HOOVER, Ala. — Arkansas was picked to finish last in the SEC West for the second consecutive year in voting by media members released Thursday at SEC media days.
The Razorbacks were a distant seventh, behind Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Texas A&M in SEC West voting by a record 293 media members. One voter did pick Arkansas to win the SEC.
Alabama received 154 first-place votes and was projected to win the SEC championship over defending champion Auburn (75), South Carolina (32) and Georgia (19). Arkansas was one of eight teams to receive a first-place vote, joining those four and LSU (9), Ole Miss (2) and Mississippi State (1).
The media has picked the SEC champion correctly only four times in 22 years, when Florida won in 1994, 1995 and 2008 and LSU won in 2007. Alabama was the choice last season but finished second in the SEC West after losing to eventual SEC champion Auburn in the regular season finale.
Before the voting results were released, Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said his expectations for the season would be the same whether the Razorbacks were picked first or last. Bielema, who invited members of the media to pick Arkansas last in 2013, said Wednesday he is sticking to his core principles in the Razorbacks' rebuilding process.
"When that thing comes full circle, we're going to start to win," Bielema said. "When we win, it's going to be able to maintain a winning style than this other thing that we've been living through."
Arkansas players at SEC media days said they understood that they wouldn't be a top pick after finishing 3-9 last year, when they lost their final nine games and went 0-8 in SEC games.
"Everybody has their opinion," Arkansas safety Alan Turner said. "From the results we showed last year, why wouldn't they pick us there? We're just trying to get better ... so we can prove them wrong."
South Carolina was the media pick to win the SEC East with 1,895 points, edging out Georgia (1,777) and Florida (1,362). Defending East champion Missouri (1,263) was picked fourth, followed by Tennessee (893), Vanderbilt (619) and Kentucky (395).
Arkansas received the fewest votes (315) among all teams, well behind Alabama (1,915), Auburn (1,735), LSU (1,453), Ole Miss (1,069), Mississippi State (890) and Texas A&M (791) in the West.
The Razorbacks also had no players elected to the media's preseason All-SEC team. Defensive end Trey Flowers, running back Alex Collins and punter Sam Irwin-Hill were second-team choices. Tight end Hunter Henry was a third-team choice.
Alabama receiver Amari Cooper was the highest vote-getter with 282 votes, followed by running backs T.J. Yeldon (281) of Alabama and Todd Gurley (280) of Georgia.
Sports on 07/18/2014