SEC media picks Gators fifth in East, Alabama to win West, Auburn to claim conference title
Thursday, July 16, 2015 | Women's Basketball, Football, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – First, the bad news for the Gators: they are picked to finish fifth in the SEC East in media voting at the SEC Football Media Days on Thursday.
Next, the good news for the Gators: the SEC media rarely get it right when it comes to predicting the conference champion.
Since 1992 when the SEC split into divisions and the two division winners began playing in a championship game, the media have predicted the champion correctly only five times in 23 tries.
They got it right in 1994 (Florida), 1995 (Florida), 2007 (LSU), 2008 (Florida) and 2014 (Alabama).
Auburn hopes they get it right in 2015. The Tigers are predicted to win the conference title but not the SEC West (yes, confusing I know). Alabama is projected to win the West.
Meanwhile, Georgia is the media's pick to win the SEC East.
In fairness, the media did pick Florida to finish third a season ago in the East and at 4-4, that's where the Gators ended up. The Gators had never been picked to finish lower than third in the East prior to this season.
They hope to prove the media's projection wrong in 2015 under first-year head coach Jim McElwain.
The preseason All-SEC Team will be announced on Friday.
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SEC Champion
|
SCHOOL |
POINTS |
|
Auburn |
96 |
|
Alabama |
80 |
|
Georgia |
28 |
|
LSU |
9 |
|
Arkansas |
3 |
|
Ole Miss |
3 |
|
Tennessee |
2 |
|
Texas A&M |
2 |
|
Florida |
1 |
|
Mississippi State |
1 |
Eastern Division (1st Place votes in parenthesis)
|
PLACE |
SCHOOL |
POINTS |
|
1. |
Georgia (166) |
1498 |
|
2. |
Tennessee (36) |
1231 |
|
3. |
Missouri (20) |
1196 |
|
4. |
South Carolina (1) |
830 |
|
5. |
Florida (1) |
768 |
|
6. |
Kentucky (1) |
534 |
|
7. |
Vanderbilt |
243 |
Western Division (1st Place votes in parenthesis)
|
PLACE |
SCHOOL |
POINTS |
|
1. |
Alabama (92) |
1405 |
|
2. |
Auburn (108) |
1362 |
|
3. |
LSU (10) |
870 |
|
4. |
Arkansas (6) |
821 |
|
5. |
Ole Miss (3) |
732 |
|
6. |
Texas A&M (4) |
628 |
|
7. |
Mississippi State (2) |
482 |
