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Georgia has not won the SEC East Division race yet, but the Bulldogs can see the finish line.
After the Dawgs defeated Kentucky on Saturday, they’re 5-0 in the conference and can all but wrap up a spot in the SEC title game in Atlanta by beating Florida on Oct. 30 after a bye week.
But Kentucky didn’t do anything to change our minds about the program’s capability of winning 10 games and making it to a New Year’s Day 6 bowl, and that’s why we still have the Wildcats projected to the Peach Bowl while the Dawgs are solidly leading the College Football Playoff brigade.
Alabama’s rout of Mississippi State and Mississippi’s wild win at Tennessee mean that the Crimson Tide and Rebels stay put within the NYD6.
The teams below them (and above South Carolina and Vanderbilt) are keeping us guessing every week. Don’t book your bowl destinations yet, is what we’re trying to tell you.
These projections are a capsule of where we think teams will finish the season, not their record now.
After the league champion goes to a major bowl (and probably the CFP), the SEC sends its next best team to Citrus Bowl. After that come the next 6 bowls, all considered to be on the same tier: The Outback, Gator, Texas, Liberty, Music City and Duke’s Mayo games. If any more SEC teams are bowl eligible, the Birmingham Bowl is next, then the Gasparilla.
So here are the newest SEC bowl projections:
| Bowl | Date | Location | Matchup |
| Orange (CFP semi) | Dec. 31 | Miami | Georgia vs. Ohio State |
| Sugar | Jan. 1 | New Orleans | Alabama vs. Okla. State |
| Fiesta | Jan. 1 | Glendale | Mississippi vs. Iowa |
| Peach | Dec. 30 | Atlanta | Kentucky vs. N.C. State |
| Texas | Jan. 4 | Houston | Arkansas vs. Iowa State |
| Citrus | Jan. 1 | Orlando | Texas A&M vs. Penn State |
| Outback | Jan. 1 | Tampa | Auburn vs. Michigan St. |
| Gator | Dec. 31 | Jacksonville | LSU vs. Wake Forest |
| Duke’s Mayo | Dec. 30 | Charlotte | Miss. St. vs. Clemson |
| Music City | Dec. 30 | Nashville | Tennessee vs. Purdue |
| Liberty | Dec. 28 | Memphis | Florida vs. Texas Tech |
| Birmingham | Dec. 28 | Birmingham | Missouri vs. N. Carolina |
Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a copy editor and writer with SaturdayDownSouth.com.
