EXPECTATIONS
Several months after Alabama rallied past Georgia in last season’s national title game, the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs are the overwhelming picks to win their respective SEC divisions this season. How overwhelming? Georgia received 271 Eastern Division first-place ballots at Media Days last month, with South Carolina next with eight. Though Alabama won last season’s national championship, it was Auburn that won the Iron Bowl and SEC West title and is being viewed as the top threat to spoil the Alabama-Georgia pairing. Every league team harbors bowl hopes except Ole Miss, which is ineligible, with Arkansas and Vanderbilt viewed as having the toughest climbs.
CONCERNS
LSU has experienced just two seasons since 2000 in which the Tigers didn’t have a winning league record, the fewest of any SEC member, but the floor for Ed Orgeron’s second full year at the helm is much lower than normal. The Tigers no longer have a proven rusher after losing Leonard Fournette and Derrius Guice the past two years, and they are banking on Ohio State graduate transfer quarterback Joe Burrow to navigate a schedule that begins with Miami and contains Georgia and Florida as Eastern Division crossover foes. In a conference containing plenty of quality quarterbacks, LSU, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee could be playing catch-up in that area.
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