2010 Southeastern Conference Preview

> Check out the entire 2010 College Football Preview

The history books will look back up on the 2000s and declare that the SEC was the Conference of the Decade. During that timeframe, the league won five BCS Championships, including the last four seasons in a row! However, the new decade brings a newfound excitement to the SEC as this is going to be one of the most wide open seasons that the league has seen in a long time.

The SEC West might be the best division in all of college football this year. Both teams in the state of Mississippi could end up bowl eligible for the first time since 2000 as there is a lot of talent and good coaching at both schools. Unfortunately, heavyweight LSU can only boast about their talent after two consecutive disappointing years and the combination of a tough schedule and offensive woes will drop them to a 4th place finish.

That leaves defending champion Alabama, rival Auburn and high-powered Arkansas as the primary challengers for the division crown. Bama won’t be bulletproof like they were for last two seasons as the Tide has to replace their entire defense, meaing that the window is open for the other two schools to sneak in and steal the division. While Auburn doesn’t quite have the defense to do it, Arkansas hosts Bama early in the season and will have a major advantage with their passing game against a very young Tide secondary. With a favorable schedule and a head to head victory over Alabama, Arkansas is the pick to emerge from the West with a 6-2 record.

Meanwhile, the East really only has three legitimate contenders. Vanderbilt is going to be have a long season after an unexpected July coaching change while Tennessee has to completely rebuild the program thanks to Lane Kiffin’s scorched earth exit and heavy graduation losses on offense. While Kentucky is going to be a bowl candidate this season, they’re simply not on the same talent level as the top three teams. Finally, these three teams all have new coaches this fall, so they could take some time to get the ball rolling.

That leaves heavyweights Florida and Georgia to compete with darkhorse South Carolina for the East crown. While the Gamecocks always seem to underachieve, their defense is going to be excellent and the offense is certainly talented enough to make a run. Unfortunately, they draw the top three teams out of the West and the schedule will prove to be too much to handle, leaving the division to come down to the usual suspects.

And the Florida-Georgia dichotomy will be fascinating to watch. After losing more talent to the National Football League than any other team in the country, Florida has a huge number of holes to fill. While there’s no doubting their talent level, the Gators have a long way to go to catch up with the experience of elite departures like Tim Tebow, Joe Haden and Brandon Spikes. On top of that, Florida has dealt with multiple staff changes this offseason and the net result has been a big decrease in their coaching advantage in this rivalry because Georgia finally cut subpar DC Willie Martinez loose and replaced him with the widely respected Todd Grantham. With a very veteran offense, Georgia should be on even footing with the Gators this season and I’m picking the Bulldogs to beat Florida to take the SEC East tiebreaker when both teams finish with a 6-2 record.

That means that Arkansas and Georgia will meet in Atlanta for the conference championship in a rematch from early September. I picked Arkansas to beat Georgia the first time around due to the favorable matchup of stud QB Ryan Mallett’s aerial attack against UGA’s rebuilding secondary. However, with a full season of experience under their belts, the Dawg defensive backs are going to be much better prepared to deal with the high-flying Razorbacks and I fully expect a close contest. That said, Arkansas still has too great of an edge at quarterback and that’s why I am picking them to win. While their 11-2 record won’t be enough to continue the SEC’s streak of appearing in the BCS Championship Game, the Arkansas Razorbacks are my choice to win the 2010 SEC Championship.

Read each school’s in-depth preview by clicking below!

SEC West Division

• Arkansas (6-2)
• Alabama (6-2)
• Auburn (5-3)
• Louisiana State (4-4)
• Mississippi (4-4)
• Mississippi State (3-5)

SEC East Division

• Georgia (6-2)
• Florida (6-2)
• South Carolina (5-3)
• Kentucky (2-6)
• Tennessee (1-7)
• Vanderbilt (0-8)

Matt Baxendell is collegesports-fans.com’s college football guru. He has an opinion on every team, even lowly Western Kentucky, so feel free to email him at matt.baxendell@gmail.com if you want to talk football, comment on an article, get added to his mailing list or just feel like telling him how foolish he for thinking that WKU is in for another terrible season.