The 2024 SEC Media Days have come to a close and with them we have our media predictions for this season’s SEC football. Where did Mississippi State football finish in the SEC predicted standings and did they name any players to the All-SEC preseason teams?

It was a long-standing tradition for Mississippi State to be picked last in the SEC West at SEC Media Days. Now that the league has abolished divisions with Texas and Oklahoma joining, the Bulldogs can technically no longer be picked last in the West. But they could have easily been picked last in the West, given where the media has pegged them.

SEC Media voted Mississippi State 15th in the SEC, behind only Vanderbilt and all other traditional West teams. Georgia was voted league champion with Texas as runner-up. State plays six of the top nine teams in the media poll.

As mentioned, it’s not new that the SEC media has underrated State. Since 2009, MSU has been picked last in the SEC West five times. They’ve only finished last twice, and they’ve exceeded media expectations nine times. We’ll see if that holds true in the non-divisional era.

Not only were the Bulldogs picked low in the pecking order, no MSU players were selected to any of the three preseason All-SEC teams. I was able to find preseason All-SEC selections going back to 2002, and MSU has had at least one player named preseason All-SEC every year since then. And given the talent in Starkville under Jackie Sherrill prior to 2002, you’d imagine the Bulldogs weren’t without a preseason selection in those years either.

As unprecedented as it is for State to be without a preseason All-SEC player, it’s not entirely surprising. The Bulldogs don’t have any big names on the roster, at least not at the SEC level. I can understand the media going with the more proven players in the league.

That said, if State can exceed preseason expectations, as it did so many times in Jeff Lebby’s first season, there’s a good chance multiple Bulldogs will earn All-SEC honors when they really matter at the end of the year.