With the season finishing its long and winding regular-season road, the bowl projection season in full swing.
If Nate Silver were analyzing the polls, I’d feel much better about the whole business.
But I do side with Chris Low of ESPN, who projects Kentucky headed to the Chick-fil-A in Atlanta, and Tennessee to the Ourtback Bowl.
That’s if the Vols win on Saturday at Commonwealth. If Kentucky wins, those spots could easily reverse. An 8-4 Kentucky could be headed to the Outback, while a 6-6 Tennessee could fall to the Liberty, or even the Independence.
Forget the Papajohns.com and the Liberty Bowls, though a Liberty representative exchanged a warm hand-shake and greeting with Rich Brooks after Kentucky’s big win last night. Both those bowls are played the same day as the UK-U of L basketball game. And the word is the Liberty would love an Arkansas-Houston matchup.
Meanwhile, the Independence is salivating over the possibility of a name team like Georgia, even if the Bulldogs wind up 6-6 with a loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday, or Tennessee.
Click Chris’ link to read his bowl predictions.
John,
I know all the Bowls have commercial tie-ins, but I’m confused about the Chick-fil-A bowl. I’m fairly young (30s) and remember the Peach Bowl as having some significance. It’s hard for me to believe Georgia would give up the “Peach Bowl” name entirely. Instead I would have expected something like the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl or the Peach Bowl presented by Chick-fil-A.
I know we can all speculate – money, money, money. But do you have any inside or historical knowledge of this change?
Thanks,
Todd
Just for kicks and giggles…say UK beats South Carolina and Mississippi State (which was very do-able), and they knock off Tennessee this weekend. That would’ve put the Cats at 10-2. What bowl would have been in play with that record?
Think the Capital One in Orlando has first pick this year, and Cats would probably have ended up there.