Let's have a show of hands, please.

After the first month of the college football season, how many of you thought that Vanderbilt (4-1, 2-0 SEC) would be co-leaders of the SEC's Eastern Division?

How many of you thought Alabama (5-0, 3-0) would be leading the West?

If there's one person out there who believed both things would happen, then you need to start your psychic hotline.

Usually as the weather starts to chill, with October kicking in the true fall football weather, you have a good idea on the contenders and pretenders in the SEC.

But this season, because of some new coaches, some new quarterbacks and a couple of hurricanes named Katrina and Rita, there's some unknown as well as some known.

The known

Alabama has the experience, the talent, the leadership and the favorable remaining schedule to win the West and the league.

If the Tide continues to win, and quarterback Brodie Croyle continues dissecting defenses, he'll be named league MVP.

The winner of Saturday's Georgia (4-0, 2-0 in the East) at Tennessee (3-1, 2-1 in the East) game may very well win the Eastern Division. If the Vols get past Georgia, they have an open date before Alabama. After that, the SEC finish is South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Kentucky.

LSU (2-1, 1-1 in the West) has a tremendous amount of talent, but the change in coaches from hard-nosed Nick Saban to mild Les Miles doesn't seem to initially fit this team's personality. The Tigers' season will be decided in back-to-back home games against Florida and Auburn Oct. 15 and Oct. 22.

The final score of this year's Egg Bowl between Ole Miss (1-3, 0-2 in the West) and Mississippi State (2-3, 0-3 in the West) might be 6-3 in overtime. These teams struggle to get first downs.

Kentucky (1-3, 0-1 in the East), with injuries galore, will finish last in the league, and should already be shopping for a coach to replace Rich Brooks.

The talent level at South Carolina (2-3, 0-3 in the East) is much worse than first-year coach Steve Spurrier feared. After a couple more games, he wouldn't mind canceling the rest of the season so he and his staff could recruit full-time.

The unknown

Auburn (4-1, 2-0 in the West) is the mystery team of the season. After losing the opener to Georgia Tech, the Tigers have won four straight over two SEC bottom feeders (South Carolina and Mississippi State) and over two Division 1-AA teams.

It really doesn't matter that the Tigers lead the SEC in scoring offense (38 points per game) or scoring defense (9.8).

The last six games of their SEC schedule provide more of a test, including road games at Arkansas, LSU and Georgia.

Tennessee's offense, supposedly deep and talented on the line and at receiver, is eighth in the SEC in total offense (330.8 yards per game) and 10th in scoring (20.2).

The Vols have shown no big-play capability, but then again they rarely throw the ball downfield.

Will this offense ever erupt for four quarters this season? It never really happened consistently last season, either, until the Vols got to face weaker defenses late in the year.