Three overrated and three underrated teams from preseason media SEC poll

The media has released their preseason poll for the SEC, and there are a few teams that needed to be shifted around.
SEC logo seen during SEC Media Days at the Hyatt Regency  in Hoover, Ala., Monday, July 19, 2021. [Staff Photo/Gary Cosby Jr.]

Sec Media Days
SEC logo seen during SEC Media Days at the Hyatt Regency in Hoover, Ala., Monday, July 19, 2021. [Staff Photo/Gary Cosby Jr.] Sec Media Days / Gary Cosby Jr. via Imagn Content
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Which SEC teams are overrated and underrated in preseason media poll?

After the conclusion of SEC Media Days, the gathered members of the press put in for a poll ranking their predicted order of finish for the conference. Though some treat it with little regard—voting Vanderbilt for a first-place finish, for example, as two members did this year—the sample size is large enough to represent something of a consensus.

It should be no surprise, then, that the poll that was released, by and large, reflected what we might consider to be the common wisdom surrounding the conference for the upcoming year.

However, common wisdom can sometimes be mistaken (crazy, I know). There are a few teams that need to move up, and a few teams that need to move down here. After hours of intense rumination and reflection, here are my recommendations for who is overrated and underrated—recommendations which will no doubt be proven wrong nearly immediately upon commencement of the college football season.

Overrated SEC teams in preseason poll: Ole Miss

Don't get me wrong: I think this will be a banner year for the Rebels. I think they will finish high up in the conference, possibly with six wins or so in the SEC. That would definitely be good for a top-four finish in the standings, and possibly even a CFP berth.

The issue, though, is that their schedule is so pillow-soft that they will hardly be tested at all. Because of this, I think it's very possible (if not probable) that they will be an okay team, one that skirts by in many games, but will have an artificially inflated win total.

Their non-conference consists of Furman, Middle Tennessee, Wake Forest, and Georgia Southern; their conference schedule has two real tests in LSU and Georgia. There are plenty of trap game spots, like a visit to Columbia, SC, directly before their venture to Baton Rouge, but this could be the easiest path to 11 wins in the whole conference.

Well, almost the easiest.