We continue with our series of weekly Conference Conversations with the first of three Q & A sessions discussing SEC football. Today we’ll take a look at some of the teams that could challenge Alabama and Georgia for the SEC Championship.

Joining us this week will be John Pennington, the founder of MrSEC, Lisa Cornwell of SECPRESSPASS, Christian D’Andrea of the Vanderbilt blog Anchor of Gold and The Saturday Edge’s own Alabama expert Chris Richmond.

[box] Question # 1: Las Vegas has installed UGA & South Carolina as the favorite to win the East this year (+150) and Alabama as the overwhelming favorite to win the West (-250). What other team(s) could realistically surprise the oddsmakers and challenge those two teams for the division & conference title? Why?[/box]

John Pennington – MrSEC:  Alabama has the best team and coach in the country.  They have back-to-back BCS titles.  But it’s easier to win the BCS than it is the SEC.  No SEC squad has repeated as league champion since Tennessee way back in 1997 and 1998.  So if you’re looking for surprise teams — outside of Bama, Georgia and South Carolina — don’t ignore LSU.

Les Miles usually manages to get more out of his team than people expect.  This year his D is very young and QB Zach Mettenberger will be working with a new coordinator… so people might overlook the Tigers.  Texas A&M and Florida — both 11-game winners a year ago — could also challenge.

Lisa – SEC Press Pass: I don’t think you can ever count LSU out of the picture– not with that much talent. People can say what they want about Les Miles but he’s a proven winner. And he isn’t afraid to play the young guys so his teams always seem to have experience even without a lot of returning starters. It’ll be interesting to see what new offensive coordinator Cam Cameron can do to ignite this offense. Even though the SEC remains a defense first league, the dominant teams these days are very skilled at putting points on the board in a variety of ways.

Christian D’Andrea – Anchor of Gold: East: Discounting Florida is always a mistake in the East, particularly with Jeff Driskel still developing behind center. Vanderbilt will have a shot to compete in the conference after last year’s 5-3 SEC record, but they’ll have to pull off at least one major upset against Georgia, Florida, or South Carolina to get there. Realistically, the Gators are probably the best underdog bet in the East, even if they aren’t much of a ‘dog to begin with.

West: LSU would be a standard pick, but they’re facing a tough schedule with away games versus TCU (in Arlington), Georgia, and ‘Bama this year. Texas A&M, on the other hand, gets to host Alabama and has a relatively easy road slate, with the exception of a big showdown with the Tigers in Death Valley. It’s not much of a shocker, especially with the reigning Heisman trophy winner at QB, but the Aggies are Alabama’s biggest threat to winning the West this year.

Chris Richmond – The Saturday Edge: As far as the SEC West goes, Texas A&M and LSU could both potentially unseat Alabama for the division title, but I don’t think it’s very likelyl. It’s been a while since I was this confident Alabama would win the West.

The SEC East is a different story. I don’t think Georgia should even be mentioned as a frontrunner in the East right now. The defense loses just about everyone from last year’s squad, and Aaron Murray is still horrible in big games. He’s 4-10 against ranked teams and 1-4 against top ten teams. In the sole victory against a top ten squad, he passed for 150 yards and 3 interceptions. With a huge step back on defense, Murray will be required to win shootouts, and that will lead to costly turnovers. I don’t believe in this team at all, and I don’t think anyone should put money down on them to win the East.

Instead, I think Florida should be viewed as the other major contender with South Carolina. They’ve still got a great defense coming back, Driskel has unlimited upside, and the running game should be solid. Muschamp has the Gators playing sound, mistake-free ball, and that’s how you win games.

Please let us know who you think will win the SEC East, West and overall Conference Championship this year by leaving a comment below.  

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