Ad Disclosure
So much for having 4 SEC teams in the New Year’s Day 6.
It could still happen, theoretically. Florida could still beat Alabama in the SEC Championship Game and force their way back into a major bowl.
But after that inexplicable loss to LSU, and with the Crimson Tide looking more bulletproof each week, do you think the Gators can pull it off?
Didn’t think so.
We will see how far Florida falls when the College Football Playoff voters release their latest rankings on Tuesday. But it’s hard to imagine that a 3-loss UF team (assuming Alabama wins the SEC title game) would stay in the committee’s good graces for an NYD6 bowl. Especially if Alabama blows out Florida in Atlanta.
Also in the past week, LSU self-imposed a 1-year bowl ban for 2020. The Tigers looked like a bowl-worthy team for once in 2020 in their stunning win over the Gators.
But we won’t sweat it, we’ll just do the SEC shuffle for 1 more week. Now that Florida is projected for the Citrus Bowl and only 3 SEC teams are projected for the NYD6, some other league teams move down a peg. With Auburn at 6-4, Mizzou at 5-4 and every other team at .500 or worse (often much worse), we can’t argue that any of them really earned anything better.
Now let’s look at this week’s projections:
| Bowl | Date | Location | Matchup |
| Sugar (CFP semi) | Jan. 1 | New Orleans | Alabama vs. Notre Dame |
| Orange | Jan. 2 | Miami | Texas A&M vs. North Carolina |
| Peach | Jan. 1 | Atlanta | Georgia vs. Coastal Carolina |
| Citrus | Jan. 1 | Orlando | Florida vs. Northwestern |
| Gator | Jan. 2 | Jacksonville, Fla. | Auburn vs. Virginia Tech |
| Outback | Jan. 2 | Tampa, Fla. | Missouri vs. Iowa |
| Liberty | Dec. 31 | Memphis | Ole Miss vs. TCU |
| Texas | Dec. 31 | Houston | Arkansas vs. Texas |
| Armed Forces | Dec. 31 | Fort Worth, Texas | Kentucky vs. Oregon |
| Music City | Dec. 30 | Nashville | Tennessee vs. Penn State |
Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a copy editor and writer with SaturdayDownSouth.com.
