The SEC’s sports information directors – otherwise known as the folks who cast 80% of the ballots in the Coaches Poll in its heyday – do an annual preseason vote for the Birmingham News of the conference teams. Call it an early look at the conventional wisdom. You can find their projections for the two divisions here and here.
If you’re too lazy to run through the slideshows, here’s how the final tally looks (SIDs don’t cast votes for their own schools):
SEC WEST
- Alabama
- LSU
- Ole Miss
- Auburn (T-4)
- Arkansas (T-4)
- Texas A&M
- Mississippi State
SEC EAST
- Tennessee
- Georgia
- Florida
- Missouri
- South Carolina
- Kentucky
- Vanderbilt
I can’t say there are any enormous shockers there. The lower half of the East looks to be pretty bad, regardless of how the order of the bottom three eventually winds up. I will say my gut tells me one of the schools out West will wind up being a surprise (not that I expect Alabama to fail to make it to Atlanta) and perform above expectations; I’m simply not sure which one it will turn out to be.
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UPDATE: You can see the SEC ranked 1-14 here.
Get The Picture 
I’m so excited to see Bootch and Co., fall flat on their face this year with all the lofty expectations placed on them. Should be a fun train wreck to watch.
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I just want UGA to win the East and hopefully win the SECCG. Well that and Auburn to go winless. Is that too much to ask?
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Yes.
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While I don’t think AU goes winless, I think 4th is too high. They’ve not exactly performed well against the three teams below them in the past few years and I don’t see a reason for that to change.
Those reasons might become obvious once football starts, but based on what we know, there’s no obvious reason now.
I think UGA should be ranked first in the East and UF second. Regardless what one thinks of UT’s returning starters. UGA primarily based on Smart as a DC (not HC) and Chubb. It’s likely you’re going to see more Dooley than Kiffin out of the UGA offense this year. And, when you’ve got a player like Chubb, that’s a wise plan.
UF should do well. I think their coach is a good one. Obviously depends on the players, which is rarely a problem there.
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” It’s likely you’re going to see more Dooley than Kiffin out of the UGA offense this year”
This place will freak if that’s true. I’m guessing with that type of ‘un-inspired’ offense, with our schedule if our losses are to UT, OleMiss and UF, we could win 10 (with bowl) and not be ranked …again. The UGA fandom must give Kirby and staff time to develop a QB and a OL…then all will be good. The rest is in place…or perceived as so.
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No one has any great expectations for Au so they’ll probably have an amazing season filled with crazy last second victories. I hate them so much. Hate, hate , hate.
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What’s interesting is to match up the East vs. the West. Look at 1 vs. 1, 2 vs. 2, and so on down the line. It looks to be a total wipeout. CKS truly has an opportunity to seize the East by the throat over the next few years.
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Georgia has had that opportunity since Tebow left UF. I’m hoping Kirby can take advantage of the weakness of the East. It is still hard to believe we couldn’t manage a trip to Atlanta the past three years.
I agree fully about the East vs. West comparison. In fact, I think you can go down the line the whole way and the West would win every head to head matchup at this point.
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UGA did win the East twice in those years after Tebow, right? Or do you just automatically cast aside any positive memories associated with the program?
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I meant wining the conference since Tebow left. Not winning the East from 13-15 is a head shaker.
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Not winning the East in ’13 – the entire offense tore up knees on one fall Saturday on that Knoxville cow pasture.
I’ll give you ’14 and ’15 … Especially ’14.
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Just out of curiosity….where is this “wipeout” you see? Bama beat UT on a last minute TD and defensive stop last year (with the Heisman winner and a team full of 1st/2nd round defenders, not that much will change this year); LSU is the West’s version of UGA so not sure who’d actually take that one, UF curb stomped Ole Miss last year, and 4-7 are basically toss ups all the way around.
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Well, I don’t see any head to head matchups where the East team would be picked over the West team. Maybe you do. And, if you want to bring up the past, I would encourage you to look at head to head records, East vs. West, over the past several years, regular season and ATL. “Wipeout” just implies domination to me, and the West has thoroughly dominated the East for some time.
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Well our record a the barn has been pretty impressive except for the block head play by two now departed DBS.
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How is LSU the West’s version of UGA? They have won 4 SEC titles in the past 15 seasons and played for 3 national titles in the past 13 seasons, winning 2 of them. We won a Sugar Bowl at the end of the 2007 season and nothing but a bunch of garbage bowl games since then. Oh yeah, we “almost” beat Bama in the SEC title game a few years ago. We have been closer to Miss State than LSU over the past decade.
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I completely agree. To compare LSU to UGA is to ignore recent history. And the fact that they play in the West, facing Bama every year, makes the disparity even worse. Can anyone doubt that Miles and LSU would have owned the East, had they the luxury to play there, for years now?
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Oh brother, I forgot this was an anti-UGA site!
LSU is the West’s version of UGA because they have a good RB, decent D, and nothing else to scare you….remember we’re discussing which team would win on the football field this year, not which program you have a boner for. And I find it funny, ’85 doesn’t want to bring up the past but thinks Greg’s comparison (covering 15 years) is just fine. I wonder if it’s the conclusion he disagrees with more rather than my using the very distant past of last season as a barometer?
UGA vs the West head-to-head over the past several years……..1-1 in ’15, 2-0 in ’14, 1-1 in ’13 (beat LSU), 2-1 in ’12 (losing that close game to NC Bama that is somehow being used against me although I never mentioned it), 2-1 in’11 (losing to LSU in the SECCG). So, UGA is 8-4 “over the past several years” against the West……….something tells me those numbers aren’t what you were hoping for 🙂
Greg, why count up LSU’s SEC titles over the past 15 years and then dismiss UGA as having only ever won a Sugar Bowl (we have 2 SEC titles in that period also in case you forgot)? You people crack me up! Enjoy wallowing in your misery for the rest of the day!
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I never said that UGA has not done well against Auburn and the West. I never hope that UGA will do poorly. I just mentioned the obvious (to me) disparity between East and West. I happen to think the West has dominated the East for some time. My initial point was that CKS is walking into a good situation, schedule wise, because the East is down. And also, I may add, because we played Bama last year. So, far from being “anti-UGA”, my first post was optimistic and hopeful. CKS, I think, has stepped into a division that is imminently winnable for us.
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The point is that we have won NOTHING of substance in a decade, which is why Richt is gone. Keep holding on to those 2002 and 2005 titles if it makes you feel good. Richt turned into Jim Donnan after 2005. Even in 2005, we lost 3 games (UF, AU, WVU) late in the year. We are not comparable to LSU in any way. Are you really going to try to say UGA would have done well in the West based on a 2 game sample every year….when we couldn’t even win the pathetic East the past 3 years? At one point last year, I saw a stat that indicated that we had a record of 5 wins and 17 losses in our last 22 SEC games against teams that finished with records above .500 in the SEC. The last 3 East winners have been two very average Mizzou teams and a UF team with a first year head coach. Hopefully, Kirby will turn UGA into the program that you mistakenly think we already are.
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I just like for the season to start today, LOL.
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