Florida and Georgia Are Ready to Start the Season

It isn’t hard to make the connection between quality football and the Southeastern Conference. In fact, it’s hard not to consider the SEC the best conference in all of college football.

Of the past six national championships, the SEC has won three of them. Out of those six, SEC teams were in five of those games, and it was two SEC teams that played for the 2017 title (Alabama defeated Georgia, 26-23).

This year, with college football suffering from a lack of games due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the SEC is a beacon of hope for fans. They’re scheduled to play, and they will bring quality football to televisions across the United States.

The East division of the conference features seven teams, with two that will be vying for the top spot throughout the season. Florida and Georgia have all the weapons they need to take the division title, and perhaps even make a case for the SEC championship as well.

Georgia comes into 2020 with a lot of changes on offense, but they are well coached and plenty talented and they return eight starters from one of the top defenses in the country.

Florida has a quality quarterback in Kyle Trask and head coach Dan Mullen is starting to see his hard work come to fruition with the program.

Expect the SEC East championship to come down to the game between these two, as they could quite possibly run the board in their division outside of that contest. Can Georgia’s defense stop Trask and the Gator offense? When these two teams meet on Nov. 7, it’s going to be one heck of a fight, and likely the deciding game in the division title hunt.

Vandy will be dead last, but …

Right out of the gate, let’s talk about a team that is going to be in the cellar all season long, but is likely going to perform better than the oddsmakers are indicating they will.

The Vanderbilt Commodores are standing at a prediction of a single win with -115 odds for both the over and the under.

Sure, they are going to finish dead last in the SEC. Sure, they have an unresolved quarterback competition with a freshman potentially winning the starting role, and they have to replace one of the few bright spots from last year’s roster with the departure of running back Ke’Shawn Vaughn. And, yeah, their defense gave up nearly 32 points on average in every game last year.

But, listen — Vanderbilt just has to win two games. They’ve got potentially winnable games against Missouri, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Kentucky. Even South Carolina is a potential win.

Pick the over on this one. It’s a smart bet, and while the Commodores are going to have a tough season, they can likely pull out two wins. And if they only win one? Well, it’s a push.

Florida could win the division title

Right now the totals have Florida sitting at 7.5 wins with an O/U of -115. To be honest, this seems like a no-brainer.

The Gators might not win the East division (hello, Georgia!), but the offense is led by returning quarterback Kyle Trask and coach Dan Mullen is in his third season with two consecutive 10-win seasons under his belt, which really leads us to believe the Gators are going to go over 7.5 wins.

Having just a 10-game season makes it easy to understand why a sports bettor might hesitate, but even with two losses, this is a win.

The Gators have an improved offensive line, one of the best tight ends in the entire country in Kyle Pitts, and the skilled positions are full of talent. Their defense returns five starters off a unit that was the second-best in the SEC in points allowed, and the return of two of the conference’s best cornerbacks makes passing against them very difficult.

The two biggest challenges on the schedule are Georgia and LSU, but beyond that, Florida will have to make a multitude of mistakes, or suffer a number of injuries, in order to struggle against their other opponents.

Totals odds for the SEC East

Florida – 7.5 wins (-115 over/under)

Georgia – 7.5 wins (-130 over/+100 under)

Tennessee – 5.5 wins (-115 over/under)

Kentucky – 5 wins (-115 over/under)

South Carolina – 3.5 wins (-130 over/+100 under)

Missouri – 2.5 wins (-140 over/+110 under)

Vanderbilt – 1 win (-115 over/under)