Aggies, Gators Picked Preseason #1s

Expansion made the Southeastern Conference stronger in 2012.

Maturation likely will make the league an even more dangerous place to navigate this season.

While league veteran University of Florida and newcomer Texas A&M University (ranked #9 and #12, respectively, in the NSCAA preseason poll), figure to lead the SEC, better health, solid recruiting classes, and another year to improve could make the league even deeper.

A year ago, the addition of Texas A&M and the University of Missouri from the Big 12 Conference helped push the SEC to 14 teams and the SEC tournament to a 10-team affair.

The Aggies and the Tigers didn’t disappoint in their inaugural seasons in the league, winning 19 and 14 games, respectively. A&M won the Western Division title, while Missouri finished fourth in the Eastern Division.

This season, programs that advanced to the SEC tournament — Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi, and South Carolina — and ones that didn’t — Georgia, Alabama, Vanderbilt, and Mississippi State — all have things working for them that they believe can help them climb the ladder in the league and help the SEC send more than six teams to the NCAA tournament like it did last year.

“We just added quality depth,” said Florida coach Becky Burleigh, whose team won the Eastern Division, the SEC regular-season title, and the tournament title. “I don’t think the SEC goes about adding teams lightly. The reason they did was they thought Texas A&M and Missouri would bring something to our conference, and in soccer they certainly did. … [show_disconnected][show_to accesslevel=’Subscriber’]The ability of those teams to be impactful lends itself to the strength of our conference.”

Florida and Texas A&M were eliminated in the third round of the NCAA tournament in 2012. This season, Texas A&M (eight votes) and Florida (six) were the coaches’ top choices for SEC champions.

But the road for both teams didn’t get any easier. In fact programs like Tennessee, with second-year coach Brian Pensky, and the University of Kentucky, with fifth-year coach Jon Lipsitz, figure to be growing stronger.

Tennessee won nine SEC games (14 overall) and was one of six league teams to advance to the NCAA tournament. Kentucky had the best season in program history. It won its first NCAA tournament game en route to a 14-win season, which included eight SEC victories.

The consistency of Missouri and the expected growth and maturation of South Carolina, Georgia, which brings in a nationally ranked recruiting class, and Vanderbilt, which returns high-scoring forward Cheyna Williams, is just half of the reason teams should face a battle every Friday and Sunday.

In the Western Division, coach G Guerrieri’s Aggies won 11 games in the league, including a 5-0-1 road record that earned them the distinction of being the only team not to lose a league game away from home.

This season, Texas A&M welcomes back Kelley Monogue, the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year and the Big 12 Rookie of the Year in 2012. Monogue recovered from a leg injury in 2012.

“In the end, (joining the SEC) was more than we expected,” Guerrieri said. “We felt very welcome. … We were able to continue to play our style and didn’t have to reinvent ourselves.”

Guerrieri said the physicality of the Big 12 Conference prepared him and his players for the level of athleticism in the SEC. He said the quality of the coaches, the facilities, and the fans made for a wonderful first season.

It also helped that the Aggies were second in goals (48) to Florida and tied with Tennessee (16) for fewest goals allowed. The Aggies did that in 25 games, which is even more impressive considering they allowed four goals in a season-ending loss to Florida State.

“I thought it was great for the league to have those two teams coming in,” Pensky said. “Texas A&M the last 10-12 years has been a pretty consistent top-15 team. They are doing very well and have good kids coming in in each of the next two or three years, and they’re going to continue to get better.”

Pensky could say similar things about the rest of the Western Division. Arkansas is coming off a six-win SEC season, its best in school history. LSU won nine games despite losing six one-goal games, while Ole Miss won 13 games, its best showing under coach Matthew Mott, and was on the bubble for making the NCAA tournament.

With Alabama coach Todd Bramble confident his team is on the right track with the addition of 10 freshmen to go with nine returning starters and the arrival of former Texas Tech University assistant/associate head coach Aaron Gordon at Mississippi State University, optimism is high at all league schools. The trick now is for those teams to do damage in their non-conference schedules and avoid knocking each other off so they can make strides to match the eight teams the league sent to the 2011 NCAA tournament.

“Being at Ole Miss for a long time, this is my 11th year in the SEC and it has gotten better and better every year with a new wave of coaches who have come into the league in the past couple of years,” Vanderbilt coach Derek Greene said. “It has changed the recruiting landscape.”

Greene said the SEC also benefits from a brand name he feels is recognized everywhere. He acknowledges the addition of Texas A&M and Missouri made life tougher, but he said the league coaches wouldn’t have had it any other way.

“We think the sky is the limit as far as this conference is concerned,” Greene said. “We really, really want to be at the top of the United States in women’s college soccer.”

Pensky feels the SEC is well on the way to realizing that goal, even if the latest conference shuffling changed the landscape and made other perennially strong conferences a little stronger.

“The bottom is coming up and the top half just keeps getting better,” said Pensky, who left his job a head women’s soccer coach at the University of Maryland to take the job at Tennessee.

“We’re excited. The ACC is still a giant, especially with Notre Dame coming into the league. With their combination of athletic and academic institutions, it is going to be a tough one for every conference to catch.

“But as a whole we can be a very competitive conference when it comes to going against the ACC. I think our bottom is going to be in competition to catch their bottom.”