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How the national media has predicted the SEC West to play out
By Pat Donohue
Published:
The SEC West is perhaps the most competitive division in college football. That’s why the media has had such a hard time picking the winner during the preseason in years past.
Each year at the SEC Media Day, a poll is taken to see which team the media thinks will win the SEC’s East and West divisions as well as the overall conference. As CBS Sports Tom Fornelli points out, the media members do not have a very good track record of picking the winners. But they got it right last season with Alabama and this year they picked Auburn Tigers to win the SEC West, with the Crimson Tide not far behind.
That was a composite vote of several media sources that cover SEC football and it seems to be in line with how most of the national media is predicting the SEC West to play out this season. But there are those who weren’t afraid to pick an outlier that isn’t located in the state of Alabama.
Here are some of the SEC West predictions from various media outlets:
FOX Sports — Stewart Mandel & Bruce Feldman
Mandel is one that wasn’t afraid to think outside of the box by picking Texas A&M to win the SEC West.
Mandel cites an excellent coaching staff, led by Kevin Sumlin, and the fact that the Aggies get to host Alabama and Auburn this year and primary reasons why Texas A&M could steal the division title this year.
Feldman went with the more traditional approach by picking Alabama to win the SEC West.
Feldman believes that this is one of Nick Saban’s deepest teams and thinks the defense and running game will be on point, as it usually is in Tuscaloosa.
Sports Illustrated — Zac Ellis
Ellis was on board with the consensus pick and chose Auburn to win the SEC West.
However, SI’s Colin Becht, who is featured in the video associated with Ellis’ article, went with Alabama as his 2015 SEC West champion.
Both admit that the division is completely up for grabs and that the standings will most likely remain neck and neck for most of the season.
ESPN — Booger Mcfarland
McFarland is an SEC alum, having played his college ball at LSU. So he’s plenty familiar with the conference and this year he thinks Auburn is the team to beat.
The coaching combination of Will Muschamp and Gus Malzahn is something McFarland thinks will be enough to dethrone Nick Saban, Kirby Smart and the Crimson Tide.
CBS Sports — College Football Staff
CBS Sports did a great job of presenting its college football staffs’ picks for the SEC this season.
Out of seven of their writers, five picked Auburn and two picked Alabama. In somewhat of surprise selections, Jon Solomon picked Texas A&M to finish second to Auburn and Robby Kalland has Ole Miss finishing as the runner up behind Alabama.
SB Nation — Bill Connelly
Connelly took a more analytical and statistical approach to his prediction. But all his numbers led him to really liking Alabama to repeat as SEC champs.
Connelly breaks down the entire conference into tiers and says despite being in college football’s best conference the Crimson Tide are in a class of their own.
Pat Donohue is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers Ole Miss and Mississippi State. Follow him on Twitter @SportsDownPat.
