SEC West Predictions Based on the Mascot Theory

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Sep 27, 2014; Auburn, AL, USA; Aubie the Auburn Tigers mascot leads the team through Tiger Walk prior to the game against the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs at Jordan Hare Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports

You’ve read all the preseason predictions about why a particular team will win the SEC west, but you’ve never seen a prediction based on the strength of the team’s mascots.

Knee deep in preparation for the upcoming college football season I have come to this conclusion: any team can win the SEC west in 2015. In any given year, each division has a couple of bottom dwellers that you can automatically eliminate. That is not this year’s SEC west.

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While certainly some teams winning the division would be more surprising than others, there is no team this year that I believe can automatically be eliminated. So, we will turn to what anyone turns to in this sort of quandary: science.

Before we get deeply scientific, let’s look at a brief overview of the division and why we are in this predicament in the first place. In no particular order, the division is made up of the following teams: Mississippi State Bulldogs, Texas A&M Aggies, Ole Miss Rebels, Arkansas Razorbacks, Auburn Tigers, LSU Tigers and Alabama Crimson Tide.

Both Mississippi State and Ole Miss have consistently finished at or near the bottom of the division. That is until last year. The state of Mississippi took the college football world by storm. Mississippi State finished a respectable 10-3 while Ole Miss finished 9-4. Both teams found themselves in the top 10 of the polls during the season.

Quarterback Dak Prescott is back for Mississippi State and is widely considered the best quarterback in the conference. The team hopes Prescott can compensate for the sizable amount of players lost to either graduation or the draft.

Those top recruiting classes of Ole Miss from years past have now become juniors and seniors. The future is now for the Rebels even with a new quarterback replacing Bo Wallace.

LSU, Auburn and Alabama are what many call perennial contenders. Sure, all teams lost players to the NFL Draft but they also reload their roster every year with the top recruiting classes in the country. Does that mean all three teams will have success this season? No, but it means at the beginning of each season they are in contention for the division.

Texas A&M and Arkansas are the wild cards of the group. The Aggies finished 8-5 last year and went straight down after their impressive performance against South Carolina in the season opener. Arkansas is trending upward after the addition of head coach Bret Bielema. They finished 7-6 last year with almost every loss coming in close games. The Razorbacks beat the likes of LSU and Ole Miss while losing by one point to Alabama.

Now, on to science.

Those of you that are March Madness fanatics are already familiar with the mascot theory. Given the almost complete randomness of the NCAA basketball tournament, many use the mascot theory to fill out their bracket each year. The way it works is you ask this hypothetical question: If these two mascots were to get into an altercation at the local watering hole, who would win? Yes, I might have loosely used the term science earlier.

The seeding is based on last year’s conference record for each team. This puts the seeds as No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Mississippi State, No. 3 Ole Miss, No. 4 Auburn, No. 5 LSU, No. 6 Texas A&M and No. 7 Arkansas. Since there is an odd number of teams, Alabama will get a first round bye due to winning the division last year.

Let’s take a look at the first round.

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