October 18, 2004
SEC Team-by-Team Bowl Possibilities
Talking bowl games in October? You bet! With each passing week, more teams will become bowl eligible, others will inch closer, and still others will see their postseason dreams slowly drifting away.
The Southeastern Conference now has eight affiliated automatic bowl berths, thanks in part to the addition this year of the Houston Bowl as an affiliated game. Of course, if an SEC team were to recieve an at-large berth in the BCS, it would mean nine league teams would have an opportunity to play in an affiliated bowl, should nine teams reach bowl eligibility (which looks highly unlikely).
Of course, the scenarios are endless and will change weekly, but let's take a peek at where the teams stand as of now:
Locks (already bowl eligible):
Auburn (7-0)
Auburn fans are dreaming BCS dreams these days, but there's still some hard work yet to do.
Likely possibilities: BCS automatic, BCS at-large, Capital One.
Inevitable, and knocking on the door:
Georgia (5-1)
Should beat Arkansas, Kentucky, and Georgia Tech. Tougher games against Florida and Auburn will determine exactly where the Bulldogs land.
Likely possibilities: BCS automatic, BCS at-large, Capital One, Outback, Cotton
Tennessee (5-1)
Will be favored in every game remaining on schedule. You can bet that if UT does stumble, they will try like heck to avoid a return date to the Peach Bowl, a house of horrors for the Vols in recent years.
Likely possibilities: BCS automatic, Capital One, Outback, Cotton
LSU (4-2)
Still needs two more wins, but the Tigers should be favored in every game from here on out. The Tigers may not travel as well on the heels of a national title season and the likelihood of a lesser bowl this season. A lower-ranked SEC squad may leapfrog LSU in the bowl pecking order.
Likely possibilities: Outback, Peach, Cotton.
Florida (4-2)
Upcoming games against Miss State and Vandy should be gimmes. Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida State games will determine the quality of bowl game for the Gators. The Gators are a big draw in Tampa (and anywhere else in their home state), so don't count out a third consecutive trip to the Outback Bowl.
Likely possibilities: Outback, Peach, Cotton
Alabama (5-2)
It's hard to imagine the Tide losing to Mississippi State. Tide fans are starved for a bowl after a two year hiatus (partially probation-induced) and are legendary for traveling well. That's a recipe for a bowl promoter's dream.
Likely possibilities: Cotton, Peach, Independence, Music City
Still have plenty of work to do:
South Carolina (5-2)
The Gamecocks have four games in which to find one win, but none of them will be easy (Tennessee, Arkansas, @ Florida, @ Clemson). The Music City Bowl would love to have bowl-starved Gamecock fans if the malnourshed Crimson Tide is already taken.
Likely possibilities: Independence, Music City, Houston
Arkansas (3-3)
The Hogs should beat Miss State. Even then, they need to find two more wins against Georgia, South Carolina, improving Ole Miss, and LSU. Could this be the year Arkansas' six-year consecutive bowl streak under Houston Nutt comes to an end?
Likely possibilities: Independence, Music City, Houston
Turn out the lights:
Ole Miss (3-4)
In addition to beating Arkansas and Miss State, the Rebels would have to upset either Auburn or LSU. The order looks too tall. If the SEC were to get two BCS teams, Ole Miss would be the Houston Bowl's only hope of getting an SEC participant.
Unlikely possibility: Houston
Kentucky, Miss State, Vandy (each is 1-5)
Any of these teams would have to run the table to get in. Won't happen.
Trackback
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.fanblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1897
You can use this specified URL in a weblogging program that supports pinging, such as Movable Type. If your blog software does not support Trackback, click here to send a manual ping.
Comments & Trackbacks
matt shobe says:
posted on October 18, 2004 10:30 PM — linkunless purdue can somehow regain seating on the rose bowl bus, i'd be pretty psyched for a rematch with georgia. it was a great game with a stirring boilermaker comeback last year. love to see if the boilers could even the score.
Michael says:
posted on October 27, 2004 11:06 AM — linkYou have Alabama as a probable bowl participant. I've looked everywhere for the rule but I thought you had to have six wins over I-A opponents and one of the Tide's wins is against Western Carolina (I-AA). Help me clear this up!
Robert Knodell says:
posted on October 27, 2004 11:12 AM — linkPer NCAA rules, you can count a win over a 1-AA opponent toward becoming bowl eligible once every four years. Alabama hasn't needed to count a 1-AA victory in the past four years, if ever, so they can count the WCU win this season if they only win six. However, they could not count one of those games for the next four years. I hope that helps.
