From: mm42@prism.gatech.EDU (Mark Mitchell)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college
Subject: 1992 SEC Preview
Date: 23 Aug 92 22:31:39 GMT
Organization: Ramblin' Wrecks from Georgia Tech

I'm not going to bother with a team-by-team writeup on the SEC,
but I have put together this brief primer for the coming season.
(I earlier posted the complete SEC-East and SEC-West schedules
in PostScript format.  If you missed them, drop me some e-mail
and I will gladly forward.)

* EXPANDED FORMAT ARRIVES

This season this SEC adds two new members - Arkansas and South Carolina -
and begins divisional play.  The champions of the two divisions will
meet in the first ever SEC championship game at historic Legion Field
in Birmingham on December 5.

The new SEC split divides the conference roughly down the middle
into East and West divisions:

        SEC-East                  SEC-West
        ==================        ====================
        Florida                   Alabama
        Georgia                   Arkansas
        Kentucky                  Auburn
        South Carolina            Louisiana State
        Tennessee                 Ole Miss
        Vanderbilt                Mississippi State

Each team plays all the members of its division plus 3 games against
the other division.

* KEY MATCHUPS FOR 1992

1. December 5, SEC Championship.  Since the game is at Legion Field,
   Alabama will have a definite home field advantage should they make
   it to the championship.

2. October 31, Florida vs. Georgia at Jacksonville.  The 2 preseason 
   favorites in the East meet for the annual cocktail party, on 
   Halloween no less.  This should be wild.

3. November 14, Alabama @ Mississippi State.  The Bulldogs haven't beaten
   the Tide since 1980, but this will be their best shot in years.

4. September 12, Arkansas @ South Carolina.  The loser of this one is in for
   a long season; the winner could make some noise in the conference.

5. September 19, Florida @ Tennessee.  Wins in Knoxville have not come easily
   for the Gators, but a rebuilding Vol squad will be vulnerable.

6. October 1, Florida @ Mississippi State.  This will be the biggest game
   in Starkville in a long, long time.


* PREDICTED FINISHES FOR 1992

I have convened a panel of 8 net.experts to predict the season results.
I asked each of them to rank the divisions from top to bottom and to
predict the winner of the championship game.  The consensus results
were (average rank in parens.):

EAST                       WEST
==================         ===================
Florida (1.0)              Alabama (1.0)
Georgia (2.5)              Mississippi State (3.2)
Tennessee (3.0)            Auburn (3.4)
Vanderbilt (4.4)           LSU (4.0)
South Carolina (5.0)       Arkansas (4.1)
Kentucky (5.1)             Ole Miss (5.2)

Alabama and Florida were both unanimously selected to win their
respective divisions, and Alabama was favored in the championship
game by 7 to 1, with most of the experts citing the home field 
advantage as the difference.

The experts put the teams in the East in a fairly wide distribution,
while bunching the middle 4 West teams within .9 places of one another.
Expect some tight contests between these 4 teams.

The panel consisted of:

Eric Arendts
James Armstrong, Jr.
Dana Bunner
Curtis Hill
Sid Kitchel
Mark Mitchell
Charlie Richter
Chris Stassen

My thanks to these prognosticators for lending their expertise!

* A NEW ERA FOR THE POSTSEASON

1992 also marks a new era for postseason arrangements for the SEC, as
the Sugar Bowl opponent will be selected through the bowl coalition,
the SEC runner-up will meet the Big Ten runner-up in the Citrus Bowl,
the SEC's 3rd best will take on another conference runner-up in
the Gator Bowl, and, of course, the East and West winners will face
off prior to this in the SEC Championship.

A quick look at what this means to the SEC financially:

Game 			Payout
==================================
SEC Championship	$7,000,000       (1)
Sugar Bowl              $3,200,000
Citrus Bowl             $2,500,000       (2)
Gator Bowl              $1,600,000
----------------------------------
Total                  $13,300,000

(1) Does not include TV revenue
(2) Payout only $2 million for 1992, $2.5 million in 1993 and after.

This is just the guaranteed postseason revenue - there will almost certainly
be a few other small bowl takes.  Compare this to the $8.8 million the
league made from bowls in 1991 or the $6 million return in 1990!

That's all for now, but look for my first weekly SEC Preview around 
September 1st.

-- 
Mark Mitchell           Georgia Tech            mm42@prism.gatech.edu
"Distant cousins, there's a limited supply ...
                                           big-eyed beans from Venus!"
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college