So much winning: How UGA, Tide, Tigers will fare

Drive any direction out of downtown Atlanta and soon you’ll find a college football program with championship aspirations in 2018. Nothing new, I know, but never have Alabama, Georgia, Clemson and Auburn collectively been regarded so highly this time of year.

Alabama, Clemson and Georgia are ranked one-two-three in the preseason AP poll and Auburn is No. 9. This is the first time all four teams are ranked in the top 10 of the preseason poll, which began in 1950. Only twice were at least three of those teams ranked in the preseason top 10: 2015 (Clemson was No. 15) and 1984 (Georgia was unranked).

Polls are nice, but I prefer using betting markets to gauge public expectations. In that spirit, I looked at the regular-season season win totals (over/under) for Alabama, Georgia, Clemson and Auburn and predicted how they’ll finish.

That reminds me: don’t forget to enter the AJC’s college football pick ’em contest.

(Win totals via MGM Race & Sports Book as of Friday)

No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide

Win total: 11 Prediction: Push

The Crimson Tide have gone undefeated during the regular season only twice in Nick Saban’s 11 seasons. Saban is breaking in two more coordinators again, and the secondary is green and thin. He may have to manage a rare