Now that the regular season is over, it’s time to take stock. Did your team meet, exceed or fall short of expectations?

Everybody has different expectations and opinions, of course. For our purposes we’re using the preseason media poll from football’s SEC Media Days as the barometer, and that predicted order is the order we’re using.

East division

Georgia (picked first) — 11-1 overall, 7-1 SEC, division champions

Georgia has been to a bowl each year since 1996, the longest streak in the SEC.

In a word, Georgia has been steady. A lot of teams would crumble after losing a starting quarterback early in the season (yes, Florida State, I’m looking at you). The Bulldogs? Next man up, and keep the foot on the gas. Jake Fromm was fine in replacing the injured Jacob Eason, but Fromm was never expected to lift the whole offense on his shoulders anyway, not with perhaps the nation’s top 1-2 running back punch in Nick Chubb and Sony Michel behind him. That ground game is the biggest reason Georgia sailed into Saturday’s SEC title showdown with Auburn.

Verdict: Slightly exceeded expectations.

Florida (picked second) — 4-7, 3-5, fifth in East

Florida sank quickly in the SEC East race for the same reason its division-winning teams couldn’t come close to Alabama in the past two SEC championship games: Poor offense. The Gators were 111th in the country in total offense this season, and the failure to move the ball was one of the reasons the school parted ways with coach Jim McElwain. But this year was just part of a trend — Florida was 116th in total offense last season and 112th in 2015. Feleipe Franks is probably going to have to convince Dan Mullen and the next coaching staff that he should be the starting quarterback.

Verdict: Fell well short.

Tennessee (picked third) — 4-8, 0-8, seventh

Goodness, where to start? How about this: The Vols went 0-8 in the SEC for the first time in program history and set a school record with eight losses. Before Saturday, Tennessee and Ohio State were the only programs that had never lost more than seven times in one season. Sure, coach Butch Jones deserves a ton of blame — Tennessee’s administration must have thought so too because it fired Jones before the season ended. So Jones’ ineffectiveness, and his inability to establish a quarterback, has to be the top reason for the Vols’ failures. Don’t forget all those injuries, though.

Verdict: Fell well short.

South Carolina (picked fourth) — 8-4, 5-3, second

The Gamecocks quietly put together a pretty solid season in Year 2 of the Will Muschamp regime. Why? Quarterback Jake Bentley’s success in his first full season as starter is a good place to begin. Bentley threw for 2,555 yards, 16 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while completing 62.4 percent of his passes. He will want to cut down on mistakes entering his junior season, but he did a pretty decent job considering the fact that his top returning target, Deebo Samuel, missed most of the season with a broken leg. Verdict: Exceeded expectations.

Kentucky (picked fifth) — 7-5, 4-4, tied for third

The Wildcats lost to Florida and Ole Miss in the final minute, which kept this season from being truly special. Still, Kentucky has made steady progress under coach Mark Stoops and, with a bowl victory, can reach eight wins for the first time since 2007. Exciting sophomore running back Benny Snell Jr. has led the Wildcats’ resurgence, gaining 1,318 rushing yards to lead the SEC in the regular season. He also led the conference with 18 rushing touchdowns and, with 108 points, is third in scoring.

Verdict: Exceeded expectations.

Credit: Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports

Vanderbilt (picked sixth) — 5-7, 1-7, sixth

Derek Mason’s bunch wasn’t expected to compete for a conference title — except by one voter at SEC Media Days who picked the Commodores to win the league championship — but Vanderbilt might have struggled a bit more than most expected. After finishing sixth in the SEC in total defense last season, the Commodores took a step back this year, falling to ninth in that category. The Commodores allowed at least 40 points five times, and those defensive struggles were a main reason Vandy fell one win short of being bowl eligible.

Verdict: Slightly fell short.

Missouri (picked seventh) — 7-5, 4-4, tied for third

Mizzou is seventh in the Football Bowl Subdivision in total offense, 14th in passing offense and 11th in scoring.

It seems a bit obvious to point to a quarterback when analyzing a team’s success or failure. But when a quarterback breaks the conference record for touchdown passes in a season (43) and leads the nation in that category, there’s really no other place to start. Drew Lock and the Mizzou offense, despite missing top tailback Damarea Crockett for a good chunk of the season, lit up scoreboards in rattling off six consecutive victories to complete a comeback from a 1-5 start. The Tigers led the SEC in points (39.3) and yards (511.5) per game.

Verdict: Pole-vaulted expectations.

West Division

Alabama (picked first) — 11-1, 7-1, tied for first, lost tiebreaker

How on earth is an 11-1 season falling short of expectations? Where is that even a thing? Only in Tuscaloosa. It seems cruel to say that this team fell short after being ranked atop the AP poll for the first 12 weeks of the season. So we’re not going to. The Crimson Tide was an overwhelming favorite to win the SEC championship and they are not going to do that, so technically one could say they did not meet expectations. Why? They ran into a healthy, peaking Auburn team on the road at a time when Alabama was not quite playing its best. That’s all. So sue me if I buck convention and say….

Verdict: Met expectations, sort of.

Auburn (picked second) — 10-2, 7-1, division champions

After this team squandered a 20-0 lead and lost to LSU on Oct. 14, there were probably more people talking about how coach Gus Malzahn might be on the hot seat than talking about Auburn’s chances of winning the SEC. Only once this season has Auburn allowed more than 4.2 yards per carry in a game — that was in Saturday’s Iron Bowl victory, when Alabama gained 209 yards on 37 rushes. The front seven has been stout for the Tigers all season, led by Jeff Holland’s nine sacks. Auburn is 13th in FBS in total defense, giving support to an offense that has been gaining steam.

Verdict: Exceeded expectations.

Credit: Albert Cesare/Montgomery Advertiser via USA TODAY Sports

LSU (picked third) — 9-3, 6-2, third

This is an odd case. The Tigers defeated Auburn, which is in the SEC championship game. And there’s no shame in losing to Alabama. But a blowout loss to Mississippi State and a defeat against Troy — perhaps the most shocking result all season in the SEC — meant that this season was not quite all it could have been in Baton Rouge. Still, a return to the Citrus Bowl might well be on the cards for LSU, which has won six of its past seven behind a defense ranked 14th in the country. The Tigers were predicted to finish third in the West behind Alabama and Auburn, and they did. Verdict: Met expectations.

Arkansas (picked fourth) — 4-8, 1-7, seventh

The school literally could not wait to fire coach Bret Bielema after the Razorbacks lost their finale against Missouri. Such is life when a run of three straight winning seasons ends with such a thud. The Razorbacks were 93rd in FBS in total offense, 83rd in passing, 62nd in rushing. They were 104th in total defense, 92nd in passing defense and 100th in rushing D. Arkansas was 63rd in average yards per kick return, 34th in fewest kick return yards allowed and — hey, a highlight! — 14th in punt returns and 13th in punt return defense. The Hogs struggled because, well, they did almost nothing well.

Verdict: Fell well short.

Texas A&M (picked fifth) — 7-5, 4-4, tied for fourth

The Aggies pretty much exactly were what they have been for the past few seasons, and they pretty much exactly met expectations. And that, pretty much exactly, was the problem for Kevin Sumlin — the expectations for Texas A&M have fallen, and the team is barely meeting even those ambitions. Perhaps the biggest problem is happening well before a ball is snapped. In 247’s rankings of the top recruits in Texas in 2014, 2015 and 2016, a large share of recruits not only left their home state to play college ball, but did so for A&M’s SEC rivals. The next Aggies coach needs to hit the recruiting trail running.
Verdict: Met expectations, to the consternation of Aggies fans.

Mississippi State (picked sixth) — 8-4, 4-4, tied for fourth

Dan Mullen has brought MSU to eight bowls including this year; the program had been to just 13 before his arrival.

Dan Mullen went out with a really, really good record in Starkville. He had the second-most victories in school history — 69 in nine seasons, trailing only Jackie Sherrill’s 74. Among coaches with at least 40 games at the helm of the Bulldogs, Mullen’s .600 winning percentage is fourth best. One could point to MSU’s excellent defense this season, or Nick Fitzgerald’s production before he was injured, as reasons for the team’s record. But year after year Mississippi State has proven the pundits wrong because Dan Mullen assembled a roster and a system to compete with the best.

Verdict: Exceeded expectations.

Ole Miss (picked seventh) — 6-6, 3-5, sixth

The Rebels had every reason to quit on this season. They were facing a bowl ban as a result of NCAA sanctions, they lost their coach just before the season and their star quarterback, Shea Patterson, was lost for the season to an injury after seven games. Mississippi only finished one spot above where it was projected, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. The Rebels helped keep Vanderbilt out of a bowl, won at bowl-bound Kentucky and, of course, defeated rival MSU in Starkville to claim the Egg Bowl. Let’s not cite stats here and just say the Rebels reached .500 because they had guts. The administration must have noticed, removing the interim tag from coach Matt Luke.

Verdict: Exceeded expectations.