There's always this argument to moderation every year where realistic just means between the gloom and doom and the over-opportunistic without any real thought behind it.

If we had a normal season last year, we would have won 10 games easy, we've won 10 games every season (with this year being the outlier due to a restricted schedule) and I don't see that changing this year. I also think our fan base has been abused so much by Muschamp/McElwain to the point where anything at 10 wins or higher is almost scoffed at because our fans think "we can lose to anyone".

Anyway, making this argument as fast as I can:

We have 3 good teams on the schedule, Alabama, Georgia and LSU.

Alabama may be a loss, but I honestly have no idea since they're reloading quite a bit of talent, and of course, it's Alabama, but we were a fumbled interception away from winning the last game we played and that was a championship level team.

We destroyed Georgia last year, and I'm gonna go ahead and say that Mullen has figured Kirby out. Even with the injuries of last year, Kirby still had one of the most talented teams in the country.

LSU was a freakshow, and I think Orgeron just got lucky with Burrow. We had already cinched the East and let our guard down, guarantee that doesn't happen this year.

12 is extremely optimistic. 11 is optimistic. 10 is reasonable. 9 is underwhelming, means we dropped every single big game of the year, or a team we should have beaten and couldn't. 8 is we're looking for a new coach territory.