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SEC Sports
Be careful betting on a team from the SEC not named Alabama, Georgia or LSU to win the league this season.
Three teams inside ESPN's preseason Football Power Index Top 11 are projected to underwhelm this season and each of them are from the nation's most competitive conference.
Coincidence? Unlikely.
Florida at No. 8, Auburn at No. 9 and Texas A&M at No. 11 are all projected to hover around 8-4 seasons, far below expectations for contenders. The Aggies were ahead of schedule last fall, finishing 9-4 with their bowl win to establish noticeable momentum heading into Jimbo Fisher's second year.
According to ESPN, the FPI is a "measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team's performance going forward for the rest of the season. FPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Projected results are based on 10,000 simulations of the rest of the season using FPI, results to date, and the remaining schedule. Ratings and projections update daily."
Based on schedule toughness, each of these programs rank near the top nationally. The Aggies are one of only teams teams who have to play Clemson, Alabama and Georgia — the three teams ranked Nos. 1, 2 and 3 in the coaches poll — and travel to Baton Rouge to battle LSU.
“It’s a great opportunity. Play one at a time," Fisher said last week on ESPN. "You can't play the next opponent until you play the one you're at and get better every week. If you want to be relevant, you have to do things and make people take notice of you.
"We’re in a perfect position with a great young team, only five seniors. We’re very talented in my opinion and there’s opportunity to take advantage of it. To have those kinds of games, it makes people take notice and if you want people to notice you, go win those games."
Florida tackles Auburn and LSU from the SEC West, a tough draw for any team, while the Tigers open vs. Oregon and close at Alabama. Those are just two of the several nationally-ranked matchups on each team's respective schedule.
How's that for Gus Malzahn's group to bookend the regular season?
Auburn will start a first-year quarterback against the Ducks, a signal caller battle between second-year freshman Joey Gatewood and true freshman Bo Nix. Malzahn wants to have his QB1 named sooner, rather than later with the first fall scrimmage upcoming on Thursday inside Jordan-Hare.
"I mean, you hope so," Malzahn said on Sunday. "Every practice — the scrimmages are more important in evaluation than practices. Like I said at first, it's going to be one of those deals where we're putting them through as many situations as we can. When we know for sure the guy that gives us the best chance of going against Oregon, we'll name (them). It's still kind of no timetable, but I'm looking forward to the first scrimmage."
