The SEC will look drastically completely different in 2024 with Texas and Oklahoma set to hitch and divisions going away to accommodate the swelling ranks. Nonetheless, a well-recognized face has emerged because the heavy preseason favourite. Oddsmakers like Georgia to climb again to the mountaintop after Alabama unseated the Bulldogs a 12 months in the past.
Georgia received back-to-back School Soccer Playoff Nationwide Championships from 2021-22, and it is missed out on the SEC Championship Sport simply twice below coach Kirby Good. The Bulldogs are constructed to remain close to the highest, it doesn’t matter what the SEC could appear like.
Texas enters its first 12 months as an SEC program with the second-best odds to win the convention outright. It is smart, provided that the Longhorns are contemporary off their first School Soccer Playoff look in program historical past and have become a recruiting juggernaut below coach Steve Sarkisian.
Georgia and Texas are two of simply 4 SEC groups with lower than 10-1 odds of profitable the league’s championship, because the SEC seems relatively top-heavy. Alabama, amid an intense inner transition, simply narrowly averted falling out of the highest 4.
Listed below are the SEC title odds for all 16 groups and some particular person picks for bettors to contemplate.
Finest Guess — Georgia (+185): The work Kirby Good places into setting up his roster, each with highschool recruiting and the switch portal, implies that Georgia will all the time be a protected guess to win the SEC. Whereas we have grown accustomed to elite defenses carrying the day in Athens, the opposite aspect of the ball would possibly steal the headlines this season. Quarterback Carson Beck is again after a breakout efficiency in his first 12 months as a starter. He may need one of the best arm in an in any other case weak quarterback class and will hear his title referred to as within the first spherical of subsequent 12 months’s draft.
The Bulldogs boast an excellent supporting forged. Georgia has a Joe Moore Award-level offensive line, an explosive huge receiver room with insane depth and a lightning-thunder combo at operating again with Florida switch Trevor Etienne and Roderick Robinson. The protection also needs to be glorious, however that is simply the usual Good has established in his tenure.
Worst Wager — LSU (+1000): A workforce with 10-to-1 odds inherently looks like a longshot, however contemplating how top-heavy the SEC is, LSU nonetheless has the fifth-best outlook amongst 16 groups within the convention. Whereas Brian Kelly has completed job establishing LSU as a constant double-digit win workforce, there are too many query marks to confidently predict the Tigers will probably be within the title image. LSU has to interchange a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback in Jayden Daniels. His successor, Garrett Nussmeier, has flashed some attractive potential in his restricted enjoying time, however he is by no means navigated a full season within the SEC.
It is LSU’s protection that has us involved. The Tigers have been putrid on that aspect of the ball, they usually did not do a lot to enhance their outlook (from a expertise perspective) this offseason. New coordinator Blake Baker, who was nice at Missouri, can have his fingers full revitalizing a protection that returns simply two defensive tackles with real-game expertise and two gamers — linebacker Harold Perkins and edge rusher Sai’vion Jones — greater than 5 sacks of their profession as Tigers.
Worth Choose — Alabama (+950): It is bizarre that Alabama is a worth choose given this system’s dominance below Nick Saban, who went out on high after main the Crimson Tide to the SEC title for the ninth time in his tenure. Certainly, some individuals aren’t as bullish on Alabama now that Saban’s out and former Washington boss Kalen DeBoer is in. A switch window that noticed Alabama lose stalwarts like security Caleb Downs and main receiver Isaiah Bond probably tanked the inventory slightly bit extra. However DeBoer is not inheriting an empty cupboard. Alabama’s roster nonetheless has extra expertise and blue-chip prospects than most groups on the FBS degree might ever hope for.
And DeBoer isn’t any stranger to hitting the bottom operating. He is by no means received lower than 9 video games in a full season as a head coach. In his first 12 months at Washington, the Huskies tied for second within the Pac-12 with an 11-2 general document. He adopted that up in 2023 with a 12-0 common season, a Pac-12 title and a runner-up end within the School Soccer Playoff. With quarterback Jalen Milroe main his workforce, the ceiling for DeBoer is excessive. It is actually price throwing a number of {dollars} on such an attractive line.
Lengthy Shot — Missouri (+1500): Missouri ought to once more subject one of the vital potent passing assaults within the nation, spearheaded by an elite duo in quarterback Brady Cook dinner and huge receiver Luther Burden. The previous can play his means into the primary spherical of the NFL Draft, whereas the latter looks like a digital lock for the top-15. These two alone give the Tigers loads of offensive upside, however different weapons can carry water as nicely. The protection should exchange 5 draft picks, together with three defensive backs, whereas breaking in new coordinator Corey Batoon. Meaning new additions like 2024 five-star defensive lineman Williams Nwaneri should come alongside rapidly to choose up some slack, however Eli Drinkwitz has completed job constructing Missouri’s roster and remodeling it into an SEC darkish horse.
