Feb. 17, 2010

Defending national champion LSU edged the competition to be voted the top team in the 2010 Southeastern Conference Preseason Poll, in voting by the league’s head coaches and released by the conference office.

The Tigers received five votes as SEC Champion, followed by Florida with four and Arkansas with three.

LSU got eight first-place votes and 63 points for winning the Western Division, sliding past second-place Arkansas, which got four first-place votes and 59 points. Ole Miss was third in the West with 39 points, followed by Alabama, Auburn and Mississippi State.

Florida received nine first-place votes and 64 points for capturing the Eastern Division. South Carolina got two first-place votes and 52 points for second. Georgia placed third with 42 points, one ahead of Vanderbilt, which received the other first-place vote. Kentucky came in fifth in the East, followed by Tennessee.

The regular season begins on Friday, Feb. 19. Conference contests commence the weekend of March 19-21. The 2010 SEC Tournament will be May 26-30 at Regions Park in Hoover, Ala. The event has drawn more that 100,000 fans in five of the past eight years. An NCAA-record of nearly 1.9 million fans attended games in the SEC a season ago, the eighth consecutive year that the SEC has surpassed the one million mark in attendance.

2010 Predicted Order of Finish

(2009 SEC/overall records, points, first-place votes)

Eastern Division

1 Florida (19-11, 42-22) 64 (9)

2 South Carolina (17-13, 40-23) 52 (2)

3 Georgia (15-15, 38-24) 42

4 Vanderbilt (12-17, 37-27) 41 (1)

5 Kentucky (12-18, 28-26) 25

6 Tennessee (11-19, 26-29) 19

Western Division

1 LSU (20-10, 56-17) 63 (8)

2 Arkansas (14-15, 41-24) 59 (4)

3 Ole Miss (20-10, 44-20) 39

4 Alabama (18-11, 37-21) 32

5 Auburn (11-19, 31-25) 28

6 Mississippi State (9-20, 25-29) 25

SEC Champion: LSU (5), Florida (4), Arkansas (3)

(photo courtesy of LSU Media Relations Office)