Fox Sports analyst Stewart Mandel is stepping out on an awfully thin limb this season.

He unveiled his preseason SEC predictions on Monday and to everyone’s surprise, picked a Texas A&M-Tennessee SEC Championship Game with the Aggies winning the league title this fall.

Mandel says Texas A&M’s favorable road schedule — by SEC standards — is the primary season the Aggies will erase last season’s disappointing 3-5 mark in conference play and win the West.

First of all, Kevin Sumlin is a great coach whose offense can always be counted on to be highly productive. Last year saw a dip as the Aggies struggled to replace standouts Johnny Manziel, Mike Evans and Jake Matthews. A year later, sophomore Kyle Allen has established himself at quarterback.

Defensively, A&M has been awful the past two years, but Sumlin hired one of the sport’s finest coordinators in John Chavis.

And the talent is there. Freakish defensive end Myles Garrett is the most obvious standout, but plenty of others are already emerging from Sumlin’s consecutive Top 7 recruiting classes of 2013 and ’14.

As for Tennessee, the Vols will simply be the last team standing in a ‘mediocre’ division.

Georgia and Tennessee both play Alabama as a crossover foe, but the Dawgs also have to visit Auburn while Tennessee hosts Arkansas.

Here are Mandel’s predictions for each team’s final regular-season record:

WEST

  • Texas A&M 11-1, 7-1
  • Alabama 10-2, 6-2
  • Auburn 10-2, 6-2
  • Ole Miss 8-4, 4-4
  • Arkansas 8-4, 4-4
  • LSU 7-5, 3-5
  • Mississippi State 6-6, 2-6

EAST

  • Tennessee 9-3, 6-2
  • Georgia 9-3, 5-3
  • Mizzou 8-4, 4-4
  • Kentucky 7-5, 4-4
  • Florida 5-7, 2-6
  • South Carolina 5-7, 2-6
  • Vanderbilt 3-9, 1-7