As wide open as the SEC West is this year, that’s how much the SEC East is locked up with Florida being in it. Although I agree with about everybody about Florida being #1 in the East, you might be surprised at where some others end up.

#1. Florida (11-1):    One would think that with the loss of Percy Harvin to the NFL that Florida wouldn’t be near as dangerous as last year right? WRONG!  With the return of Tim Tebow along with many others who could have followed Harvin to the NFL, the Gators should be as strong as ever. Expect to see Florida in the BCS Championship game again this year. The SEC is just to strong for a team to go undefeated, as it has shown in the past with Florida last year but just like last year unless it happens late in the year it shouldn’t keep Florida out of the Championship game.

#2. Georgia (9-3):    I fully expect Georgia to be a really good team again this year, but the lose of Matthew Stafford and Moreno I don’t see them being as good as last year.

#3. South Carolina (7-5):    The only reason I put South Carolina at the 3 spot is because they play Kentucky at South Carolina. I don’t expect to see much if any improvement from Spurriers team this year, so expect a up and down year were one game you will say “man look at how good SC looks”" and the next game say “wow SC sure didn’t come ready to play today”.

#4. Kentucky (7-5):    While I have UK with the same record as SC, I have UK losing to SC. I honestly would not be very surprised if UK didn’t slide up to the #3 spot, but their schedule which consists of 11 straight ball games worries me a little. I can see UK losing as many as 7 games, but can also see them winning as many as 8 games. This is in my opinion the year UK finally beats UT which will be played at UK, I think that Lane Kiffin  may end up being UT Billy Gillespie which only time will tell cause I could be wrong on that one.

#5. Tennessee (6-6):    In my opinion their is just to much negativity surrounding UT and Lane Kiffin, between all the stuff Kiffin has said to all the recruiting violations and recruits possibly being ineligible (rb, Bryce Brown). While I don’t see UT making a dramatic turn around this year, I do think they have enough talent to win as many as 7 games but I think 6 is their magic number. Look for UT in one of the smaller bowl games this year, which will be better than none at all which was the case last year.

#6 Vanderbilt (5-7):    Vandy has become a threat under Head Coach Johnson, but I still think they end up around the bottom of the SEC East but as close as the 3rd through 6th teams are together anything can happen.

From South Carolina at #3 to Vandy at #6 is gonna be a tight race, and while I have them ranked where I do it would not surprise me if all the last four teams ended up ranked in a different spot depending on how the ball bounces. While the bottom four fight it out for position don’t expect much of a fight at the top, with Florida being the easy pick for the #1 spot and Georgia being a pretty easy selection at the #2 spot.[ad]