As we are in the first day of media days, I wanted to give you my thoughts on the upcoming season, who will be good, who will win each division and if one of our teams can be playing for the BCS title on January 9, 2012 at the Sugar Bowl. Opponents could be Oklahoma, Nebraska, Boise State, Oregon or Texas. As tough and as brutal as this conference is, we’ve won every BCS title since 2006. Our teams are loaded especially in the West. The winner of the West should emerge as our representative in the title game if that team doesn’t get beaten up too much by its opponents.
Here’s a look at the West and the East and who will emerge. By the way, Darren Clarke played extremely well to win the British Open. Not much of an athlete (fat and drinks a lot), but was doing some impressive ball striking over the weekend. I’m not sure Rory McIlroy can be an elite, all time player. Doesn’t seem to have the passion of Woods in his heyday or Nicklaus in his hey day. Heck, he may not even catch Phil on majors won.

West: Like Alabama, but you talk about competition. You’ve got Arkansas, LSU, Auburn, State and Ole Miss to contend with. Bama’s sked is pretty favorable. Have Arkansas and LSU at home, but have Auburn, State and Florida on the road. UT comes to Tuscaloosa and Vandy comes to Ttown. At Ole Miss. The defense is loaded. Linebacker is incredible. Dont’a Hightower, at this point, may be the fourth best linebacker on the team behind Courtney Upshaw, C.J. Mosely and Nico Johnson. Tana Patrick, Jerrell Harris, Chris Jordan and newcomer Trey DePriest are awesome, too. Secondary, led by Mark Barron (incredible leader) and Robert Lester should be incredible. Dline should be fine. Don’t have a Cody yet, but Josh Chapman and Nick Gentry among others should be fine. Oline in good shape. Wr doesn’t have that explosive, Julio-like player, but they think this Duron Carter may be the guy if he’s OK with his school work. DeAndrew White, a redshirt freshman, is another guy they’re high on. Maze and Hanks will be back. I love tight end Michael Williams. He can catch exceptionally well and he’s a load at about 270. He’ll block. Running back got thinner with the loss of Dee Hart for the year with a knee injury, but if Trent can stay healthy and Eddie Lacy and Jalston Fowler can be good, should be fine there.

The 100,000 dollar question is quarterback. Will it be A.J. McCarron or Phillip Sims. If I had to choose today, I’d pick McCarron. But I think Saban is going to let this August play out a little bit. I think he’s seriously considering playing them both to start the season. Kent State, at Penn State and then North Texas at home, they could be alright there. But then Arkansas comes to Tuscaloosa. It may work. I’m not a proponent at all of the two quarterback system, but occasionally it can work. But right now, the starting job is up for grabs. Depending on how that shakes out will determine if ‘Bama can win it all. Really though, all they may need is a game manager with the players they’ll have around the quarterback. Can’t have injuries at running back. Trent needs to stay healthy and so do his backups. If that is a problem then it could be a little different. But with that defense, the quarterback may need to be only adequate for this team to win the West, win the SEC title game and then win it all. McCarron and Sims are both outstanding players, just not seasoned. They may excel. If that happens and Tide stays healthy, I don’t see them getting stopped. Oklahoma is not going to beat a healthy Alabama team. Stoops will get outcoached by Saban and company and the talent is better in Tuscaloosa.

But ‘Bama has to get through some really good teams to get there. Arkansas looked pretty good to me in their spring game. Tyler Wilson, their new starting quarterback, is the real deal, really better looking player to me than Mallett. I think he’ll make better decisions and not throw key interceptions. They have a stable full of wide receivers led by potential All American Greg Childs. Knile Davis came on at the end of last year to run for over 1,000 yards and he’s stellar. To me with Arkansas, it’s about defense. If they can play better defense this year, they have a shot to make it to Atlanta. They’ve gotten better and better on defense, but that’s the key to them. They have a lot of quality athletes, but not the dominant defense that Alabama has. I think the Alabama-Arkansas game will tell us a lot about the West along with some other key matchups.

LSU, to me, is a typical LSU team under Miles. Loaded all over the field. But it’s about the quarterback. Can Jordan Jefferson overcome his inconsistency of the past to be a legitimate winning SEC quarterback? I’m inclined to think he’ll still throw some costly interceptions. He has a new offensive coordinator in Steve Kragthorpe, who could make a difference, but I just don’t trust Jefferson. This Zach Mettenberger, the transfer from Georgia, looks like the real deal. I don’t see Miles starting him, but you never know. He is better than Jefferson; he is a really good player. Miles would be smart to give him a hard look this summer. If LSU wants to win the West, they need the right quarterback in there. I don’t think Jefferson is the man. Now Mettenberger could be, but I think Miles is pretty sold on Jefferson right now. That to me is a mistake.

Mississippi State is a team I’m highly impressed with. I think they can do great things this year and are the darkhorse to win the West. They do play Alabama at home, but have to go to Auburn. They play LSU at home, but they have to go to Arkansas and go to Georgia. Their second and third games are critical: at Auburn and LSU at home. If they could win those, that would help. Of course, they’d still have to host Alabama, go to Georgia and go to Arkansas. But those first three games (@Memphis, game number one) are critical. Ms. State, besides Georgia, looks like they have the best quarterback situation in the conference. Chris Relf looked awesome to me in the spring. He’s going to be great with his strong arm and great mobility. I think he’s a dominating offensive player in the SEC. Tyler Russell and Dylan Favre are very good backups. The rest of the team looks very solid. It’s just the schedule in the SEC. if State was playing in any other conference, I’d pick’em to win it. I think they’re that good. They may pull it off. Dan Mullen is outstanding. It’ll be tough at Auburn, home against LSU, at Georgia, home against ‘Bama and at Ark. If  they could go 3-2 in those games, that would be pretty good. But I think this is a possible BCS bowl team. I really believe that.

Auburn is rebuilding, but there is good young talent on the roster. Quarterback is open. I like Barrett Trotter; I think he’s a good player. Moseley is pretty good, too and they’re high on this Frazier kid, the incoming freshman. Like Alabama, it’s still wide open. Running back is very good with the starters in Michael Dyer and Onterio McCalebb, but it’s pretty thin after that. Mike Blakely, a freshman transfer out of Florida, is trying to become eligible this year. No ruling from NCAA as of yet. Should know something in the next week or two. Oline will be youthful. There is some young talent there, and it could be like Pugh and Ziemba’s first year when they played very well in 2007, but these guys are young. Defense should be better. it’s just experienced numbers for AU. It’s not there this year. And the schedule is tough. At Clemson, @ South Carolina, @ Arkansas, @ LSU, @ Georgia. Of course, Alabama comes down to the Plains. Miss State and Ole Miss at home. That State game could be a huge early season battle. If Auburn could win over State and their third game at Clemson could be a lot better year than people are predicting. I said a possible nine win season, but I think that’s probably a stretch. More like seven and with some luck, eight.

Ole Miss will be OK, nothing special. They’ll be fairly competitive, but I don’t see them winning more than six games this year. The competition is just too good and their quarterback play and defense are suspect. Nutty was pretty excited in the spring game, but I don’t think they’ll be that good. 6-6, 7-5 with some luck.

East looks like it’s between South Carolina and Georgia. Whoever wins the Sept. 10 clash at Athens should be the favorite to win the East. South Carolina has Marcus Lattimore, Alshon Jeffery and the guy with nine lives Stephen Garcia back. I don’t trust Garcia totally, he can mess things up for his team, so I give Georgia a shot to beat SC because of that. I’ll go with SC slightly over Georgia to win it because I don’t trust Richt either.

Tennessee has a budding superstar in Tyler Bray, though he needs to grow up a little bit. He has the cannon arm no doubt. But Tennessee is still trying to get it together, so I don’t see them winning East. Florida may be better than anticipated but they have to go to South Carolina Nov. 12 and play host to Alabama Oct. 1. They’re also at LSU and at Auburn and Georgia at the Cocktail Party. I don’t see them as a great team this year. Decent, but nothing special. Vandy and UK will battle it out to get out of the cellar of the conference though I do like Vandy’s new coach, James Franklin, a lot. If anybody can do it at Vanderbilt, Franklin can. Not sure what Joker Phillips has at UK. I think Morgan Newton is a talent at quarterback, but may struggle with SEC defenses this year. Another bowl game would be a victory for a school that lives for basketball. Phillips has a tough job, but appears to be a pretty good coach.

Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier could see each other Saturday, Dec. 3, in the SEC Championship game in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.