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To describe the situation that faces SEC West teams heading into the bowl season as “do-or-die” may be a bit dramatic. But if the SEC West, supposedly the best division in all of college football, doesn’t rebound decisively from last year’s 2-5 showing in bowl games – including 0-3 in New Year’s Six/College Football Playoff games with two bad losses – it can’t in all honesty continue to make the claim.
Desperation comes to mind. The SEC West was awful last bowl season. Alabama’s 42-35 loss to underdog Ohio State in the College Football Playoff semifinals was the icing on the cake. It wasn’t close to being the most embarrassing, however. That distinction belonged to the state of Mississippi.
Ole Miss got steamrolled by TCU 42-3 in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and Mississippi State bowed 49-34 to Georgia Tech in the Capital One Orange Bowl.
In the division’s three biggest games, they came up empty. But they weren’t the only ones. Auburn dropped a 34-31 decision to Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl and LSU let its game slip away as well. Notre Dame took care of the Tigers 31-28 with a late game-winning drive at the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl.
The two teams that finished at the bottom of the SEC West standings salvaged the only victories. Arkansas mauled Texas 31-7 at the Advocare V100 Texas Bowl, and Texas A&M outscored West Virginia 45-37 in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.
That dizzying display of ineptness must be reversed this season if the SEC West is to hold up its collective head. All seven SEC West teams enter their respective bowl games as favorites. That includes double-digit favorite Arkansas (-11.5) over Kansas State in the Jan. 2 Liberty Bowl.
The Hogs should hold the advantage at the line of scrimmage and prevail over the 6-6 Big 12 representative. That’s a lot of points to give in a bowl game, but at this point Arkansas and the SEC West will take a win by any margin.
Ole Miss seeks redemption from its 2014 bowl debacle. The Rebels are 6.5-point favorites over Oklahoma State in the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1. The Cowboys won 10 games this season, but they’re not the team TCU was at this time last season. And the Rebels should be much better prepared. Both teams will score points, so it’ll take a supreme effort from the Rebels to come away victorious.
The same could be said for Alabama despite entering the College Football Playoff semifinals game on New Year’s Eve at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic as 9.5-point favorites over Michigan State. Like Ole Miss, the Tide will be much better prepared as they make another appearance on the big stage.
A trio of SEC West teams looks to sway momentum on Dec. 30. Texas A&M is a slight 2.5-point favorite over Louisville in the Music City Bowl as is Auburn (-2) over Memphis in the Birmingham Bowl. Oddsmakers are a little more confident in Mississippi State’s chances against North Carolina State in the Belk Bowl. The Bulldogs are 5.5-point favorites to forget about the option nightmare they faced in last season’s bowl game.
The Aggies appear to be the better team in their matchup, but Auburn is equally paired with a Memphis team that humbled Ole Miss. Mississippi State should fare better this time around against a more standard offense.
LSU is about a touchdown-favorite over Texas Tech in the AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl on Dec. 29. Unless a “re-gear” of their offense is in the works, the Tigers should be able to pound out a victory.
So there you have it. The stage is set for the SEC West to redeem itself; seven games, seven favorites, no excuses.
Glenn Sattell is an award-winning freelance writer for Saturday Down South.
