They are the KINGS of sandbagging. Look at the schedules for the 6 "deserving" teams:
Out of 15 possible games where all 6 teams COULD play each other, there have only been 6 games played between these 6 teams. Unbalanced conference schedules suck - especially when combined with only 8 conference games.
4 - Georgia (Alabama, Texas, Tennessee and Ole Miss)
2 - Alabama (Tennessee and Georgia)
2 - Tennessee (Alabama and Georgia)
2 - Texas (Georgia and Texas A&M)
1 - Ole Miss (Georgia)
1 - Texas A&M (Texas)
Then you look at their combined nonconference schedule, ranked in order of Ranked teams, P4 teams, G5 teams and then FCS teams with their Sagarin rankings to the right:
P4 teams - 1 each with Georgia having 2 (For context, there are 16 non-SEC P4 teams besides Clemson rated higher than 32nd)
#6 Notre Dame (Texas A&M)
#17 Clemson (Georgia)
Wisconsin (Alabama) - 32nd
Michigan (Texas) - 36th
Georgia Tech (Georgia) - 45th
NC State (Tennessee) - 71st
Wake Forest (Ole Miss) - 86th
G5 schools - Each team had 2 each (There are 12 G5 teams rated HIGHER than 82nd)
UTSA - 82nd
Colorado State - 83rd
South Florida - 85th
Western Kentucky - 88th
Bowling Green - 91st
Georgia Southern - 94th
UL-Monroe - 127th
UTEP - 159th
Middle Tennessee - 164th
New Mexico State - 174th
UMASS - 181st
Kent State - 218th
FCS schools - Every school had one except Georgia (There are 12 FCS teams rated higher than 129th)
Mercer - 129th
Chattanooga - 143rd
Tennessee Tech - 171st
McNeese State - 177th
Furman - 207th