The sports information directors of the SEC have voted on on how they think SEC East will shape up in 2016, and they’re feeling the Tennessee hype.

The Volunteers are picked to finish first, while last year’s division winner, Florida, is expected to come in at No. 3 behind Georgia.

The predicted order, as posted on AL.com:

  1. Tennessee
  2. Georgia
  3. Florida
  4. Missouri
  5. South Carolina
  6. Kentucky
  7. Vanderbilt

With 18 returning starters, Tennessee has been one of 2016’s most talked-about teams this offseason. ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit picked the Volunteers to win the division, and recently talked about Team 120 with Paul Finebaum:

“They’ve got a couple helmet games that they’ve got to be able to overcome,” Herbstreit said about Butch Jones’ squad. “The first being Florida, early in the year. But let’s face it – they’ve played well enough over this last decade to probably win a few of those games, even last year. There’s just something about being able to get over that hurdle that says ‘hey we can beat a team like Florida.’ We’ll see if they get that opportunity.

“I do think they’re the team to beat. Of course we saw how competitive they were a year ago in Tuscaloosa. I’m sure that gave them confidence that they can play with some of the big boys in the country.”

Analytics website Mcillece Sports recently ranked UT No. 1 overall in its preseason poll.