Bucking the trend

The release of the media's preseason All-SEC picks saw no Missouri players in the top two teams, continuing a trend since the Tigers moved to the SEC prior to the 2012 season.

This year, Missouri's only nods were to linebacker Kentrell Brothers and center Evan Boehm on the third team. A year ago, Boehm was also a preseason third-team inclusion.

Since switching conferences, Missouri's lone second-team preseason inclusion was Markus Golden, prior to the 2014 season. They have yet to have a first-round preseason pick.

However, that hasn't meant much when it comes to Missouri's success the past two years. In 2013 and 2014, Missouri had the biggest positive discrepancy when it comes to preseason first-team selections versus postseason (AP) first-team selections. In that time frame, as the chart below shows, Missouri has had no preseason picks, but six postseason picks.

In that time frame, Missouri is 23-5 overall, and tied for the best conference record at 14-2.

Coincidentally, the team it's tied with has the lead in largest negative discrepancy. Alabama had 14 preseason first-team selections in 2013 and 2014, and eight postseason first-team selections in that span -- a difference of six. Alabama's eight postseason selections in that span ranked first in the SEC.

Missouri and Mississippi State tied for second with six total selections.

Five schools had a negative discrepancy over the 2013-2014 seasons: Alabama, Florida, LSU, Tennesee and Texas A&M. Of that group, only Alabama and LSU had a winning conference record.

Six schools had a positive discrepancy over that same period. In that group, only Kentucky had a losing record.