in my head said, ‘Don’t look back, you can never look back.’”

9. LSU (6-2, 3-1)

Bye

Last week: 11

And is this the biggest game of Brian Kelly’s three-year tenure? Well, if he loses, Kelly needs to make sure he holds onto five-star QB recruit Bryce Underwood, “lest happily ever after fails, and we’ve been poisoned by these fairy tales, and lawyers dwell on small details since Daddy had to fly.”

Bye

Last week: 13

The Playoff hopes are probably over, but Mizzou is a big fan of Vanderbilt because that’s the only chance the Tigers have of a win over a ranked team. Even then, this team’s best hope is more carnage among teams at the top of the league, but it would take so, so much carnage.

Lost to Ole Miss, 63-31

Last week: 5

So, look, we don’t want to make every game a referendum on Sam Pittman; in fact, we thought we were passed that. But it’s one thing to lose two straight home games, especially to Playoff contenders; it’s another to lose them by 24 and 32 points. Bowl eligibility should be ensured by still having Louisiana Tech on the schedule, but with Texas coming in this week and the regular-season finale at Missouri, you could have a wheezing-to-the-finish situation in Fayetteville.

12. Florida (4-4, 2-3)

Lost to Georgia, 34-20

Last week: 10

Billy Napier seems to be maturing as a coach before our eyes, keeping his team competitive despite having to turn to a walk-on quarterback. And yet that brings us back to Napier as a program-builder and why he was left in that situation because it’s not like an SEC team has ever won with a walk-on quarterback and … wait I hear myself now too, sorry.

GO DEEPER

Can Florida fairly evaluate Billy Napier with DJ Lagway injured?

13. Mississippi State (2-7, 0-5)

Beat UMass, 45-20

Last week: 14

Mississippi State walking into the SEC vibes meeting on Sunday morning: “Did anybody see us down 10-0 to UMass in the first quarter? No, you were watching the other games? Then good, just look at the final score and resume whatever you were doing, and we’ll quietly see our way out. Thanks.”

Beat Maine, 59-14

Last week: 15

The Sooners walk into the same meeting: “And nobody saw it was 7-7 after the first quarter against Maine? You only saw the halftime score was 35-7? Excellent! What a job by interim offensive coordinator Joe Jon Finley, Jackson Arnold looked settled down, things feel so much better, other than two of our next three opponents are ranked, and we’re still not bowl eligible, but hey look over there!” (Sooners escape through a side door.)

15. Kentucky (3-6, 1-6)

Lost at Tennessee, 28-18

Last week: 16

The Wildcats strut into the meeting: “Close, respectable loss at a tough place to play, with quarterback injuries. Anybody still down on us after that?” Everyone stares back and says nothing. Wildcats look around, say, “OK, yeah, we didn’t buy it either, we’ll just go.”

16. Auburn (3-6, 1-5)

Lost to Vanderbilt, 17-7

Last week: 12

Auburn doesn’t even show up at the meeting. The Tigers are just done at this point. They lost at home to Vanderbilt, and it wasn’t even surprising. Hugh Freeze has one of the best running backs in the conference and gave him the ball only 12 times. As far as this season goes, it feels like Auburn has checked out, but it can never leave. (That would be “Hotel California,” as in California 21, Auburn 14. Yeah, it has been a long year on The Plains.)

(Top photo of Diego Pavia: Michael Chang / Getty Images)