LSU is pick to repeat 2011 Southeastern Conference championship

LSU coach Les Miles speaks to reporters at the Southeastern Conference NCAA college football media day, Wednesday, July 18, 2012, in Hoover, Ala.

Photo by Associated Press.

HOOVER, Ala. — LSU is the media pick to repeat its 2011 Southeastern Conference championship.

The Tigers have been pegged this morning to win the West Division and to defeat projected East champion Georgia in December’s league championship in Atlanta. The Tigers walloped the Bulldogs 42-10 in last season’s title matchup at the Georgia Dome.

Alabama has been picked second in the West, followed by Arkansas, Auburn, Texas A&M, Mississippi State and Ole Miss. South Carolina has been selected second in the East, followed by Florida, Missouri, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Kentucky.

Tennessee’s fifth-place media projection is its lowest since the league split into two divisions in 1992.

The media has a woeful track record in picking the champion, getting it right just four times in two decades. Those teams living up to their billing were the 1994-95 Florida Gators, LSU in 2007 and Florida in ’08.

Alabama was picked to win the league last year. The Crimson Tide finished second in the West but beat LSU in the BCS national championship game.

Receiver Da’Rick Rogers has been chosen as Tennessee’s lone first-team selection, while linebacker Jarvis Jones and safety Bacarri Rambo are Georgia’s first-team picks. Alabama has five first-team selections — offensive linemen Barrett Jones, D.J. Fluker and Chance Warmack, linebacker Nico Johnson and safety Robert Lester.