The Un-official SEC Bowl Picture

With six 7-5 teams, it was virtually impossible to predict who would go where, as it all has come down to one thing: politics.

You could probably make a case that all 5 other seven win teams are more deserving of going to the Outback Bowl than an Auburn team that finished 2-5 in their last seven games, and lost at home to a Kentucky team that was battling injuries and starting a true freshman quarterback for the very first time. However, it appears that the Outback has picked Auburn over Tennessee to prevent a rematch of the game two years ago in Tampa between the Vols and Wisconsin. In fact, even after Tennessee had beaten Kentucky, the Outback Bowl was still strongly considering Kentucky over UT because of the large amounts of fans that UK has been known to bring to Bowl Games...but somehow in the end they've apparently came up with Auburn? As much as I try to sit down and think of a logical reason why, I simply can't. Maybe this is just a big joke, and we'll hear something differently during the official Bowl Selection Show on Sunday night.

Anyway, the strange pick of Auburn has caused the Chick-fil-a Bowl to pick Tennessee. If the Outback had picked Tennessee like everyone had expected them to, it very likely could have been the Cats playing on New Years Eve in Atlanta.

LSU is slotted to play in the Capital One, Arkansas has accepted a bid to the Liberty, South Carolina is going to the Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham against a Big East team, Georgia is headed to the Independence Bowl, and of course Florida and Alabama are BCS Bound.

That of course only leaves one place for the Cats: the Music City Bowl. Yeah, it's a little disappointing, but I'm fine with it and it could be worse (just think how Georgia Bulldog fans must feel about playing in Shreveport, LA). When you really think about it, there are no "bad bowls" associated with the SEC. If you just go down the line, and look at the programs that play in each of these games every year, it's impressive. Especially this season when one overtime game meant the difference between going to the Outback or falling as far as potentially the Independence or Papajohns.com Bowl, the Cats are lucky to be where they are. And the Music City Bowl IS NOT a bottom tier Bowl Game. The Music City has their pick from the SEC before the Liberty, Independence, and Papajohns.com Bowl. It's definitely not where we want to be each year, but it's a better Bowl than people think it is.

We have played big time programs there and defeated them, and may have another chance to beat another huge program this year to add to our resume: the Miami Hurricanes. The Cats will either play Miami or North Carolina, or possibly even the loser of the ACC Championship Game (Clemson or Georgia Tech). Florida State would have been another likely opponent for the Cats again in Nashville, but the Gator Bowl is going to grant Bobby Bowden his wish for a Florida Bowl Game in his last game of his career (pollitics again). However, a win over "The U" would be huge for recruiting and definitely would make this season a successful one as this young team heads into next season.