After Bama, UGA, there’s nobody else

As if four days of the SEC’s media convocation weren’t enough, the no-success-without-excess league delayed the announcement of the results of its preseason poll until Friday morning, presumably to heighten the suspense. In this case, the mission was not accomplished. The voting only underscored what we already knew: The SEC has gotten itself horribly skewed.

Alabama is picked to win the West, receiving 263 of 283 first-place votes. Georgia is picked to win the East, receiving 271 of 285 first-place votes. Alabama is picked as conference champion, receiving 193 of 284 votes; Georgia was second with 69.

Auburn received 19 first-place votes as West champs; Mississippi State somehow drew two. South Carolina, recipient of eight first-place votes, finished second in the East; Florida took two and finished third. Kentucky and Tennessee earned one first-place vote each, the latter presumably coming from Phillip Fulmer.

Oh, and there’s this: Missouri didn’t draw a first-place vote in the East but did command one mention as conference champion. Not sure how that would work.

The contrarian in me would love to suggest there’s a great case to be made for Auburn or South Carolina or even Missouri, but there’s really not. Auburn should be the SEC’s third-best team, but it has road games against Georgia and Alabama, both of whom have ridiculously soft schedules. LSU, usually considered a Top 25 team until it actually gets around to playing, finished fifth in its divisional voting behind Mississippi State and Texas A&M, both of which have new coaches.

There’s a real chance that, for the first time since Alabama faced Florida in the Georgia Dome in 2009, the

SEC championship could pair the nation’s No. 1 and 2 teams, neither lugging a loss. Bama and Georgia appear a cut above the league’s dirtier dozen, although here we add the annual caveat: We media folks are usually pretty bad at this.

Since 1992, the preseason poll has correctly forecast the conference champ six times. That’s six times in 26 tries. That’s a batting average of .231. That’s not below the Mendoza Line, but it’s just north of there.