Best Bet & Dark Horse To Win 2022 SEC Championship

With Week Zero of the college football season fast approaching, it’s worth analyzing the current odds to win this season’s SEC Championship, via BetOnline. The most competitive and talented conference in amateur football appears set to deliver several newsworthy storylines throughout the impending season. The SEC will produce a bunch of must-watch teams and NFL draft prospects in 2022.

The reigning SEC champions are the Alabama Crimson Tide, who defeated the Georgia Bulldogs in Atlanta last fall. Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs got their revenge, however, by beating the Tide in the National Championship game. These two fierce competitors will reignite their rivalry as they jockey for the title of conference winner.

The odds to win the SEC are as follows:

• Alabama (-115)
• Georgia (+165)
• Texas A&M (+900)
• Kentucky (+2800)
• Ole Miss (+3300)
• Florida (+4000)
• Tennessee (+4500)
• Arkansas (+5000)
• LSU (+5000)
• Auburn (+6600)

THE FAVORITE AND MY PICK: ALABAMA

The reigning champions are considered the odds-on favorite to capture their third consecutive conference title and 29th overall SEC championship. It’s easy to understand why Alabama is being viewed in such a favorable light. Alabama’s roster is littered with potential first-round NFL draft selections, including EDGE Will Anderson, cornerback Eli Ricks, and quarterback Bryce Young, all three of which rank inside TDN’s early top-10 prospects. Young won the Heisman Trophy in his first season as the starting signal-caller and Anderson captured a handful of defensive awards while looking like the NFL’s next dominant pass rusher. This pair will usher the program forward.

The Crimson Tide are so talented that their expectations for the 2022 campaign extend beyond winning the conference title. Alabama has made a habit of making the College Football Playoff its home since its inception in 2014, and similar success is expected. Alabama is aiming to reclaim its National Championship throne and it’s difficult to bet against them within the SEC.

A WORTHY NO. 1 CONTENDER: GEORGIA

As the reigning National Champions, the Bulldogs may feel slightly disrespected by the oddsmakers’ decision to view Alabama as such strong favorites to win the conference. BetOnline’s decision-makers surely view Georgia as a team that will experience a slight transition period in 2022. It makes sense. A staggering 15 Bulldogs were selected in the 2022 NFL Draft, more than any other program. Replacing that sort of talent, leadership, and production simply doesn’t happen overnight.

The majority of Georgia’s departing playmakers were defensive mainstays. Given that Georgia leaned on historically dominant defensive performances last season, their chances of dethroning Alabama as the conference champions will be a difficult task, especially without an elite quarterback on offense to make up the difference. Defensive line stud Jalen Carter will anchor Georgia’s new-look front seven, but several of his young teammates must take sizable steps forward if this unit hopes to live up to last season’s expectations.

Georgia remains a force to be reckoned with, both within the SEC and nationally, but they’re understandably trailing Alabama currently.

CONFERENCE DARK HORSE: TEXAS A&M

Texas A&M rightfully ranks ahead of Tennessee, Florida, and Kentucky. Texas A&M just enjoyed their best offseason in the Jimbo Fisher era. The Aggies finished with the consensus No. 1 recruiting class for the first time in modern recruiting history (thanks to NIL, according to Saban).

While the sky remains the limit for the new-look Aggies, they must actually accomplish their goals before we get ahead of ourselves and anoint them as immediately ready to compete with heavyweights such as Alabama and Georgia. The Aggies have yet to total a double-digit win season under Fisher. Despite defeating their arch-rival Crimson Tide last season for the first time since 2012, the Aggies finished the campaign a somewhat disappointing 8-4.

The SEC will likely be dominated by Alabama and Georgia once again, but Texas A&M remains a program on the rise.