Ad Disclosure
SEC bowl projections after Week 11: So much for 2 Playoff teams
By Jim Tomlin
Published:
It’s not a done deal, but Saturday’s result on The Plains will make it much more difficult for the SEC to send two teams to the College Football Playoff.
Auburn, No. 10 in last week’s CFP rankings, handed No. 1 Georgia its first loss this season. It’s worth issuing this reminder again: It is really, really difficult to finish a season undefeated. (Just nine SEC teams have made it to 10-0 this century.) After Saturday only four unbeaten teams remain in the Football Bowl Subdivision: Alabama, which seems sure to rise to No. 1 in Tuesday’s new CFP rankings, Miami, Wisconsin and UCF.
If Alabama runs the table (a big if based on how hot Auburn is) then SEC East champion Georgia would be left with two losses and Auburn with three. It’s tough to see how either would get back into the top four in that scenario.
But, at least for the sake of these projections, Auburn nudged its way back into the New Year’s Day 6 bowl picture with its huge victory in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.
Mississippi State is still projected to the Citrus Bowl, a prime reward for a team that routed LSU and played Alabama very well for four quarters before losing Saturday in the final seconds.
And hey, look who came back to our projections after a 1-5 start. Missouri didn’t move me after routing two dreadful non-conference foes but the Tigers are now firmly back in the bowl picture after routing … well, two dreadful SEC opponents. The way Mizzou has played in the past month is a testament to a team still fighting hard to make something out of its season — perhaps motivated by Barry Odom, who might have moved his way off the coaching hot seat. At the very least the Tigers have shown more desire to get to a bowl than the teams they have beaten the past two weeks, Florida and Tennessee.
Mizzou’s final two games are on the road, next week against a Vanderbilt team that is also fighting to stay in the bowl picture, and on Nov. 24 against Arkansas. Based on how Odom’s team has played recently, the odds of gaining a needed split to earn bowl eligibility seem pretty decent.
Apparently for the Tigers, even with regards to a minor bowl, it just means more.
Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a copy editor and writer with SaturdayDownSouth.com.
