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SEC Media Days: Alabama picked by media to win the SEC… Again

By Matt Green

ATLANTA, GA - DECEMBER 03: The Alabama Crimson Tide celebrate their 54 to 16 win over the Florida Gators in the SEC Championship game at the Georgia Dome on December 3, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - DECEMBER 03: The Alabama Crimson Tide celebrate their 54 to 16 win over the Florida Gators in the SEC Championship game at the Georgia Dome on December 3, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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SEC Media Days have officially come to a conclusion, and the media has made their predictions on who will win the conference.

Surprise, surprise, Alabama was the media’s pick to win the SEC. Since Nick Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa in 2007, this is the sixth time the Crimson Tide have been voted to win the conference at SEC Media Days, and the fourth time in the last five years.

Alabama received 217 of 243 votes to win the SEC. Auburn (11), Georgia (6), LSU (3), and Florida (3) also received votes to win the conference.

The last time anyone not named Alabama was picked to win the SEC at SEC Media Days was Auburn in 2015, and that’s a year Auburn fans wish they didn’t remember. Not only did the Tigers go 7-6, including 2-6 in SEC play, they also lived through the Jeremy Johnson “Heisman hype” that turned out to be a giant dud.

However, 2015 was not the first time the media has incorrectly picked the SEC champion, and it certainly won’t be the last. Since 1992 (25 years), the media has correctly predicted the SEC champion six times.

ATLANTA – DECEMBER 05: Members of the Alabama Crimson Tide celebrate after defeating the Florida Gators 31-13 during the SEC Championship at the Georgia Dome on December 5, 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
ATLANTA – DECEMBER 05: Members of the Alabama Crimson Tide celebrate after defeating the Florida Gators 31-13 during the SEC Championship at the Georgia Dome on December 5, 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

2009 was the last time that the media correctly predicted the two teams that would play in the SEC Championship, but that year 63 of 64 media members voted for the defending national champion Florida Gators to beat Alabama in Atlanta. The Crimson Tide beat Florida 32-13.

Points were tallied by giving a team 7 points for a first-place vote, 6 for second place, all the way to 1 point for a seventh place vote. First-place votes are in parentheses.

SEC West

  1. Alabama – 1,683 (225)
  2. Auburn – 1,329 (13)
  3. LSU – 1,262 (4)
  4. Arkansas – 796 (1)
  5. Texas A&M – 722
  6. Mississippi State – 633
  7. Ole Miss – 379

Alabama got 225 out of 243 votes to win the SEC West. Auburn was a distant second with 13 first-place votes. This is the eighth time in the last nine years that Alabama has been picked by the media to win SEC West.

This is also the fifth time in the last six years that Mississippi State has been picked to finish either sixth or seventh in the SEC West, and last season was the first time that it came to fruition.

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SEC East

  1. Georgia – 1,572 (138)
  2. Florida – 1,526 (96)
  3. Tennessee – 998 (3)
  4. South Carolina – 897 (5)
  5. Kentucky – 869
  6. Vanderbilt – 554 (1)
  7. Missouri – 388

Georgia was the media’s pick to win the SEC East, but not by much. The Bulldogs got 1,572 points, compared to 1,526 for Florida. Georgia got 138 first-place votes compared to 96 first-place votes for the Gators.

This is the fourth time in six years that Georgia has been voted to win the SEC East at SEC Media days. And in those three previous instances that the Bulldogs were pegged to win the East, they made it to Atlanta just once (2012). However, Georgia did win the SEC East in 2011, when the media picked South Carolina.

The college football season is on the horizon, and if SEC Media Days has taught us anything in the past, it’s that things are going to look much different in December than everyone projected in July.

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