Sports Illustrated SEC Publishers predict the league's order of finish

Alabama is the favorite, but how does the rest of the conference shake out?

Sports Illustrated’s SEC Publishers were in complete agreement about three things when voting on how the league’s 2020 football season will finish, but not about which team will eventually be crowned champion.

Alabama was the unanimous pick to win the West, while Arkansas and Vanderbilt were pegged for last in their respective divisions on every ballot cast in the preseason poll.

The Crimson Tide received the most votes to win the overall league title, with Florida a distant second and Georgia third.

Meanwhile, Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach's bunch isn't highly thought of in his first year with the Bulldogs. The poll projects MSU to finish sixth in the West.

Here is the projected order of finish, by division:

East Division

1. Georgia
2. Florida
3. Tennessee
4. Kentucky
5. South Carolina
6. Missouri
7. Vanderbilt

West Division

1. Alabama
2. LSU
3. Auburn
4. Texas A&M
5. Ole Miss
6. Mississippi State
7. Arkansas

The closest votes were for third in the East, between Kentucky and Tennessee, and for fifth in the West with Ole Miss and Mississippi State.

Ordinarily, all league media members would be given the opportunity to put forth a projected order of finish as part of SEC Media Days. The event was scheduled to kick off in Atlanta on Monday, but has been postponed until a course of action for the season during the coronavirus pandemic can be determined. Instead of starting Media Days, the league held a meeting of athletic directors in Birmingham on Monday. Following the gathering, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey issued these comments updating the status of the league.

"It is clear that current circumstances related to COVID-19 must improve and we will continue to closely monitor developments around the virus on a daily basis," Sankey said in a statement. "In the coming weeks we will continue to meet regularly with campus leaders via videoconferences and gather relevant information while guided by medical advisors. We believe that late July will provide the best clarity for making the important decisions ahead of us."