It’s that time of year when “talkin’ season” transforms into “prediction season” as media members across the country make their predictions during the various conference media days.
No surprise here, the SEC media picked Georgia to win the East and Alabama in the West, with the Crimson Tide taking it all.
Alabama was selected by 193 of the 284 voters this week at SEC media days. Georgia, last year’s SEC champion which lost to Alabama in the national championship game, was second with 69 votes.
After Georgia, the East picks looked like this: South Carolina, Florida, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and, of course, Vanderbilt last.
Auburn was tabbed second in the West, followed by Mississippi State, Texas A&M, LSU, Ole Miss and Arkansas.
Since expansion in 2012, MSU has outperformed expectations more so than any other team in the SEC, but this year I believe the Bulldogs are a tad bit overhyped.
Under former coach Dan Mullen, the Dogs finished better than expected every year since expansion. The biggest boom was made in 2014, when they finished second in the SEC West, held the No. 1 spot in the first-ever CFP Rankings and former quarterback Dak Prescott become a household name despite being picked fifth at media days.
Can new coach Joe Moorhead have the same success? We’ll see. Judging from the bullish preseason buzz building not just around Starkville but the entire SEC, they’ll have their work cut out for them to keep the streak going.
My two biggest concerns for State are quarterback Nick Fitzgerald staying healthy and finding some weapons outside for Fitz who can stretch the field.
Auburn is the only team I see in the West with a chance dethrone Alabama. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but no matter how many players Nick Saban has to replace on defense, the Crimson Tide will and should remain atop all of these rankings until someone else proves worthy.
The hype on Auburn is real, and the pressure to perform for Guz Malzahn will be noticeable. The Tigers have Alabama in their sights, and the fan base may not let them off the hook if they can’t produce a special season.
I believe South Carolina is the only team talented enough paired with a timely SEC schedule to make a run against Georgia. Until those two rivalry games play out, the east’s in week two and the west’s in the season finale, I’m going to go with a rematch of the National Championship game in the SEC Championship.
As far as the teams that always seem to be overvalued in the preseason in recent years, it’s Tennessee, hands down.
The Volunteers rarely lived up to expectations under former coach Butch Jones, which is probably why he’s interning for Alabama coach Nick Saban in 2018. The Volunteers have only exceeded their expectation once since expansion — the 2014 season when they finished fourth in the SEC East. Every other year, they have either met the expectation or fallen short — punctuated by 2017, when they were expected to finish third but wound up in the cellar of the SEC East.
Arkansas and LSU have been pretty bad, too.
Living up to moderate hype has been difficult in Fayetteville. The Hogs have met the expectation three times since expansion. There’s only one place to go for new coach Chad Morris — up.
The Tigers seemingly always disappoint and haven’t produced a better season than their preseason hype since Texas A&M and Missouri were added to the conference prior to the 2012 season. The media pegged LSU correctly in as the third-best team in the SEC West twice (2013, 2017). Every other season since 2012, the Tigers have failed to live up to the preseason division prediction.
Maybe those in the media have been paying attention since LSU is picked fourth and Arkansas last.
