SEC Football - Week 12 SEC Preview and Predictions

Heading in to week 12 of college football game play, we wrapped up week 11 6-0 against the spread, and 8-0 since starting to publish predictions in this forum. Closing out week 11, the SEC has five teams ranked in the BCS standings, Alabama (#1), Florida (#4), Georgia (#10), LSU (#20), and South Carolina (#25) with Kentucky unranked but bowl eligible.

Vandy (5-4, 3-3), Ole Miss (5-4, 3-3) (idle last week), and Auburn (5-5,2-4) remain on the cusp of bowl eligibility.

Mississippi State (3-6, 1-4) is a long shot to obtain bowl eligibility and Tennessee's (3-7, 1-5) upset by the Wyoming Cowboys took the Vols out of the running last week.

Last week saw Alabama and Florida clinch the SEC West and East divisions respectfully, already building hype for the SEC Title game. Each team has some football left to play, however, in order to keep national title hopes alive. Florida has two ranked opponents left with South Carolina and Florida State left on the ticket. Alabama has Mississippi State and Auburn left to play with both teams very capable of pulling off an upset. The SEC Football championship is scheduled for December 6^th.

Conference Match ups

1. Alabama (6-0, 10-0) hosts Miss State (1-4, 3-6) this Saturday after surviving an OT Thriller against LSU last Saturday. Expect Mississippi State to play the Tide a lot tougher than is being predicted. State is a 22 point underdog. Although Bama should win the game by a fair bit, our prediction is that they will not cover the spread.

2 The Georgia Bulldogs (5-2, 8-2) scraped by Kentucky last week by four points. They are hosting Auburn this Saturday attempting to continue to move further up the BCS standings. Auburn has bowl eligibility on the line in this game, but have not looked impressive offensively this season. Matt Stafford is coming off of a great game against Kentucky last week going 17/27 for 376 yards and 3 touchdowns. Knowshon Moreno also rushed 22 times for 123 yards and 3 touchdowns. The Bulldogs are only favored by 5 points, but our choice is to take them to cover the spread based off of how hot they played last week.

3. Florida (6-1, 8-1) hosts the South Carolina Gamecocks (4-3, 7-3). Both teams are coming off of quality SEC football victories last week. Although the Gamecocks have been doing a mid-season surge of their own similar to Flordia, our prediction is that Steve Spurrier is given a rough welcome back in the Swamp by Tim Tebow and company. Our prediction is that the Gators will cover the 22 point spread against the Gamecocks.

4. Kentucky (2-4, 6-4) hosts Vandy (3-3, 5-4) in Lexington, Kentucky this Saturday. The Cats showed 'new life' at offense last week against 10^th ranked Georgia. Our prediction is that the cats with new starting quarterback, Randall Cobb, will cover the 4 point spread against Vandy, sending the Commodores on to their fifth consecutive loss after starting the season 5-0.

Non-Conference SEC Football Play:

1 - Ole Miss (3-3, 5-4) hosts the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks (2-4, 3-7) in their battle to obtain bowl eligibility. Ole Miss is favored in this game by 12 and our prediction is that they will cover the spread and obtain bowl eligibility in Coach Nutt's first season coaching the team. The Rebels last trip to a bowl game came in 2003 when they beat Oklahoma State in the Cotton Bowl.

2. LSU (3-3, 6-3) hosts the Troy Trojans (4-1, 6-3). After coming off of an overtime loss to the Crimson Tide, look for the Tigers to come out aggressively against the Trojans. 17 point favorites over Troy, our prediction is that LSU will cover the spread against Troy.

Idle SEC Football Teams:

Tennessee ( 1-5, 3-7). Travel to Vandy on November 22nd.

Arkansas (1-5, 4-6). Travel to Mississippi State on November 22nd.

SEC Standings through Week 10:

SEC East

Florida (6-1) (8-1)

Georgia (5-2) (8-2)

S.C. (4-3) (7-3)

Vandy (3-3) (5-4)

UK (2-4) (6-4)

TENN (1-5) (3-7)

SEC West

Alabama (6-0) (10-0)

LSU (4-2) (7-2)

Ole Miss (3-3) (5-4)

Auburn (2-4) (5-5)

Miss St (1-4) (3-6)

Arkansas (1-5) (4-6)