SEC Media Selects Gators Over Tide

Every media representative registering at Southeastern Conference Kickoff--better known as Media Days--at the Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover this week was given a ballot to select a pre-season All-SEC team and to select the order of finish in each division and an SEC champion. Reports have it that upwards of 900 registered. Total votes? 64.

I'll confess that I was one of those who failed to vote. That's partly because the vote comes before all coaches are heard. Coaches of four schools are on the schedule for Friday. Most votes were in before Alabama's Nick Saban and Florida's Urban Meyer had addressed the media Thursday.

But, of course, the votes aren't made based on what the coaches tell us. The coaches tell us almost nothing.

So based on all the other information available, the voters selected Florida to beat Alabama in the SEC Championship Game on December 5 in the GeorgiaDome in Atlanta.

Last year the Gators defeated Bama, 31-20, then went on to defeat Oklahoma for the national championship. Florida returns almost its entire team, including 2007 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow at quarterback.

The Gators wee on 63 of 64 ballots to win the SEC Championship Game and became the first team ever to receive every vote to win its division since the league started divisional play in 1992.

Alabama was not the recipient of the one vote that got away from Florida for the title. Ole Miss, which was voted third in the SEC Western Division, was named by one voter to win it all.

Alabama had 33 first place votes in the Western Division, while Ole Miss had 16 and LSU had 15.

The predicted order of finish in the West was:

1. Alabama, 2. LSU, 3. Ole Miss, 4. Arkansas, 5. Auburn, 6. Mississippi State.

In the East, the predicted order of finish was:

1. Florida, 2. Georgia, 3. South Carolina, 4. Tennessee, 5. Vanderbilt, 6. Kentucky.