BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Tennessee Volunteers, with 16 starters returning from last year's 10-3 team, has been predicted to win the Southeastern Conference Championship by media voting at the 2005 SEC Football Media Days, concluded today at the Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, Ala.
The 2005 SEC Football Media Days was the highest attendence in the 21 years of SEC football media days. The media days event drew an attendance of 643, which was larger than last year's attendance of 550.
The Vols, last year's SEC Eastern Division Champions, were listed on 37 of the 87 ballots, while fellow Eastern Division rival Florida was listed on 21 ballots. LSU was predicted to win the league title on 16 entries while Georgia made six ballots followed by Auburn with four, Alabama two and Ole Miss one.
In the Eastern Division race, the Vols were listed first on 49 of the 87 ballots while Florida placed second (29 first place votes), Georgia third (nine first place votes), South Carolina fourth, Vanderbilt fifth and Kentucky sixth.
In the Western Division race, LSU was predicted to win the championship on 62 of 87 ballots while Auburn was second (12 first place votes), Alabama third (12 first place votes), Arkansas fourth, Ole Miss fifth (one first place vote) and Mississippi State sixth.
On the All-SEC Team, Florida led all teams with nine total selections followed by Tennessee with eight, LSU and Auburn with seven apiece. Georgia and Ole Miss were the next highest with three selections. Every SEC school had someone make either the first and/or second team. Auburn led in first-team selections with six followed by Tennessee with four while LSU, Florida and Alabama each had three.
2005 SEC FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS ALL-SEC TEAM (As voted by attending media) (Number of votes in parenthesis) (87 total voters)
SEC PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH
SEC Champion - Tennessee (37), Florida (21), LSU (16), Georgia (6), Auburn (4), Alabama (2), Ole Miss (1).