SEC will have 13 or 14 teams eligible for bowl games

FAYETTEVILLE — At this time the SEC has 13 schools eligible for a bowl game or the College Football Playoffs.

That number could grow to 14 after a wild and crazy Saturday in the SEC last week. Auburn (5-6, 2-5) will be at Alabama (8-3, 4-3) on Saturday afternoon. With a win then Auburn would become the 14th school to gain bowl eligibility. Won’t happen? Probably not, but that was also said last Saturday when Auburn got to five wins by downing Texas A&M 43-41.

Other surprise scores from last Saturday included Oklahoma getting to six wins by beating Alabama 24-3. Florida got to six wins by upsetting Ole Miss 24-17 and the Hogs defeated Louisiana Tech 35-14. The Razorbacks beating Louisiana Tech was the only expected win of the group.

While it will be hard for Auburn to go into Tuscaloosa and get a win few gave them any chance at beating Texas A&M.

Most project the SEC to get four teams into the College Football Playoffs. They also expect the Big Ten to get four, the ACC and Big 12 one each, Notre Dame and Boise State to complete the field. One has to wonder though if the crazy weekend in the SEC last Saturday may have cost them one spot. The ACC is making a case for Miami and SMU.

The craziness may not have been limited to last weekend either. Tennessee and Texas aren’t locks to win this week. The Longhorns are at Texas A&M and the Vols across the state to face Vanderbilt.

What has happened is the SEC is beating each other up and that is why I scratch my head at the thought the conference should go to nine games. All that is doing is opening up more hope for ACC and Big 12 schools that wouldn’t have the records they currently have were they in the SEC.

Texas, Georgia and Tennessee seem like locks for CFP if they win Saturday. Texas probably is in either way since they just have one loss. Georgia faces Georgia Tech and with a 6-2 record in the SEC one has to assume the Bulldogs are in the field of 12. Tennessee will be in if they beat Vandy. If the SEC indeed gets four teams into the playoffs it will be interesting to see who that last team is. Many project it to be Alabama if the Tide can end Auburn’s season. Few saw that lackluster game from Alabama against the Sooners coming.

Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State and Indiana seem like locks to get in. The same can be said of Notre Dame and Boise State.

Just looking at the bowls I am not sure that a win over Missouri will get the Hogs to a better bowl. It very well could, but I think at either 7-5 or 6-6 they are headed to either the AutoZone Liberty Bowl or Birmingham Bowl. Both those games are played on Friday, Dec. 27. The Birmingham Bowl is set for 11 a.m. or 2:30 p.m. while the Liberty Bowl kicks off at 6 p.m.

I’ve been to countless Liberty Bowls and never at the Birmingham Bowl. The Liberty Bowl is a very organized bowl game. The people in charge do a very good job. The one when the Hogs played Kansas was an evenly played game, but the officiating crew from the Pac-12 left a lot to be desired.

Obviously neither bowl was the choice of Arkansas fans when they started play this fall. Arkansas is 2-0 in bowl games under Pittman. They beat Kansas 55-53 in the 2022 Liberty Bowl on Dec. 28, 2022. Arkansas dropped Penn State 24-10 in the 2022 Outback Bowl on Jan. 1, 2022.

The Razorbacks have played in the Liberty Bowl six times. They lost the first three times and now have won a trio of games in a row. Bobby Petrino’s second Arkansas team defeated East Carolina 20-17 in overtime on Jan. 2, 2010. Bret Bielema’s Hogs dropped Kansas State 45-23 on Jan. 2, 2016. Arkansas has never played in the Birmingham Bowl.

The bowl games with direct ties to the SEC are TaxSlayer Gator Bowl (Jan. 2, Tampa, Fla.), Cheez-It Citrus Bowl (Dec. 31, Orlando, Fla.), Texas Bowl (Dec. 31, Houston, Texas), ReliaQuest Bowl (Dec. 31, Tampa, Fla.), TransPerfect Music City Bowl (Dec. 30, Nashville, Tenn.), SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl (Dec. 27) and Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl (Dec. 20, Tampa, Fla.) in addition to the Birmingham Bowl and AutoZone Liberty Bowl which is in Memphis, Tenn.