GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Earlier this month, the media confirmed what has been widely presumed all offseason: Georgia is the favorite to win the SEC East.

Kirby Smart may very well lead the Bulldogs to the SEC Championship Game this December. Growing pains tend to be a part of transition years, and plenty of coaches have seen drastic improvement in Year 2. It’s Jim McElwain and Florida, however, who deserve to be considered the favorite heading into Week 1.

Here are five reasons the Gators should have been picked to win the East:

1. Smart has potential to be a successful coach. McElwain has already made SEC history.

Smart was one of – if not the – best defensive coordinators in college football for eight seasons at Alabama. Since taking the Georgia job, he has come away with the SEC East’s top class on National Signing Day the past two Februarys. The most important items on his coaching resume, however, aren’t as impressive: 8-5 overall and 4-4 in the SEC.

Smart might prove to be a great head coach (and accomplish more than his SEC East peers), but the media appears to be giving him credit he hasn’t earned. It’s easy to see why the media is getting ahead of itself. Smart inherited a talented roster (Mark Richt did just fine by most standards in signing talent, developing it was another story) and has added even more. There’s also the fact he used to Nick Saban’s right-hand man. Until Smart shows he can win as a head coach, however, the media should favor the coach who has actually proven himself: Jim McElwain.

The media apparently thinks McElwain will do less with more, despite the past two seasons indicating the opposite.

McElwain has already turned one program around. When McElwain took over at Colorado State, the Rams were coming off three consecutive 3-9 seasons. In McElwain’s first season, CSU was 4-8 (not a drastic improvement). In the second season, the Rams were 8-6. After guiding Colorado State to a 10-2 season in Year 3, Florida came calling.

At UF, McElwain has become the first coach in SEC history to make it to the conference championship game in each of his first two seasons. He hasn’t beaten Alabama (or FSU) yet, but McElwain is 11-1 against SEC East foes in the regular season.

The cross-division games obviously matter, but taking care of business in the division often decides the SEC East race. It doesn’t hurt that McElwain is 2-0 against Georgia and the Gators have won the past three in the series.

2. Home field advantage: McElwain’s other 11-1

Florida and Georgia play annually on a neutral field, but when and who each team plays at home factors heavily into the division race.

Under McElwain, Florida is 11-1 against SEC teams in the regular season and 11-1 at home. This season, those numbers are especially important. Due to last year’s Florida-LSU game being moved from Gainesville to Baton Rouge, the Gators have only three road games (Missouri, Kentucky and South Carolina) while Tennessee, LSU and Texas A&M all come to The Swamp.

Georgia, meanwhile, will have to go on the road for two of its toughest conference contests, Tennessee and Auburn. The Volunteers, meanwhile, have to go to Gainesville and Tuscaloosa, places where they haven’t won in over a decade.

While the Wildcats and Gamecocks both have offseason buzz as potential sleepers, Florida has what looks to be the most favorable road schedule among the division’s likely contenders.

3. Florida led the media vote for preseason All-SEC players in the division.

When the media’s preseason All-SEC team was revealed, it featured eight players from Georgia and 10 players from Florida (including S Marcell Harris, who is now out for the year with a torn Achilles’ tendon). Despite members voting more Gators to the All-SEC team, it was still the Bulldogs who received more votes to finish first in the division.

To be fair to UGA, the Dawgs had more first-team selections (4) than the Gators (2). There’s room for debate as to whether more first-team selections or more overall selections points to the better team, but it shows that the two teams are pretty much even in impact players who will take the field on Oct. 28.

When the talent is even, it comes down to coaching — and McElwain is the proven coach. The media apparently thinks McElwain will do less with more, despite the past two seasons indicating the opposite.

4. All signs point to the Gators’ offense being better in 2017.

It’s no secret that the Gators struggled on offense the past two seasons, finishing at or near the bottom in total offense and scoring. Despite that, they still managed to win the SEC East.

There are only two starting spots to fill on offense heading into this season, left guard and quarterback. With three recruiting classes signed, McElwain has rebuilt the offensive line, receiving corps and running back rotation to fit his system. With so many pieces in place, ESPN’s Tom Luginbill and Phil Steele have each said they see Florida as a potential playoff team if the Gators get production from their quarterback.

Perhaps the media members who didn’t vote the Gators first in the SEC East had this line of thinking: Florida has been carried by its defense the past two seasons, and lost an alarming number of starters (8) on that side of the ball. Despite the losses on defense, media members still recognized that the squad has All-SEC on the defensive line (DE Cece Jefferson, DE Jabari Zuniga) and in the secondary (CB Duke Dawson).

There might be a drop on defense this year, but the offense should pick up the slack, finally.

5. The Vols had momentum. The Dawgs don’t.

A year ago, a number of Florida fans cried foul when Tennessee emerged as the media’s pick to win the SEC East. Nobody asked for my pick, but truth be told, the Volunteers would have had it this time last year.

By winning 7-of-8 to close out the 2015 campaign with so many key pieces returning, there was a strong argument that Tennessee had momentum heading into the 2016 campaign, especially after its 45-6 thumping of Northwestern in the Outback Bowl.

Meanwhile, Florida had ended its previous season on a three-game losing skid, and two other recent contenders (Georgia and Missouri) were changes coaches. There were legitimate reasons Tennessee was the SEC East’s “it team” heading into the season even after Florida had won the division.

Entering 2017, none of the six other SEC East teams can believably boast about having the momentum to unseat Florida.

On paper, UGA looks like it has a case. The Bulldogs won four of their final five games to end the season. When ones looks closer, however, those were hardly momentum wins.

The 13-7 upset of then-No. 8 Auburn is notable, but it came when Tigers QB Sean White played hurt (6-of-20 passing) and AU was without top RB Kamryn Pettway. A two-touchdown victory over Louisiana-Lafayette (35-21) and one-score wins over Kentucky (27-24) and TCU (31-23) don’t exactly move the needle.