Junior Cobie Vance was a first team preseason All-SEC team, the league office announced on Thursday morning. Vance was Alabama’s lone representative on the two preseason all-conference teams.
Alabama was also picked to finish last in the conference in a poll among league coaches. The Crimson Tide, coming off a season in which it finished 5-24-1 in the SEC, received the fewest points of any of the 14 teams in the league.
Vance has been Alabama’s everyday starter at second base for the last two seasons. He has started 112 games in his career. Vance hit .293 with 11 doubles and one triple last season, driving in 32 runs. He drew 24 walks and struck out 24 times, posting an on-base percentage of .360. He turned 40 double plays and had five errors on the season. He has worked mostly at third base during practice this spring.
Junior Chandler Taylor, who was named second-team All-SEC as an outfielder last season, was left off the list.
Florida received 12 votes as the favorite to win the conference. Coaches could not vote for their own team. Alabama and Auburn were picked to finish in a tie for last in the West in last year’s preseason poll. Alabama was picked to finish last in the West in the 2015 preseason poll.
Here is the order of finish as chosen by the coaches:
Eastern Division
- Florida – 91
- Kentucky – 74
- Vanderbilt – 72
- South Carolina – 50
- Georgia – 41
- Missouri – 32
- Tennessee – 25
Western Division
- Arkansas – 90
- Texas A&M – 72
- Ole Miss – 62
- LSU – 59
- Mississippi State – 44
- Auburn – 38
- Alabama – 20
