It's Alabama and Florida in Next Year's SEC Championship Game

With the season not yet closed, it's obvious to those who cover football the stars all aligned to to see a rematch of Florida vs Alabama for another SEC championship match up.

Why so obvious?  Georgia is not up to matching the Gators this next year, Tennessee has fallen apart and is years from making any noteworthy noise, South Carolina is a second tier team, and Kentucky hit their high water mark a while ago.  And Vandy, well, another 6-6 mark would be worth dancing over.

Yes Florida could lose a lot of key players, but they are ready to reload.  With the playmakers they'll field, it should be no problem for the Gators to weed through the SEC teams they'll play.  And with the out of conference games with Charleston Southern and Florida International, they should come into the game with a good record.

They won't play Alabama in the regular season.  The tough games could be Troy at home, at LSU and maybe Florida State who they dismantled last year.  This could be another down year for the SEC as a whole.

The real power in the SEC next year will be Alabama.  They are losing less than a half a dozen starters, getting great players in key positions and could actually be better than this year. 

Combine a better team with a weaker schedule and Alabama will roll into another year of contending for a national championship. 

Alabama turned the key this year with a seemingly tough game to start the year.  They'll do so again next year opening with Virginia Tech in Atlanta.  Florida International, North Texas, a rebuilding Arkansas, and a lacking Kentucky team will help get off to a 5-0 start.

The toughest game could be the Ole Miss game in Oxford, and then it's South Carolina, a down and out Tennessee team, and an LSU team that's without it's Saban recruits and luck and suddenly it's 9-0.

That only leaves a streak of the sad three, Mississippi State, U-T Chattanooga and an Auburn team that's become a comedy punch line.  That puts the Tide back in familiar ground playing Florida for an SEC championship and another trip to the BCS Championship game.

It's not cockiness that builds this story, it's the absolute collapse of the SEC West that makes the story valid.  You can argue the point, but not the conclusion, Alabama and Florida will tangle in Atlanta again, and this time, Alabama wins.