Mark Harris
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With talking season officially wrapping up with the conclusion of SEC Football Media Days on Thursday, the annual tradition of arguing about the SEC football preseason media poll is now upon us.
While each year there is a surprise or two among the media’s predictions for how things will shape up, Vanderbilt being one of those surprises this time around comes as a shocker.
However, with SEC Media Days taking place in Nashville this year, maybe some media showing love (bias) toward the Commodores shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise. Regardless of the situation, seeing Vandy receive eight first-place votes in the East is jarring.
Florida, Missouri, and Ole Miss were the lone three programs not to receive a single first-place vote to win their respective divisions.
Georgia received 181 votes to be crowned champions of the SEC this year while Bama garnered 62 votes from the press. It’s worth noting that only times since 1992 (31 years) has the predicted champion gone on to win the SEC Championship Game.
SEC PRESEASON MEDIA POLL
Eastern Division
Georgia (265 first-place votes)
Tennessee (14)
South Carolina (3)
Kentucky (1)
Florida
Missouri
Vanderbilt (8)
Western Division
Alabama (165 first-place votes)
LSU (117)
Texas A&M (1)
Ole Miss
Arkansas (3)
Auburn (4)
Mississippi State (1)
When it comes to the media’s preseason all-SEC team, saying that Georgia, Alabama, and LSU dominate both sides of the football is an understatement.
On first-team offense, running backs Quinshon Judkins (Ole Miss) and Raheim Sanders (Arkansas) are the only two players on the list that don’t play for the Bulldogs, Crimson Tide, or Tigers. LSU’s Jayden Daniels was named preseason first-team quarterback.
The media didn’t tap a single player outside of those three programs when it comes to first-team defense.
In total Alabama (3), Georgia (11), and LSU (6) managed to take up 20 of the 22 spots available on the preseason first-team all-SEC teams.
