Summer polls: The SEC's top coaches

Since it's summer now - maybe not on the official summer calendar, but on the football one - you're going to start seeing a lot of so-called fluff. And we here at The Blog That Needs Content, we're only happy to oblige.

Down in Destin last week, a Knoxville, Tenn., radio station asked media members to vote in a poll: Name the top six football and men’s basketball coaches in the league, and then the top 12 combined.

Here were the final results:

Football Coaches

1. Nick Saban, Alabama
2. Steve Spurrier, South Carolina
3. Bobby Petrino, Arkansas
4. Les Miles, LSU
5. Gene Chizik, Auburn
6. Mark Richt, Georgia

Basketball Coaches

1. Billy Donovan, Florida
2. John Calipari, Kentucky
3. Kevin Stallings, Vanderbilt
4. Mike Anderson, Arkansas
5. Anthony Grant, Alabama
6. Mark Fox, Georgia and Rick Stansbury, Mississippi State

Top 12 Coaches Overall

1. Nick Saban, Alabama
2. Billy Donovan, Florida
3. John Calipari, Kentucky
4. Steve Spurrier, South Carolina
5. Bobby Petrino, Arkansas
6. Les Miles, LSU
7. Kevin Stallings, Vanderbilt
8. Gene Chizik, Auburn
9. Mark Richt, Georgia
10. Mike Anderson, Arkansas
11. Dan Mullen, Mississippi State
12. Anthony Grant, Alabama

Here's a link to the breakdown of votes.

And, because you know you're curious, here's how yours truly voted:

Football coaches

1. Nick Saban
2. Steve Spurrier
3. Bobby Petrino
4. Dan Mullen
5. Mark Richt
6. Les Miles

Basketball coaches

1. John Calipari
2. Billy Donovan
3. Kevin Stallings
4. Mike Anderson
5. Anthony Grant
6. Mark Fox

Top 12 coaches combined

1. Saban
2. Calipari
3. Donovan
4. Spurrier
5. Stallings
6. Anderson
7. Petrino
8. Grant
9. Mullen
10. Richt
11. Fox
12. Stansbury

A few quick bullet points:

- My criteria was basically this: If I wanted a coach for the next couple seasons, who would I want. So that allows for a bit of projecting (in the cases of Mullen and Grant) and reliance on track record (Spurrier, Richt). And it also includes what coaches did outside the SEC, such as Anderson's track record at Missouri, and Fox and Grant at mid-major schools.

- Yeah, I didn't pick Chizik, despite being a few months off winning a national championship. For the moment, I still see Gus Malzahn as the top coach on that staff, with Cam Newton and Nick Fairley also being a bigger difference than Chizik, whose career record is still just three games over .500 (27-24). But maybe he'll prove me wrong.

- Relative to each sport, it sure looks like the SEC has a deeper trove of basketball coaches at the moment. Thanks to turnover, the football coaches are heavy on unproven coaches (Derek Dooley, James Franklin, Joker Phillips) and previously successful coaches whose seats are getting hot (Richt, Houston Nutt and arguably Miles.)

All that said, while I did put a lot of thought into it, like everyone else I voted while on stakeout in a hotel lobby, possibly while hungry. So blame any major oversights on that.