Even Georgia winning the national championship last season didn’t keep Alabama from its seemingly annual perch atop the AL.com Preseason SEC football poll.
The Crimson Tide was the pick by 11 of the SEC’s 14 football information directors to win the league championship in 2022, in voting compiled by AL.com/The Birmingham News for the 76th straight year. Alabama — which, we must remember, beat Georgia for the SEC title last year before falling to the Bulldogs in the national championship game — is the preseason favorite in this poll for the 10th consecutive year.
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Georgia is a distant second, having received the other three first-place votes to win the SEC. Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs in the SEC East and Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide in the West are also easy favorites in their respective divisions, each getting six of seven first-place votes (voters could not pick their own team).
Before we dive deeper into the voting, we must first recognize a major change in this year’s SEC Post-Spring Report. And it’s one that comes tinged with a substantial amount of sadness.
For the first time in more than three decades, the great Charles Hollis did not put together this year’s poll. Charles, a cherished friend and mentor to many in this business including this writer, died unexpectedly last November.
The Birmingham News began publishing its annual post-spring SEC football report in 1947, and in the time since only four writers have conducted the voting. The venerable Zipp Newman ran the show from 1947-64, first as sports editor and later as sports editor emeritus.
The also legendary Alf Van Hoose took over the annual polling in 1965 and managed it until 1984. Hollis and his close friend and equally accomplished colleague Kevin Scarbinsky shared or traded off editorial duties from 1985-92, with Charles assuming sole management of the poll in 1993 and staying the course for the next 28 years, even after his retirement as a full-time sports writer.
Which brings us to now.
A lot has changed.
A lot remains the same.
Saban’s Alabama machine is predicted to continue its historic championship run, getting named first on 11 ballots and second on the other two. That gives the Crimson Tide 167 points, ahead of Georgia’s 158 (three first-place votes, nine seconds and one third).
Points were awarded in reverse order of voting (13 for first, 12 for second, 11 for third … on down to one point for a 13th-place vote). Again, because voters were instructed to ignore their own teams, there were only 13 votes per ballot.
Alabama returns the Heisman Trophy winner this year in quarterback Bryce Young, and arguably the country’s most-dominant player in outside linebacker Will Anderson. As usual, the Crimson Tide’s roster is populated with all-star candidates, from Young and guard Emil Ekiyor on the offensive side of the ball to Anderson, fellow linebacker Henry To’oTo’o and safety Jordan Battle on defense.
Also of note, Alabama welcomes five high-profile transfers, all of whom should make an immediate impact. Running back Jahmyr Gibbs (Georgia Tech), wide receivers Jermaine Burton (Georgia) and Tyler Harrell (Louisville), offensive tackle Tyler Steen (Vanderbilt) and cornerback Eli Ricks (LSU) should help make sure the Crimson Tide won’t take a step back any time soon.
Georgia, on the other hand, faces a bit of re-loading job — there’s too much talent in Athens to call it a rebuild — following the departure of a record 15 players to the NFL draft. Still, quarterback Stetson Bennett returns, as does tight end Brock Bowers, offensive tackle Broderick Jones, defensive lineman Jalen Carter and linebacker Nolan Smith, among others.
The Bulldogs have been stacking top-flight recruiting classes since Smart arrived in 2015, so there’s no shortage of emerging standouts. Running back Kenny McIntosh, wide receiver Kearis Jackson, cornerback Kelee Ringo and safety Chris Smith are among those former four- and five-star prospects who will no longer have to share playing time with departed veterans in 2022.
The only teams besides Alabama and Georgia to receive a second-place vote in the overall SEC poll were Texas A&M (two votes) and LSU (one vote). The Aggies (144 points) were picked third, followed by Arkansas (116), Kentucky (111), Tennessee (106) and LSU (94).
Ole Miss begins the “second half” of the overall poll with 85 points, followed by Florida (77), Auburn (61), Mississippi State (55), South Carolina (53), Missouri (34) and Vanderbilt (13). Pity the poor Commodores, who were chosen last on all 13 ballots.
In the SEC East, Georgia was picked to win the division for the sixth straight year. The Bulldogs (36 points) received all six first-place votes for which they were eligible, with Kentucky getting the other.
Kentucky and Tennessee tied for second in the voting with 28 points. The Wildcats got one first-place vote, two seconds and three thirds, while the Volunteers received four seconds and two thirds.
Florida checked in fourth with 22 points, followed by South Carolina (16), Missouri (11) and Vanderbilt (6). Again, the Commodores were named last on every ballot.
In the West, Alabama is the pick for the seventh straight year and 13th time in 14 years. Only Auburn in 2015 has broken the Crimson Tide’s preseason string during the Saban glory days (though, in a quirk of voting, Alabama was the pick to win the SEC championship that year).
Alabama got all six first-place votes for which it was eligible as well in 2022, with LSU somewhat surprisingly getting the other. The Crimson Tide’s 36 points outdistanced the 30 of Texas A&M, which was named second on all six ballots except its own.
Arkansas (22 points) was picked third, ahead of LSU (19), Ole Miss (15), Auburn (13) and Mississippi State (12). The Razorbacks got the other second-place vote.
Here’s how the overall SEC voting looked in table form, followed by the SEC East and SEC West:
SEC PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 11 | 2 | 167 | |||||||||||
| Georgia | 3 | 9 | 1 | 158 | ||||||||||
| Texas A&M | 2 | 10 | 1 | 144 | ||||||||||
| Arkansas | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 116 | |||||||||
| Kentucky | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 111 | ||||||
| Tennessee | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 106 | ||||||||
| LSU | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 94 | |||||||
| Ole Miss | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 85 | |||||
| Florida | 2 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 77 | ||||||||
| Auburn | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 61 | ||||||
| Mississippi State | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 55 | |||||||
| South Carolina | 2 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 53 | ||||||||
| Missouri | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 34 | ||||||||
| Vanderbilt | 13 | 13 |
SEC EAST
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia | 6 | 36 | |||||
| Kentucky | 1 | 2 | 3 | 28 | |||
| Tennessee | 4 | 2 | 28 | ||||
| Florida | 1 | 2 | 3 | 22 | |||
| South Carolina | 4 | 2 | 16 | ||||
| Missouri | 5 | 1 | 11 | ||||
| Vanderbilt | 6 | 6 |
SEC WEST
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 6 | 36 | |||||
| Texas A&M | 6 | 30 | |||||
| Arkansas | 1 | 2 | 3 | 22 | |||
| LSU | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 19 | |
| Ole Miss | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 15 | ||
| Auburn | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 13 | ||
| Mississippi State | 1 | 3 | 2 | 12 |
COMING MONDAY: SEC’s 14 football information directors pick their preseason All-SEC team
COMING TUESDAY: How the SEC’s football information directors size up the league’s best players
Creg Stephenson is a sports writer for AL.com. He has covered college football for a variety of publications since 1994. Contact him at cstephenson@al.com or follow him on Twitter at @CregStephenson.
