A lo, the upsets have happened, so I was only three teams short. Here’s the latest.
It sure looks like we’re going to see five SEC teams in the playoff. What no one really seems to be talking about is the knock-on effect on the SEC’s bowl tie-ins. Obviously, I don’t think the conference itself is too worried about this, but the folks in Nashville, Charlotte, and Memphis might be. There’s multiple tiers of SEC games, roughly summarized as:
- the Citrus Bowl
- the Texas, Gator, Music City, Reliaquest, Mayo, and Liberty Bowls
- the Gasparilla and Birmingham Bowls
I have Texas A&M, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Oklahoma making the playoff. The only other bowl eligible SEC teams I project to have are Texas, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, LSU, and Mizzou. So that’s only four teams for the group of 6. My suspicion is that the American’s group of top teams is going to to benefit from this. (Especially Memphis.) And of course, there’s still a chance in the rivalry games this weekend: Kentucky, Auburn, and Miss State can get to 6-6 with wins over their rivals. Stay tuned.