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Georgia Bulldogs: Pre-Season SEC East Favorites?

By John Buhler

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At the conclusion of the 2015 SEC Media Days in Hoover, Alabama, the media voters deemed the Georgia Bulldogs as the presumed favorite to play for an SEC Championship as the Eastern Division winner this fall.  Mark Richt’s Georgia Bulldogs edge out the Tennessee Volunteers and the Missouri Tigers in the Top 3 in the East.

-= Related: Mark Richt: Criticism, The Nature of the Beast =-

Interestingly enough, the Georgia Bulldogs will play not the top team in the West, the Alabama Crimson Tide, but the second place Auburn Tigers in the 2015 SEC Championship, with Auburn winning the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry rematch in December at the Georgia Dome.  This is the first time since the initial realignment to divisional play in 1992 that a non-predicted division winner will not only make it to SEC Championship but win the Conference.  While Alabama got more first place votes to win the West, Auburn got more votes than Alabama to win the SEC hence the pre-season conundrum.

While it is still in my mind highly unlikely for interdivisional rivals to meet in the SEC Championship (UGA-AU, UofA-UT, UF-LSU, etc.) due to a previous head-to-head matchup already factoring into their annual eight-game conference slate, all things equal this is the matchup I see happening.  Georgia would likely go 6-2 in Conference Play but own the tiebreakers over both Tennessee and Mizzou.  Auburn would have to go 7-1 and win the Iron Bowl to get there.  Both scenarios this year are real possibilities.

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To me, it’s nearly impossible to unravel the Gordian Knot that is the SEC West where the team with the League’s best QB projects out as a seventh place team in the West: the Mississippi State Bulldogs.  While I don’t think State gets back to a New Year’s Six Bowl in 2015, I still think Dak Prescott leads his Bulldogs to a bowl game and a potential Top 25 ranking in the AP Poll, even as the last place team in the West.  It’s not out of the realm of possibility for any team to win the West this season.

The East is a bit more clear cut.  I see only Georgia, Mizzou, or Tennessee heading to Atlanta in early December.  Florida, South Carolina, and Kentucky could all be bowl eligible but likely not ranked in the Top 25.  Vanderbilt is still on the outside looking in at a bowl bid in 2015.

Given that the Georgia Bulldogs get Mizzou at home this year, I like UGA’s odd to not drop two consecutive home games to the Tigers and thus will open the tiebreaker over Rock M Nation.  Winning in Knoxville will be very tough this year.  But I’m not certain that Butch Jones’ team is more than a 5-3 SEC team this fall.  To me, Georgia will have failed this season with a 5-3 conference record.  Only a 6-2 record or better is satisfactory for the Dawgs this fall.

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So yes, even with the uncertainty at the quarterback position, I like the Georgia Bulldogs chances to come out of the SEC East and contend for an SEC Championship this year.  But unlike the media voters, I feel that Missouri will be the Dawgs’ toughest challenger in the East this year, not Tennessee.  Perhaps in 2016 UT eclipses UM in the East hierarchy, but Gary Pinkel’s team knows how to win enough conference games to get to Atlanta.  The Tigers are the two-time reigning SEC East Champions.  Let’s do our part and make sure that it isn’t a three-peat.  Go Dawgs!

Next: Georgia Bulldogs' Seniors Speak at SEC Media Days

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