HOOVER, Ala. — The SEC will release its official preseason order of finish Thursday afternoon.

Keep in mind, the media rarely get this right. They picked Auburn to win the SEC championship in 2015, and the Tigers finished seventh in the West. Just three times in the past 20 seasons did the SEC media’s preseason favorite finish on top.

Here’s how the Saturday Down South staff voted (John Crist, Kevin Duffey and Chris Wright submitted official ballots) for 2016:

John Crist, Senior Writer

East order of finish: 1. Tennessee, 2. Georgia, 3. Florida, 4. Kentucky, 5. Missouri, 6. Vanderbilt, 7. South Carolina.

West order of finish: 1. Alabama, 2. LSU, 3. Ole Miss, 4. Texas A&M, 5. Auburn, 6. Arkansas, 7. Mississippi State.

SEC champion: Alabama.

Jon Cooper, SDS co-founder

East: 1. Tennessee, 2. Florida, 3. Georgia, 4. Vanderbilt, 5. Mizzou, 6. Kentucky, 7. South Carolina.

West: 1. Alabama, 2. Texas A&M, 3. LSU, 4. Arkansas, 5. Ole Miss, 6. Auburn, 7. Mississippi State.

SEC champion: Alabama.

Kevin Duffey, SDS co-founder

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

West: 1. Alabama, 2. Ole Miss, 3. Texas A&M, 4. LSU, 5. Arkansas, 6. Auburn, 7. Mississippi State.

SEC champion: Tennessee.

Talal Elmasry, Editor

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

West: 1. LSU, 2. Alabama, 3. Ole Miss, 4. Texas A&M, 5. Arkansas, 6. Auburn, 7. Mississippi State.

SEC champion: LSU.

Chris Wright, Executive Editor

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

West: 1. LSU, 2. Ole Miss, 3. Alabama, 4. Texas A&M, 5. Auburn, 6. Arkansas, 7. Mississippi State.

SEC champion: Tennessee

Takeaways: Three of us aren’t convinced the Tide will continue to roll. The biggest takeaway on my ballot obviously was not picking Alabama to even finish second. Of course the Tide can win again. It’s been noted, ad nauseam, all week, that Nick Saban’s bunch has won without relying on its quarterback. It’s won with new quarterbacks and transfer quarterbacks.

But these other guys are on scholarship, too.

The difference between those teams and this team is those offenses returned proven backfield stars. This team returns unproven running backs with impeccable recruiting resumes.

It very well might not matter, but if you’re ever going to get Alabama, 2016 is the year to do it. Next year, all of those backfield question marks become exclamation points.

Likewise, if the East is ever going to rise and end its title drought, it rarely will set up better than it is this fall.

Chris Wright is Executive Editor at SaturdayDownSouth.com. Email him at cwright@saturdaydownsouth.com.