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Reporters predicting the Southeastern Conference were torn in the Western Division.

On Thursday, Auburn was declared the favorite to win the overall title, but rival Alabama got the edge in the West. It's the first time that's happened.

Auburn received 108 first-place votes to Alabama's 92, but the Crimson Tide had a slight edge in overall points (1,405-1,362).

Auburn got 96 votes to win the SEC title, followed by Alabama with 80.

Georgia is a heavy favorite to win the East, receiving 166 first-place votes to Tennessee's 20. They were followed by Missouri, South Carolina, Florida, Kentucky and Vanderbilt.

LSU was picked to finish third in the West, followed by Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas A&M and Mississippi State.

The media's predicted champion has won the league five times in 23 tries.

Alabama has 24 SEC championships.

SEC moves ahead on tough transfer rules

A domestic-violence advocate says she was pleasantly surprised the Southeastern Conference was the first league to enact a rule barring athletes who have been in trouble for abuse.

The league is approaching its first season since putting in the rule that won't let member schools sign an athlete disciplined for serious misconduct at another stop. The transfer rule defines a serious offense as "sexual assault, domestic violence or other forms of sexual violence."

Katherine Redmond Brown, founder of National Coalition Against Violent Athletes, says the message was long overdue.

The SEC adopted the rule after Jonathan Taylor's dismissal from both Georgia and Alabama.

Penn State jerseys to eschew names again

Penn State's football jerseys will have a throwback look this season: no names.

The university said Thursday it's returning to the style it sported for 125 years before player names were added the last three seasons.

Coach James Franklin says there's only one name that matters: Penn State.

Former coach Bill O'Brien added names to Penn State's solid blue and white jerseys in 2012 as tribute to players who stayed in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child-sex-abuse scandal.

Now the Nittany Lions are again embracing plainness and individual anonymity, even adopting the slogan it used en route to the 2008 Big Ten Championship: "Black Shoes. Basic Blues. No Names. All Game."

Franklin says despite the change, the commitment of the 2012 players to stick with the university won't ever be forgotten.

Michigan ticket sales rise in Harbaugh era

It looks like Jim Harbaugh is already helping Michigan at the box office.

The school is reporting football season-ticket sales of nearly 90,000, an immediate boost after the hiring of Harbaugh as coach. The 89,975 season-ticket sales are the school's most since 2012, and the 72,076 nonstudent season tickets are the most since 2009.

Michigan students claimed 17,899 tickets, up from 11,597 last season.

Harbaugh was hired in December after the team's mediocre stretch under Brady Hoke. Michigan went 5-7 last year, and there were patches of empty seats at Michigan Stadium at times, especially in the sections where students usually sit. The team's decadeslong streak of home games with attendance of at least 100,000 survived the season, but not by much.

In October, Michigan announced that it would be reducing the price of student season tickets to football games this year.