LSU football picked second in SEC West by media
The ballots are officially in at SEC Media Days in Hoover, and LSU football has been picked by the media to finish second in the SEC West.
Each summer at SEC Media Days, members of the media vote on the order of finish for all 14 member schools.
This year the media voted Alabama as the Southeastern Conference champion. The Tigers were picked to finish second in West, while Tennessee was voted to win the East.
Alabama was picked to win the SEC Western Division with 2,220 total points, while LSU was second with 1,984. Alabama received 246 first-place votes in the West, while LSU collected 76. Ole Miss was third with 1,479 points and five votes to capture the division title.
Tennessee was selected to win the SEC Eastern Division with 2,167 points, including 225 first-place votes. Florida was second with 1,891 points and 57 votes to win the division, while Georgia was third with 1,860 total points and 45 votes to win the division. Points were awarded on a 7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scale.
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While some Tiger fans may be up in arms about LSU’s snub from the SEC title game, keep in mind two things:
1) These are just predictions, made by 331 media members in Hoover that really have no bearing on the outcome of the upcoming football season.
2) The SEC media have only corrected predicted the eventual SEC champion FIVE TIMES SINCE 1992 (Florida (1994), Florida (’95), LSU (’07), Florida (’08), Alabama (’14)).
The media are the opposite of Nostradamus when it comes to picking SEC football champions.
For the record, I had a vote and picked LSU over Georgia in the SEC Championship this December. Here is my entire order of finish:
My 2016 SEC football predicted order of finish. pic.twitter.com/MuYNQTudUV
— Andrew Alexander (@TheOtherAA) July 14, 2016
Here are the complete voting results from Hoover:
Western Division (1st place votes in parenthesis)
Alabama (246) – 2220
LSU (76) – 1984
Ole Miss (5) – 1479
Texas A&M (3) – 1130
Arkansas (1) – 1047
Auburn – 890
Mississippi State – 518
Eastern Division
Tennessee (225) – 2167
Florida (57) – 1891
Georgia (45) – 1860
Kentucky – 933
Vanderbilt (2) – 810
Missouri – 807
South Carolina (2) – 800
A couple of thoughts on my colleagues’ selections:
- Alabama has built up some serious equity over the past couple seasons by making the College Football Playoffs two straight years and winning the 2016 national championship. Quarterback questions? No problem. From the voting, it seems the media believes Nick Saban and his offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin can groom another capable starter to lead the Crimson Tide to more postseason glory.
- Everyone is overhyping Tennessee. Did they watch the Vols last season? Coach Butch Jones discovered new ways to blow football games in 2015 never thought imaginable by the common football fan.
- It was tough for me to pick between Tennessee and Georgia, the two least clutch SEC programs over the last decade. I ultimately chose Georgia because the Bulldogs might have broken their anti-clutch curse with the hiring of first year coach Kirby Smart.
- Who are the jokers giving first place votes to Vanderbilt and South Carolina? These media members had to be drunk while filling out their ballots. South Carolina is picked to finish last in the East, but gets two first-place votes. SMH.
- Alabama and LSU are the clear frontrunners to win the SEC West, but spots 3-5 are going to be intriguing to watch this fall. Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Arkansas all have the chance to make some noise this fall, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of those teams be in the running for the division title late into November. The Rebels and Aggies both have veteran quarterbacks at the helm (albeit an Oklahoma transfer in the case of TAMU), and there’s something about the way Bielema has slowly built his Arkansas program these past three years from a 3-9 record with zero conference wins in 2013 to an 8-5 (5-3 SEC) mark in 2015 that has me believing the Hogs could be for real in year four of the Bielema era.
Until next year Hoover, you never fail to entertain us for four glorious days each July. Now it’s time for some football!