Scooter Hobbs column: No easy pickings for SEC preseason poll

American Press

3 days ago

Before tossing this summer's SEC preseason football media poll into its rightful home — which would be next to some used coffee grinds at the bottom of a trash can — should we dare take one last glance at the latest?
I suppose such foolishness would come under the heading of 'For entertainment purposes only.'
After all, the poll, which is released as the grand finalé of SEC Media Days each year, is traditionally best known for being comically wrong far more than it ever stumbles onto anything right.
Add to that the fact that every year there's one anonymous vote predicting Vanderbilt to win the whole shooting match and you can understand the fanfare it generates.
Yes, there are people who actually get upset about the annual Unknown Lone Vandy Voter, as if wasting one (1) vote is making a mockery of such a solemn event as a worthless, useless poll that will be forgotten while experts are still over-dissecting it before opening weekend.
Anyway, it's almost become a badge of honor among the conference leadership, the big-wigs who seem to relish its release each year, an event that comes with the delightful disclaimer about just how misguided the media hacks are historically prone to be.
If you, or someone you know, has a prediction addiction, please keep them away from the SEC Media preseason poll and seek professional assistance and counseling. The SEC office does not endorse, nor can it be held responsible for, the results of this or any future predictions.
Or something like that.
It was just last year when the official release was quick to update and point out that only nine times in the previous 32 years had the bumbling, stumbling media correctly picked the eventual conference champion.
Of course, this year the conference office wasn't quite so condescending.
Don't be so quick to gloat. The media — drum roll, please — actually got it right last year in picking Georgia to win. So it's up to 10 out of 33 now and … who's laughing now?
We're on a roll.
And that was in the first year with two extra teams, 16 I guess it's up to now, with no divisions.
It's harder to pick a conference champion when you can't even remember who's in the conference this week.
But last year not only did your media whiz kids get Georgia right, the preseason poll also had newcomer Texas in the top two as the team Georgia did, in fact, beat for the title.
Once again, you may have noticed, Vanderbilt did NOT win the conference, but the Commodores DID beat Alabama, which might have been just as much fun. Nobody saw it coming, that's for sure.
So maybe the media is on to something. Vanderbilt, for instance, this year got two votes to win it all. The converts are pouring in.
Maybe it's a trend, maybe not.
But with new-found respect for the long-maligned media poll, maybe we can take a last, serious look at the latest offering from the June confab.
(Insert weather-worn disclaimers here.)
But, OK, Texas is predicted to win the SEC. Makes sense. Arch Manning is the Longhorns quarterback.
Georgia is picked to finish second and would probably be picked first if not for the Burnt Arch factor. But Georgia is now what Alabama once was and the logical next choice.
Alabama is picked third because it's Alabama and if the Tide finish worse than that, Nick Saban really might come back.
Then it seems, the media took the easy way out, poking around to see which teams were set at quarterback.
That may be why LSU is next at No. 4 with Garrett Nussmeier, the preseason second team all-conference quarterback. It's also logical that South Carolina, with first-team preseason All-SEC quarterback LaNorris Sellers, is No. 5 and Florida, with rising star DJ Lagway, is No. 6.
No. 7 Ole Miss has concerns at the position, but the media assumption may be that head coach Lane Kiffin will always find a nuisance to play the position.
Texas A&M found Marcel Reed against LSU last year and if he ever figures out how to throw, the No. 8 ranking may be too low.
Maybe by now you're figuring out how tough this prediction business is in the current atmosphere.
That's eight teams and we're only halfway through.
If that holds — and it won't — it would delegate some pretty big brand names to the bottom half.
Teams like Tennessee, Auburn, Oklahoma. You figure one of those three is going to jump up among the challengers.
Don't forget Missouri, either. Those Tigers were in the jumbled six-way tie for fourth place last year.
Then the bottom three look pretty well settled in down there — Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi State.
But who knows about No. 12? Maybe the uplifting Vanderbilt resurgence continues under Diego Pavia who may not have the best arm, but surely has the best name among SEC quarterbacks. This seems like a Hallmark movie waiting to happen.
If so, you read it here first.
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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU for the American Press. You can contact him at [e-mail]