🏈 Bama picked to win West; Auburn to win the conference

[BAMANEWSBOT]

The vote was close and Alabama beat Auburn. Then Auburn beat Alabama.

The SEC preseason media voting took a strange twist this year when the results were released Thursday morning.

Alabama was picked to win the SEC West, but ... In the overall champion voting, Auburn topped the poll with 96 points to Alabama's 80.

The SEC explained how the split vote happened. "The Crimson Tide won the Western Division vote due to receiving just three votes for fourth place or lower in the Western Division, while Auburn received 26 such votes," according to the news release. "Points were awarded on a 7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scale."

A year ago, Alabama became only the fifth team in the 22 years of the poll to be picked to win and deliver in December.

Alabama was picked to win four of the past five championships in July while taking the titles in 2009 and 2012 when Florida and LSU were preseason picks, respectively.

There hasn't been a repeat champion since Tennessee took the 1997 and 1998 titles.

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[BAMANEWSBOT]

The University of Alabama football team was selected to finish first in the Southeastern Conference’s Western Division this season, while ranking second in voting for the SEC champion. The selections were made by those in attendance at the conference’s annual week-long media day.

The Crimson Tide was picked to win the SEC Western Division with 92 first-place votes and 1,405 total points, ranking ahead of Auburn who was predicted to finish second in the division with 1,362 points. Alabama came up second in the voting for SEC Champion, finishing with 80 points and seeded behind Auburn, who amassed 96 points in the voting process. Georgia was predicted third as the conference’s champion, receiving 28 total points.

The media were divided on divisional champion and overall champion for the first time in the 23-year history of the poll. Five times since 1992 the SEC Media Days predicted champion has proceeded to win the SEC Championship, including the Crimson Tide last season.

Alabama opens its 2015 season on Sept. 5 in Arlington, Texas, as the Crimson Tide squares off with Wisconsin in the annual Cowboy Classic inside AT&T Stadium. The matchup is scheduled for a 7 p.m. CT start on ABC

From Rolltide.com—Continue reading...

 

[PhillyGirl]

So .. we will win the SEC West, over Auburn. But Auburn will make it to the SEC Championship and win?

 

[bama alum]

If I'm not mistaken, the media has only predicted it right once, and that was last year. I'd wish they'd called for the barn to win it. Odds are, they'd be wrong.

 

[BAMANEWSBOT]

Sorry, but Alabama and Auburn both can't win a trophy

Voters at SEC Media Days picked the Crimson Tide to win the SEC West but the Tigers to win the overall SEC championship. Say what?

Yes. You're absolutely right. It's kinda nuts that the writers and broadcasters attending SEC Media Days who voted in the league-sponsored poll picked Alabama to win the SEC West title and Auburn to win the overall SEC championship.

(I would explain how the poll shook out that way, but it would make everyone's head hurt, including mine. So moving on.)

Unlike LSU winning the SEC title and Alabama winning the BCS championship for the 2011 season, this kind of everyone-gets-a-ring thing can't happen.

It makes no sense.

It also makes no difference.

Unless you subscribe to the theory that Auburn does its best work when no one expects the Tigers to get the job done. See 2010 and 2013. Then it's the kiss of death for Gus Malzahn and company.

Of course, there's also the true fact that the media who vote in this poll at this event get it wrong far more often than they get it right. The voters have swung and missed at this SEC champion prediction 18 times in the last 23 years.

That's not good news for Auburn, either, but wait. There's more. There's hope in a trend only a wise guy would spot. The voters tend to get it right in pairs. They picked the correct champion in 1994 and 1995, when Florida was in the midst of a four-year run at the top of the league. They also got it right with LSU in 2007 and Florida in 2008.

Since the blind squirrels landed on Alabama last season, that two-year trend would appear to be in Auburn's favor.

Maybe Malzahn's new level of confidence behind a microphone influenced some of the voters this week. Maybe they were impressed that he would bring a first-year starting quarterback to Media Days and that Jeremy Johnson would be so poised in the spotlight.

Maybe Malzahn isn't the only person who spent time at the Hyatt Regency-Wynfrey Hotel this week who thinks Will Muschamp is the best defensive mind in football.

Or maybe some of the voters just wanted an excuse to break out of their default mode and pick someone other than Nick Saban and Alabama.

The talking points are all in good fun right now, but the truth is, no one knows what's going to happen during this season's exciting round robin among Auburn, Alabama and Georgia, the media's pick to win the East.

No one knew that Georgia was going to a funeral the last time Alabama went to Athens or that Tray Matthews would be part of the worst tip drill ever for the Bulldogs the last time they went to the Plains or that Saban would dispatch nothing but fat guys to chase Chris Davis in vain the last time the Iron Bowl lit up Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Despite the shoes of Dan Mullen and Bret Bielema, the crimson pants of Leonard Fournette and the wit and wisdom of Steve Spurrier, SEC Media Days will turn out to be the least interesting thing about the 2015 SEC season.

As for the final poll, even the voters in the media poll understand. Auburn and Alabama both can't win a trophy.

Unless one wins the Iron Bowl and the SEC and the other also makes the playoff - and the Iron Bowl runner-up bounces back to win the national title.

There's a name for that, just in case the unthinkable happens. We'll call it Armageddon




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[TerryP]

If I'm not mistaken, the media has only predicted it right once, and that was last year. I'd wish they'd called for the barn to win it. Odds are, they'd be wrong.

. Five times since 1992 the SEC Media Days predicted champion has proceeded to win the SEC Championship, including the Crimson Tide last season.

 

[TerryP]

So .. we will win the SEC West, over Auburn. But Auburn will make it to the SEC Championship and win?

Alabama was picked to win the SEC West, but ... In the overall champion voting, Auburn topped the poll with 96 points to Alabama's 80.

The SEC explained how the split vote happened. "The Crimson Tide won the Western Division vote due to receiving just three votes for fourth place or lower in the Western Division, while Auburn received 26 such votes," according to the news release. "Points were awarded on a 7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scale."

 

[planomateo]

Too much thinking to explain the vote = stupid does.

 

[BamaFan334]

Ha ha, talk about retarded. The media needs to get second jobs, because they put too much into this simple stuff. Way too much stagnant time for them. In the end, I'll take winning the West. After all, it all starts there in order to continue the journey, with one obvious exception year.