Alabama Football: SEC media sold on ‘rebuilding’ Crimson Tide

Alabama Football by any reasonable definition is rebuilding. The Alabama Crimson Tide will have just three frequent 2020 starters on offense for 2021. For every other team in college football, eight new starters on offense would signal a major problem. Not so for Nick Saban’s Alabama Football team, based on the opinions of the SEC media.

Every year, at the end of SEC Media Days, media predictions are published on the prospects of teams and players. Historically, the media does a credible job predicting the league’s best players. The accuracy of its team picks has been less reliable. Some would say that below the top team in each division, the media team predictions have been stunningly poor.

Alabama Crimson Tide fans are not overly concerned if that pattern of media inaccuracy continues in 2021. Despite the Crimson Tide’s rebuild, the SEC Media resoundingly picked Nick Saban’s team as No. 1 in the SEC West and No. 1 overall. Matt Smith did the calculations and 97 percent of the SEC West first-place votes went to the Crimson Tide. Georgia got 93 percent of the SEC East votes.

What drove such an optimistic outlook for the Tide was more than respect for Nick Saban. SEC media love a bunch of Alabama football players. Three All-SEC teams are chosen. The Crimson Tide had 16 players on the three teams. The next closest schools were Georgia and Auburn with 10 each.

Including tie votes, the SEC media All-SEC, first-teams include 23 players. The Crimson Tide had eight players; two on offense and six on defense. Texas A&M was next with four players. Auburn and Florida had two each. Seven teams: Georgia; LSU; Kentucky; Ole Miss; Tennessee; Arkansas and South Carolina had one first-team player each. Missouri, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State had no first-team players.

Alabama Football Players Selected

First Team All-SEC

• John Metchie
• Evan Neal
• Phil Mathis
• Henry To’o To’o
• Christian Harris
• Will Anderson Jr.
• Josh Jobe
• Malachi Moore

Second Team All-SEC

• Jahleel Billingsley
• Emil Ekiyor Jr.
• LaBryan Ray
• Jordan Battle
• Will Reichard

Third-Team All-SEC

• Brian Robinson Jr.
• D.J. Dale
• Chris Allen

Media SEC Division Predictions

SEC East

1. Georgia Bulldogs (124 first-place votes)
2. Florida Gators (7 first-place votes)
3. Kentucky Wildcats (2 first-place votes)
4. Missouri Tigers
5. Tennessee Vols
6. South Carolina (1 first-place vote)
7. Vanderbilt

SEC West

1. Alabama Crimson Tide (130 first-place votes)
2. Texas A&M (1 first-place vote)
3. LSU (1 first-place vote)
4. Ole Miss (1 first-place vote)
5. Auburn Tigers
6. Arkansas Razorbacks (1 first-place vote)
7. Mississippi State Bulldogs

The balloting process shields the foolish from scrutiny. A few voters need the cover to not damage their professional reputations. A full list of team voting and selected players is available here.

Do the media choices assure the Crimson Tide will run wild over the SEC West and Florida and Tennessee? Don’t ask Nick Saban about media predictions