Kickoff for the 2012 college football season is still two months away, but it's never too early to project how the year might play out. Athlon will be taking a look at how each position stacks up in the BCS conferences and nationally until the start of the season.

Each unit ranking was evaluated based upon how it will perform in 2012 - not how the team played in 2011.

Kickoff for the 2012 college football season is still two months away, but it's never too early to project how the year might play out. Athlon will be taking a look at how each position stacks up in the BCS conferences and nationally until the start of the season.

Each unit ranking was evaluated based upon how it will perform in 2012 - not how the team played in 2011.

College football expansion has taken over the hearts and minds of college football junkies everywhere.

The sky is falling, rivalries are dead and the future of college football is in great peril. I am here to tell you that this just simply isn’t the case. Conference realignment has been taking place for more than a century and it won’t stop anytime soon. Teams have been switching leagues, conferences have been created out of thin air and college football has powered through all the criticism and into the playoff era.

Welcome to the 2012 NCAA (National Conglomerate of Athlon Authorities) conference realignment draft.

Our esteemed conference commissioners -- Mitch Light, Braden Gall, Steven Lassan and David Fox -- will put an end to the conference realignment madness, which stretched into yet another summer this year, with the first (and hopefully, only) conference alignment draft.

The 2012 college football season is just around the corner, and Athlon continues its countdown to kickoff with a look at our first, second and third All-SEC teams for this season.

Related: Athlon Sports All-SEC Team As Recruits

Athlon's 2012 All-SEC Team

First-Team Offense

The 2012 college football season is just around the corner, and Athlon continues its countdown to kickoff with a look at all-conference teams from across the nation. But where did all these tremendous all-league performers come from and how did they get where they are today? Some showed up on campus as five-star uber-recruits and others defied all odds as walk-ons. Athlon analyzes how the 2012 preseason All-SEC team ranked as recruits.

The Heisman Trophy may be the most coveted trophy in all of sports.

The SEC is bigger than ever, with the addition of Texas A&M and Missouri, but one thing hasn’t changed: The balance of power is still in the West. LSU still has the Honey Badger and a strong defense — and now it may have the quarterback who can take the offense to another level in Zach Mettenberger.

As if the LSU-Alabama college football rivalry needed any more fuel. 

Monday brought the next chapter in the Bayou Bengals-Crimson Tide SEC epic narrative. Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron and LSU's Heisman finalist Tyrann Mathieu not only went head-to-head twice last year on the field, with McCarron getting the last laugh, but the two stars have moved their duel to cyberspace. 

The two Athlon Sports coverboys started running their yaps on twitter. To quote McCarron, "this should fuel everything and more now."

There has never been a football dynasty like the SEC. While many fans tuned out the Alabama-LSU BCS Championship Game,  SEC Commissioner Mike Slive got to an enjoy an all-SEC affair. The SEC sits at six straight national titles (and perhaps still counting). But times are changing in college sports. Schools continue to shift conferences. BCS commissioners are talking about a playoff.