It is probably a toss up as to whether the coaches or media's preseason polls are the most biased.
Media base everything off past performance, and sometimes are influenced by alma maters. There are some homers in the SEC.
That was witnessed last week when more than 30 voters had Auburn fourth or worse, which made Alabama picked to win the West despite getting fewer first-place votes. That bias wasn't strong enough to overcome the vote for SEC Champion, which went to Auburn.
A few years ago South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier "forgot" about Tim Tebow, and the Florida quarterback was not a consensus preseason first-team selection.
Since 2000, there has been one unanimous media preseason choice, and that was Arkansas running back Darren McFadden in 2007. If that hadn't happened someone should have lost the right to vote.
The polls should be considered fun, something to discuss other than baseball during the dog days of summer.
Media voted on how they thought teams would finish last week in Hoover, Ala., and the next day voted preseason All-SEC, and if they are even close to being right, the West will again be the best and the East the least.
West players made up 24 of the 33 offensive players on the first, second and third teams, including 8 of 11 of the first team selections. Georgia, the favorite to win the East, had the other three.
It was much the same on defense, with 23 of the 33 on the first three teams coming from the West. Combined, that gives the West more than 71 percent of the preseason All-SEC players.
What could, and perhaps should, be motivation for the Arkansas Razorbacks is that while they had six players named on offense -- four second-teamers and two thirds -- they had zero make any team on defense.
And quarterback Brandon Allen, a fifth-year senior with two years of starting under his belt, did not make any team.
Mississippi State's Dak Prescott understandably was named first-team quarterback.
The second-team quarterback was Auburn's Jeremy Johnson, who looked like an All American in his first-half start against the Hogs, completing 12 of 16 passes for 243 yards and 2 touchdowns without an interception. He made five appearances the rest of the season, completing 16 of 21 passes.
Third-team quarterback was Tennessee's Joshua Dobbs, who didn't play until the eighth game last season. In those last six games the Vols won four games and the losses were to division champs Alabama and Missouri.
Johnson and Dobbs have great upside but a lot less experience than Allen.
But Allen might not have been the biggest oversight for the Razorbacks. The world's largest offensive line (yes, last year's starters outweighed all NFL teams, too) had no one on the first team. Denver Kirkland and Dan Skipper made second team and Sebastian Tretola made third team (his touchdown pass garnered no attention at quarterback).
If Kirkland isn't a first-teamer then no one is. Tretola has shed a little weight and that is only going to make him more athletic and effective. But most of the media don't know that yet.
Jonathan Williams and Hunter Henry made the second team and Alex Collins was named third team.
Williams and Collins are the best tandem of running backs in the country, but Georgia's Nick Chubb was first team and LSU's Leonard Fournette was the other first-team back. Those choices are impossible to argue against.
Mostly what was accomplished at SEC Football Media Days was getting some football news for football fans who were already watching reruns of games just to have some football in their life. The polls should be considered just for fun, it is postseason honors that matter the most.
Sports on 07/22/2015