Bowl situation...it's a crowd at the bottom.

Well, the SEC has 10 bowl eligible teams. Only Mississippi State and Vanderbilt didn't make the cut.

We know the following for sure:

BCS National Championship game: SEC championship game winner (hopefully Bama).

Sugar Bowl: SEC championship game loser (hopefully Florida).

Capital One Bowl: LSU (Ole Miss screwed itself out of this slot by losing to Mississippi State).

Cotton Bowl: Ole Miss (the Cotton Bowl gets the first choice out of the SEC West, while the Outback Bowl gets the first choice out of the SEC east. Ole Miss is 8-4 so the Cotton will take them as the best available team from the SEC west when their selection time comes up).

After that, it gets complicated. Everybody else is 7-5.

Right now, it looks like Georgia has an outside shot at the Outback Bowl but will more than likely end up in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. It's between us and Tennessee. We are both 7-5 and tied for second in the east with a 4-4 conference record.

Arguments for Tennessee:

1.) They destoryed us head-to-head.
2.) They will probably bring more fans from farther away, so their fans will spend more money in Florida than ours will. More people spending more than 1 night in a hotel room, etc. More Georgia fans live closer to Tampa than Tennessee fans do, so UT fans will generate more commerce for the state and the area if both schools sell out their ticket allotments.

Arguments for Georgia:

1.) We played a much tougher schedule: 4 in SOS vs like 30-something for Tennessee.
2.) We are the only team of the remaining bowl elligible SEC teams with a signature win. We beat the number 7 team in the country, and possibly a major conference champion that is going to a BCS bowl.
3.) We have a history in the Outback bowl and always put on a show down there. Remember our thrillers with Perdue?
4.) We are probably more likely to sell out our tickets than they are, even though they'll spend more money down there if they do sell out.

Our records against common opponents are pretty even: We lost to Kentucky and they beat Kentucky. They lost to Auburn and we beat Auburn. We both lost to Florida. We both lost to two teams that will be in BCS bowls if Georgia Tech makes it.

I think their head-to-head demolition of us will give them the nod for Tampa though.

Outback Bowl: Tennessee

Chick-Fil-A-Bowl: Georgia (of the remaining 7-5 teams, we beat all of them except Kentucky, but we finished higher in the division than Kentucky, so we should get this if we don't get the Outback).

Music City Bowl: South Carolina (they'll travel well to this one. Gives people an excuse to go to Nashville).

Liberty Bowl: Kentucky (nobody really wants them as their fans will stay home to watch whatever basketball game is on).

Independence Bowl: Arkansas (Shreveport is close to Arkansas, so they'll put butts in seats).

Papajohn's Bowl: Auburn (in state team = big draw at the live gate).

Sounds about right to me.

Going into the game Saturday, I did not want a bowl game. A 6&6 or 7&5 team with the way we have looked, I just did not want a bowl game. A 6&6 record with a bowl loss would have been hard to accept.What a night Saturday was and what a way to end a regular season. With hope for the future and a running game, I now can be happy with either the outback or chick-fil-a. A performance in a bowl like saturday and it will be another 8 win season. Sure would look better than a 6&7 season that loomed before the dawgs earlier. What a relief and what joy a victory brings and if it is against GT how much the sweeter. OB or CFA bowls will be sweet. Go you GA.Dwgs.

Looks like from all indications that Atlanta will see a rematch of the 2006 classic between Georgia and Virginia Tech. That said, we ALWAYS travel well to the Outback Bowl, and Bowls are about money money money. Georgia vs. Penn State in the Outback Bowl? Yeah, I'd like to see that too.

SCarolina is almost without a doubt going to play North Carolina in the Music City Bowl. That sucker's pretty much a lock. Everything else is, as they say, up in das air. I think Ole Miss screwed the pooch on the Cotton Bowl by losing to MSU; Oklahoma State vs. LSU is now a more attractive game. I just hate that Tennessee will probably end up with a better bowl than us...but then again they deserve it, having crushed our skulls in head-to-head.

Im betting we get the Chicken Bowl vs.VT or Klempsun

dapolla wrote:

I think Ole Miss screwed the pooch on the Cotton Bowl by losing to MSU; Oklahoma State vs. LSU is now a more attractive game. I just hate that Tennessee will probably end up with a better bowl than us...but then again they deserve it, having crushed our skulls in head-to-head.

As the third best team in the SEC and the first available that won't be in a BCS bowl, LSU will get the Capital One bowl in Orlando. That pretty much leaves Ole Miss for the cotton with an 8-4 record.

I'd much rather play Clemson in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl than Virginia Tech again, but if both those teams are still available at selection time, the Chick-Fil-A Bowl will pick VT. Bigger boost to the economy from the live gate because more fans will travel to Atlanta from further away = more hotel room sales, more people eating out, etc. Georgia-Clemson would basically be a commuter bowl. Too many people going to the game and leaving the same day.