Preseason SEC Football Media Poll certainties and oddities

The SEC football media have spoken with their final Media Days statement of what teams and players to value in the SEC. The annual results are always interesting. Interesting does not necessarily mean enlightening. Going back to 1992, in 32 tries at picking the next SEC football champion, the SEC media has been correct just nine times.

The Georgia Bulldogs were chosen as an overwhelming favorite to win the SEC Championship Game. No other team was close. Well below the Bulldogs in first-place votes were Texas and Alabama. At the low end of the first-place votes calculation, Vanderbilt got two first-place votes; the same number as LSU.

The predicted order of finish was more tethered to reality.

SEC media also selected three teams of preseason All-SEC players. Unlike the team votes, Georgia did not dominate the player selections. The Alabama Crimson Tide had 16 players selected, followed closely by Georgia with 15, and Texas with 12. LSU was next with nine, followed by Ole Miss, South Carolina, and Kentucky with six each, and Auburn with five. Three players from Texas A&M, Florida, and Oklahoma were selected. Tennessee had two; Missouri and Arkansas, one each. No Mississippi State or Vanderbilt players were chosen.

2024 PRESEASON MEDIA DAYS ALL-SEC TEAM

OFFENSE

First-Team

QB –  Carson Beck, UGA

RB - Trevor Etienne, UGA

RB – Jarquez Hunter, AU  

WR -  Luther Burden III, MIZ 

WR -  Tre Harris, UM 

TE - Caden Prieskorn, UM  

OL - Tyler Booker, UA

OL - Will Campbell, LSU

OL - Kelvin Banks Jr., TEX   

OL - Tate Ratledge, UGA

C - Cooper Mays, UT

Second-Team

QB – Quinn Ewers, TEX

RB -  Raheim Sanders, SC  

*RB - CJ Baxter, TEX 

*RB - Montrell Johnson Jr., UF

WR - Isaiah Bond, TEX

WR - Kyren Lacy, LSU

TE -  Mason Taylor, LSU   

OL - Emery Jones, LSU  

OL - Kadyn Proctor, UA  

OL -  Xavier Truss, UGA 

OL -  Dylan Fairchild, UGA  

C -  Parker Brailsford, UA