2009 Southeastern Conference football season

2009 Southeastern Conference football season

League	NCAA Division I FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision)
Sport	football
Duration	September 3, 2009 through January 7, 2010
Number of teams	12
TV partner/s	CBS, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network, FSN, CSS
Regular Season
East champions	Florida Gators
West champions	Alabama Crimson Tide
SEC Championship Game
SEC Championship Game champions	Alabama Crimson Tide
SEC Championship Game MVP	Mark Ingram, Alabama
Football seasons
← 2008	2010 →


2009 SEC football standings
Team	W		L	W		L
Eastern Division
#3 Florida ^x‡	8	–	0	13	–	1
Georgia	4	–	4	8	–	5
Tennessee	4	–	4	7	–	6
South Carolina	3	–	5	7	–	6
Kentucky	3	–	5	7	–	6
Vanderbilt	0	–	8	2	–	10
Western Division
#1 Alabama ^x†	8	–	0	14	–	0
#17 LSU	5	–	3	9	–	4
#20 Ole Miss	4	–	4	9	–	4
Arkansas	3	–	5	8	–	5
Auburn	3	–	5	8	–	5
Mississippi State	3	–	5	5	–	7
Championship: #2 Alabama 32, #1 Florida 13 December 5, 2009
† – BCS representative as champion ‡ – BCS at-large representative x – Division champion/co-champions Rankings from AP Poll

The 2009 Southeastern Conference football season started on Thursday, September 3 as conference member South Carolina visited North Carolina State. The conference’s other 11 teams began their respective 2009 season of NCAA Division I FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) competition on Saturday, September 5.^[1] All teams started their season at home except Kentucky, who started their season on neutral turf at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio against Miami (OH), Georgia, who traveled to Oklahoma State, and Alabama, who traveled to the Georgia Dome to face Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A College Kickoff for the second straight year.

1 Bowl games
2 Awards and All-SEC Teams
3 Rankings
4 SEC vs. BCS matchups
5 Previous season
6 Preseason
7 References

Bowl games

The SEC was the second conference to send 10 teams to bowl games in a given year. The ACC was the first to do so in 2008.

Bowl Game	Date	Stadium	Location	TV	Matchup winner bolded	Payout (US$)
Independence Bowl	December 28, 2009	Independence Bowl	Shreveport, LA	ESPN	Georgia vs. Texas A&M	$1,100,000
PapaJohns.com Bowl	January 2, 2010	Legion Field	Birmingham, AL	ESPN	South Carolina vs. Connecticut	$300,000
Liberty Bowl	January 2, 2010	Liberty Bowl	Memphis, TN	ESPN	Arkansas vs. East Carolina	$1,700,000
Music City Bowl	December 27, 2009	LP Field	Nashville, TN	ESPN	Kentucky vs. Clemson	$1,600,000
Chick-fil-A Bowl	December 31, 2009	Georgia Dome	Atlanta, GA	ESPN	Tennessee vs. Virginia Tech	$3,005,000
Cotton Bowl Classic	January 2, 2010	Cowboys Stadium	Arlington, TX	FOX	Ole Miss vs. Oklahoma State	$3,000,000
Outback Bowl	January 1, 2010	Raymond James Stadium	Tampa, FL	ESPN	Auburn vs. Northwestern	$3,300,000
Capital One	January 1, 2010	Citrus Bowl	Orlando, FL	ABC	LSU vs. Penn State	$4,250,000
Sugar Bowl	January 1, 2010	Louisiana Superdome	New Orleans, LA	FOX	Florida vs. Cincinnati	$18,000,000
BCS Championship Game	January 7, 2010	Rose Bowl	Pasadena, CA	ABC	Alabama vs. Texas	$18,000,000

Awards and All-SEC Teams

2009 AP All-SEC First Team^[2]

Offense

Position	Name	Height	Weight (lbs.)	Class	Hometown	Team
QB	Tim Tebow	6'4"	240	Sr.	Jacksonville, FL, U.S.	Florida
RB	Mark Ingram	5'10"	215	So.	Flint, MI, U.S.	Alabama
RB	Anthony Dixon	6'1"	235	Sr.	Jackson, MS, U.S.	Mississippi State
WR	A.J. Green	6'4"	205	So.	Summerville, SC, U.S.	Georgia
WR	Shay Hodge	6'2"	205	Sr.	Morton, MS, U.S.	Ole Miss
TE	Aaron Hernandez	6'2"	250	Sr.	Bristol, CT, U.S.	Florida
LT	Ciron Black	6'5"	322	Sr.	Tyler, TX, U.S.	LSU
LG	Mike Pouncey	6'5"	320	Jr.	Lakeland, FL, U.S.	Florida
C	Maurkice Pouncey	6'5"	320	Jr.	Lakeland, FL, U.S.	Florida
RG	Mike Johnson	6'6"	305	Sr.	Pensacola, FL, U.S.	Alabama
RT	John Jerry	6'6"	335	Sr.	Batesville, MS, U.S.	Ole Miss
All-Purpose	Randall Cobb	5'11"	190	So.	Alcoa, TN, U.S.	Kentucky
All-Purpose	Dexter McCluster	5'9"	170	Sr.	Largo, FL, U.S.	Ole Miss

Defense

Position	Name	Height	Weight (lbs.)	Class	Hometown	Team
DE	Antonio Coleman	6'3"	257	Sr.	Mobile, AL, U.S.	Auburn
DT	Terrance Cody	6'5"	350	Sr.	Fort Myers, FL, U.S.	Alabama
DT	Dan Williams	6'3"	325	Sr.	Memphis, TN, U.S.	Tennessee
DE	Carlos Dunlap	6'6"	290	Jr.	North Charleston, SC, U.S.	Florida
LB	Rolando McClain	6'4"	255	Jr.	Decatur, AL, U.S.	Alabama
LB	Eric Norwood	6'1"	250	Sr.	Acworth, GA, U.S.	South Carolina
LB	Rennie Curran	5'11"	220	Jr.	Atlanta, GA, U.S.	Georgia
DB	Javier Arenas	5'11"	200	Sr.	Tampa, FL, U.S.	Alabama
DB	Joe Haden	5'11"	185	Jr.	Fort Washington, MD, U.S.	Florida
S	Eric Berry	5'11"	200	Jr.	Fairburn, GA, U.S.	Tennessee
S	Mark Barron	6'2"	215	So.	Mobile, AL, U.S.	Alabama

Rankings

**Legend**
		Improvement in ranking
		Drop in ranking
		Not ranked previous week
RV		Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll

		Pre	Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Final
Alabama	AP	5	4	4	3	3	3	2	1	2	3	3	2	2	2	1	1
	C	5	4	4	3	3	3	3	2	2	3	3	3	3	3	1	1
	BCS	Not released							2	2	3	2	2	2	2	2
Arkansas	AP	RV	RV	RV	RV			RV	RV
	C	RV	RV	RV	RV		RV	RV	RV
	BCS	Not released
Auburn	AP	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	17	RV	RV
	C	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	19	RV	RV	RV
	BCS	Not released
Florida	AP	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1
	C	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
	BCS	Not released							1	1	1	1	1	1
Georgia	AP	13	21	23	21	18	RV
	C	13	21	20	17	14	RV		RV	RV
	BCS	Not released
Kentucky	AP
	C	RV	RV	RV	RV
	BCS	Not released
LSU	AP	11	11	9	7	4	4	10	9	9
	C	9	9	7	7	4	4	10	10	9
	BCS	Not released							9	9
Mississippi State	AP
	C
	BCS	Not released
Ole Miss	AP	8	6	5	4	21	20	RV	RV	24
	C	10	8	6	5	18	16	RV	25	22
	BCS	Not released								25
South Carolina	AP	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	25	22	23	21
	C	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	22	23	21
	BCS	Not released							24	22
Tennessee	AP	RV	RV
	C	RV	RV
	BCS	Not released
Vanderbilt	AP
	C
	BCS	Not released

SEC vs. BCS matchups

Date	Visitor	Home	Winner
September 3	South Carolina	NC State	South Carolina
September 5	Georgia	Oklahoma State	Oklahoma State
September 5	Alabama	Virginia Tech	Alabama
September 5	LSU	Washington	LSU
September 12	UCLA	Tennessee	UCLA
September 19	Louisville	Kentucky	Kentucky
September 19	West Virginia	Auburn	Auburn
September 26	Arizona State	Georgia	Georgia
October 3	Arkansas	Texas A&M	Arkansas
October 3	Georgia Tech	Mississippi State	Georgia Tech
October 31	Georgia Tech	Vanderbilt	Georgia Tech
November 28	Florida State	Florida	Florida
November 28	Clemson	South Carolina	South Carolina
November 28	Georgia	Georgia Tech	Georgia

Previous season

During the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season, Florida and Alabama won their respective divisions and met in the 2008 SEC Championship Game which Florida won 31–20. Florida went on to win the 2009 BCS National Championship while SEC Runner-Up Alabama lost in the Sugar Bowl. Georgia was the heavy favorite to win the SEC in the pre-season, but did not live up to the hype. The Bulldogs, however, did finish strong winning the Capital One Bowl. Other bowl winners include Chick-fil-A Bowl champion LSU, Cotton Bowl Classic champion Ole Miss, Liberty Bowl champion Kentucky, Music City Bowl champion Vanderbilt

Preseason

Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin begins his first season in Knoxville. Kiffin is a former head coach of the Oakland Raiders and assistant coach at USC. Gene Chizik also begins his first season as head coach at Auburn.

In a given year, each SEC team will play its five other division foes plus three opposing division opponents. Each team has a set opposing division opponent. The other teams from the division are on a rotation, playing a home/away series every five seasons.

Western Division	Eastern Division	Series Record
Auburn	Georgia	53-51-8^[3]
Alabama	Tennessee	46-38-7^[4]
Ole Miss	Vanderbilt	46-35-2^[5]
LSU	Florida	23-30-3^[6]
Mississippi State	Kentucky	16-20^[7]
Arkansas	South Carolina	10-7^[8]

The Southeastern Conference announced on July 22 that the SEC media had elected Florida and Alabama as the preseason favorites for their divisions for the 2009 football season. It chose Florida quarterback Tim Tebow as the Preseason Offensive Player of the Year and Tennessee cornerback Eric Berry as the Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.

In the preseason Coaches' Poll released on August 7, the SEC was one of only three conferences with multiple teams ranked in the top ten. Florida was elected pre-season #1 while Alabama, LSU, Ole Miss, and Georgia also were in the top 25.

References

^ "Ohio State Named Preseason Favorite for 2009 Football Season: Buckeyes' Pryor and Michigan State's Jones earn individual preseason honors". CBS Interactive. 2009-07-27. http://www.bigten.org/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/072709aaa.html. Retrieved 2009-08-24.
^ "2009 AP All-SEC honors". Courier-Journal. 2008-12-07. Archived from the original on 2009-12-07. http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20091207/SPORTS03/912070342/Kentucky+s+Cobb+named+to+All-SEC+first+team. Retrieved 2009-07-16.
^ Auburn-Georgia series record
^ Alabama-Tennessee series record
^ Ole Miss-Vanderbilt series record
^ LSU-Florida series record
^ Mississippi St.-Kentucky series record
^ Arkansas-South Carolina series record

Southeastern Conference football

Eastern Division	Florida Gators Georgia Bulldogs Kentucky Wildcats Missouri Tigers South Carolina Gamecocks Tennessee Volunteers Vanderbilt Commodores

Western Division	Alabama Crimson Tide Arkansas Razorbacks Auburn Tigers LSU Tigers Mississippi State Bulldogs Ole Miss Rebels Texas A&M Aggies

Championships & awards	SEC Championship Game Southeastern Conference football individual awards SEC Football Legends

Seasons	2009 2010 2011

2009 NCAA Division I FBS football season

Conference seasons	ACC • Big 12 • Big East • Big Ten • Conference USA • Mid-American • Mountain West • Pac-10 • SEC • Sun Belt • WAC

Bowl season	2009–10 NCAA football bowl games

All-Americans	2009 College Football All-America Team