Vanderbilt helmet Jul 19, 2022; Atlanta, GA, USA; Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea addresses the media during SEC Media Days at the College Football Hall of Fame. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

The SEC preseason media poll was released on Friday, and most media members picked the usual suspects like Alabama or Georgia to win the conference this coming college football season. However, five media members went with an extremely peculiar pick instead – Vanderbilt.

Georgia received the most first-place votes to be SEC Champions with 181 first-place votes, which is to be expected of the reigning back-to-back National Champions.

Somehow, the Vanderbilt Commodores who were the surprise team in this preseason media poll, receiving eight votes to win the SEC East and five votes to win the SEC outright.

For reference, Vanderbilt finished with a 5-7 record last season, and their last winning season came all the way back in 2013. They also received a first place vote this time last year in the SEC preseason media poll.

Perhaps even more dumbfounding is that while the program received five first-place votes to win the conference, there were no players on the roster that made a Preseason Media Days All-SEC Team.

So the question is, how could a team possibly win the conference if they have no players that are worthy of an All-SEC team?

The names of the Vanderbilt voters are not public, but you have to wonder what exactly they see in a team that lost to both Alabama and Georgia by over 50 points last season.

Maybe they will shock the world and make people feel dumb for ripping on this vote, but it seems like a stretch to say that Vanderbilt will win the SEC anytime soon…

[SEC Sports]

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.