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Week 3 brought us more surprising results and more revelations about who belongs where in the SEC.
No. 4 Florida lost at No. 21 Texas A&M. No. 17 LSU lost a home game thanks to the impending danger of Hurricane Delta, then lost Saturday’s game to Missouri. No. 14 Tennessee fell from the ranks of the unbeaten, but that one is pretty understandable, as the Vols lost to No. 3 Georgia in Athens.
Those results shook some things up, but the real collision is yet to come as the SEC’s top two teams meet this Saturday when No. 3 Georgia travels to Tuscaloosa to take on the No. 2 Crimson Tide.
Those two and UF are, we feel, still the top three in the league, though Texas A&M laid down a marker to perhaps be in the conversation by the end of the season. The Aggies got a massive win over the Gators, but they still have to deal with Tennessee, LSU and Auburn near the end of the season.
Jimbo Fisher’s bunch might yet work their way into the New Year’s Day 6, but for now we’ll keep Florida in there (UGA is the only team likely to slow down UF’s offense).
Lower down in our bowl pecking order, we are taking a team that gave up 63 points in a loss and moving them into the bowl picture. Huh? Well, I’m now convinced that Mississippi will get in a bunch of track meets this season and that Lane Kiffin’s Rebels will win enough of them to go bowling.
Ole Miss moves into the postseason projections at the expense of rival Mississippi State, which was blown out and shut down by Kentucky. That opening win over LSU looks less impressive every week.
No matter what happens next week (unless some key players get hurt), we will stick with Bama and UGA as College Football Playoff teams. Missouri is starting to look like a decent bet to reach .500 after pulling off the upset over LSU, and even Arkansas rates some consideration (but not a spot in the projections yet) with the way the Razorbacks are playing through three weeks.
Now let’s look at this week’s projections:
| Bowl | Date | Location | Matchup |
| Rose (CFP semi) | Jan. 1 | Pasadena, Calif. | Alabama vs. Ohio State |
| Sugar (CFP semi) | Jan. 1 | New Orleans | Georgia vs. Clemson |
| Cotton | Jan. 2 | Arlington | Florida vs. Oklahoma St. |
| Citrus | Jan. 1 | Orlando | Texas A&M vs. Michigan |
| Gator | TBA | Jacksonville, Fla. | Auburn vs. Georgia Tech |
| Outback | Jan. 1 | Tampa, Fla. | Tennessee vs. Nebraska |
| Liberty | TBA | Memphis, Tenn. | Kentucky vs. Iowa St. |
| Music City | TBA | Nashville | Ole Miss vs. Minnesota |
| Texas | TBA | Houston | LSU vs. Texas |
| Las Vegas | TBA | Las Vegas | Missouri vs. Utah |
| Birmingham | TBA | Birmingham | South Carolina vs. Tulane |
Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a copy editor and writer with SaturdayDownSouth.com.
