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Florida beat previously undefeated LSU, Texas A&M knocked off previously unbeaten Kentucky and Mississippi State knocked off Auburn. All on one day.
Aren’t autumn Saturdays great?
The SEC might get four teams into the New Year’s Day 6 bowls. But for now Florida takes its place in the Sugar Bowl, alongside newly projected Big 12 champ West Virginia, while LSU falls out of the NYD6.
The Gators rocket up this week’s projections after defeating the Tigers in The Swamp. The reason is pretty simple — aside from Georgia (probably — maybe?) I don’t see another loss looming for Florida.
Same goes for Kentucky, which was impressive even in losing at Texas A&M. The Aggies can beat just about anybody in their house, so the fact that the Wildcats rallied to take that game to overtime shows that UK is far from the same old, same old mediocrity of years past.
I know this sounds weird, but bear with us: Kentucky moved up our projections after that loss, into the Citrus Bowl. Here’s why: LSU has a brutal road ahead and so does Auburn. And these projections, as we remind people often, are based on what we think the picture will be at the end of the season, not where it is now.
And Clemson moves down because, despite routing Wake Forest on Saturday, I now think the Tigers are the most tenuous CFP entrant. Finally, a mea culpa — Alabama belongs in the Cotton Bowl, it’s closer to the Tuscaloosa campus.
On to the projections:
Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a copy editor and writer with SaturdayDownSouth.com.
