Phil Steele's All-SEC Team Announced

Phil Steele has revealed his All-SEC teams today, and they have a distinct reddish tint. Alabama has the most players on it with 16 (plus two duplicates in the return guys), followed by Georgia with 14 (one duplicate) and Arkansas (one duplicate). The remaining teams go as follows: Florida (12), South Carolina (10), LSU (9), Ole Miss (7), Kentucky (6), Mississippi State (6), Tennessee (6), Vanderbilt (6), and Auburn (3). That last place finish for Auburn explains why he picked those Tigers last in the West division.

To get a better picture, here is how the offense (no returners) ended up. For the "score," I assigned four points for a first team selection, three for a second team selection, two for a third team selection, and one for a fourth team selection:

The first team offense is almost entirely composed of players from those top four schools. The only interlopers are offensive linemen Bradley Sowell from Ole Miss and Larry Warford from Kentucky. Aaron Murray was the first team quarterback as expected, with Trent Richardson and Marcus Lattimore holding down the top running back selections. The only thing that jumped out at me as weird was his selection of Chris Rainey as a second team wide receiver; Charlie Weis has said Rainey will be back to playing only running back this season.

Conspicuous in his absence is Stephen Garcia, as the other quarterbacks (in order) are Tyler Wilson, Tyler Bray, and John Brantley. I have to assume Garcia was left off because of his suspension; I can't imagine anyone picking Bray and Brantley over Garcia right now.

Here's the same thing for the defense (no kickers or punters):

Alabama far and away has the most value here, though I'm impressed at Arkansas's total. By Steele's reckoning, Arkansas is clearly ahead of LSU in terms of top-end players; I wouldn't be surprised to see him pick the Razorbacks second in the West. Auburn's sole rep is LB Daren Bates, if you're curious.