The best: Florida. The Gators return many of the right players from last year’s league champions, the first 11-victory team in school history. Florida has national title aspirations, but it has to visit nemesis Florida State on Nov. 26, and it probably will have to play in the SEC title game a week later. That’s quite a task, but the Gators also play Southern Mississippi, South Carolina and Vanderbilt (a combined 10-22-1 last season) in the preceding weeks.
The rest: Alabama, one year removed from its last national title, is the pick in the SEC’s Western Division. Auburn, which went 11-0 last year under Terry Bowden, is once again ineligible to play for the league title. Tennessee must overcome the departure of quarterback Heath Shuler. Arkansas broke even last year and has put together a puff-pastry non-league schedule (Northern Illinois, Southern Methodist and Memphis) to all but guarantee a bowl bid in the school’s centennial football season. Georgia head coach Ray Goff has four new assistants on the sidelines to help him turn the Bulldogs around.
Key game: SEC title game at the Georgia Dome, Dec. 3.
Fast fact: After going nearly six decades without winning a legitimate SEC title, Florida has taken two of the last three. The Gators forfeited the 1984 title for cheating and were ineligible when they finished first in 1985 and 1990.
The picks: Eastern Division: 1. Florida; 2. Tennessee; 3. Georgia; 4. Kentucky; 5. South Carolina; 6. Vanderbilt. Western Division: 1. Auburn; 2. Alabama; 3. Mississippi State; 4. Arkansas; 5. Mississippi; 6. Louisiana State. Champion: Florida.
