Eleven different teams got votes to win the SEC championship. Georgia was second with 44 votes, followed by Alabama (29), then LSU (20), South Carolina (5), Oklahoma (3), Vanderbilt (2), Florida (2), Tennessee (1), Ole Miss (1) and Auburn (1).

To achieve that goal, according to the media poll, Texas would have to down Georgia, which received the second-most first-place votes (44) in the SEC Championship Game. The Longhorns and the Bulldogs faced off in Mercedes-Benz Stadium last season. Georgia triumphed and claimed its third SEC title in the last four years.

Josh Heupel’s Vols are picked to finish 9th out the 16 teams this season with UT opponents Georgia, Alabama and Florida selected to finish ahead of the Big Orange. Tennessee had three players named to the 2025 Preseason All-SEC teams by the media, which were announced on Friday following the conclusion of SEC Media Days in Atlanta.

SEC Media Days predictions were released on Friday. LSU was picked to finished fourth in the SEC. Seven LSU players earned a total of eight All-SEC honors.

Alabama football had 11 players named to the preseason All-SEC teams announced Friday after SEC Media Days, as voted on by conference media. Wide receiver Ryan Williams and left tackle Kadyn Proctor each made the first team. No defensive players were included on the first team.

It has never been done before, but impossibilities rarely enter Shane Beamer's vocabulary. Whatever coach-speak directions South Carolina's head coach planned for SEC Media Days went out the window Monday when Paul Finebaum interrupted a pre-podium discussion and asked if winning a conference championship was "doable" with the Gamecocks.