The flavor of the week this week is LSU, but watch out for Auburn.

With its convincing 38-21 win over Ole Miss, we “promote” LSU from the the Tax Slayer Bowl to the Citrus Bowl this week. That means LSU gets the SEC’s top bowl below the New Year’s Six.

That, of course, is a tough projection when you also still have Texas A&M in a New Year’s Six. LSU plays both Alabama and Texas A&M before season’s end and assuming at least a loss to Alabama, that means the Tigers would have to beat Texas A&M to get to 8-3. That would hand the Aggies a second loss.

We think a 10-2 A&M team is still worthy of a New Year’s Six Bowl, so we’re OK with that projection.

Other notes:

  1. Out of the bowl projections goes Missouri. After losing to Middle Tennessee State, not only is Missouri not looking like a 6-6 team, the Tigers might be a 4-8 team.
  2. In their place, we have Kentucky, which is 4-3 and still has gimme against a winless Austin Peay team coming up. That means the Wildcats need just one win in games against Missouri, Georgia, Tennessee and Louisville to get to bowl eligibility. Surely, UK has a win in it in those games, right?
  3. We bump Auburn to the Tax Slayer Bowl after we had the Tigers in the Liberty Bowl last week. Ole Miss, after another loss to LSU, slips to the Liberty Bowl.

2016 SEC bowl projections after Week 8 (10 invites)

  • College Football Playoff semifinal (Peach Bowl): Alabama vs. Washington
  • New Year’s Six (Sugar Bowl): Texas A&M vs. West Virginia
  • New Year’s Six (Orange Bowl): Tennessee vs. Louisville
  • Citrus Bowl: LSU vs. Nebraska
  • Music City Bowl: Arkansas vs. Penn State
  • Outback Bowl: Florida vs. Wisconsin
  • TaxSlayer Bowl: Auburn vs. Florida State
  • Liberty Bowl: Ole Miss vs. Kansas State
  • Texas Bowl: Georgia vs. Oklahoma State
  • Belk Bowl: Kentucky vs. Pittsburgh

On the outside looking in: Mississippi State, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Missouri