The SEC has some blue-blood bowl matchups this season, including games against Michigan and Penn State.
The former, pitted against Florida in the Citrus Bowl, has generated enough excitement to sell out the game, just days after it was announced.
The SEC is favored in every game but the one against the Wolverines, but it will be very difficult for the conference to achieve a 9-1 record. The slate includes the No. 3, No. 13, No. 14 and No. 16 teams in the country based on the final College Football Playoff poll.
Another team, Memphis, was ranked in the top 25 for much of the season as well, and already has notched an SEC victory against Sugar Bowl participant Ole Miss. (Texas Tech beat Arkansas and Louisville lost to Auburn, so these 10 teams went a combined 2-1 against the SEC during the regular season.)
Here are the SEC bowl opponents broken down by conference:
4 Big Ten
3 Big 12
2 ACC
1 American Athletic
Keep in mind I did not consider matchups in my rankings. So this ranks the 10 bowl opponents in a vacuum, but it isn’t an indication of which SEC teams are most likely to win or lose.
Here are the SEC’s bowl opponents ranked from toughest to easiest in terms of overall ability:
LEGITIMATE NATIONAL TITLE CONTENDER
1. Michigan State (vs. Alabama): The Spartans have fared very well against great competition. Michigan State ended Ohio State’s 23-game win streak in addition to taking down Oregon, Michigan and Iowa. The defense has suffered several injuries and isn’t an elite national unit, but the Spartans are stout up front. They’re also one of the most balanced teams in the country — good at everything, elite at few things. That’s part of what has served them so well against top competition, which usually tries to force other teams to play to their weaknesses.
GOOD ENOUGH TO CHALLENGE ANYONE
2. Michigan (vs. Florida): The Jim Harbaugh effect is real. Not as significant as his first-year turnaround of the San Francisco 49ers, but close. “We got dignity back,” Harbaugh put it. The three losses, to Utah, Michigan State and Ohio State, all were respectable. Two of them were one-possession games. The Wolverines are much more disciplined in 2015 and Harbaugh has instituted an offense that allows the team to actually advance the ball.
3. Oklahoma State (vs. Ole Miss): The Cowboys stayed undefeated until Nov. 21. Oklahoma State features a top 10 scoring offense spearheaded by QB Mason Rudolph and big-play WR James Washington. Emmanuel Ogbah also leads the Big 12 in tackles for loss, ahead of more household names like Eric Striker (Oklahoma) and Shawn Oakman (Baylor). The defense gives up points against great competition, which is why the team finished 10-2 — it gave up a combined 103 points to Baylor and Oklahoma.
DON’T SLEEPWALK OR YOU’LL LOSE
4. Northwestern (vs. Tennessee): The Wildcats aren’t sexy. Ask a casual SEC fan whether they’re ranked, and most probably will guess no. In fact, Northwestern was No. 13 in the final College Football Playoff poll and No. 12 in the most recent Associated Press Top 25. The team beat Pac-12 champion Stanford to open the season, 16-6. Coach Pat Fitzgerald’s bunch wins with stifling defense (16.4 points per game). The Wildcats have carried 563 times and passed 319, and are by far the worst passing offense in the Big Ten. But the team grinds out low-scoring games by out-executing opponents.
5. Memphis (vs. Auburn): Many of the Memphis players were recruited and trained by Barry Odom (now Missouri’s head coach) and Justin Fuente (now Virginia Tech’s head coach). This team started the season 8-0, including a Liberty Bowl victory against Ole Miss, before losing three straight. QB Paxton Lynch has thrown 28 touchdowns against just 3 interceptions and is a potential first-round draft choice. The offense has topped 60 points twice this season.
OCCASIONALLY FEISTY
6. Louisville (vs. Texas A&M): The Cardinals have won 7 of 9 with defense, even though Charlie Strong is two years removed and the NFL ransacked that side of the ball last year. Louisville held Clemson to 20 points. Samford, North Carolina State, Boston College, Wake Forest and Syracuse averaged 13.2 points per game against this team. Pitt and Florida State did manage to drop big numbers in Louisville’s only losses since mid-September. Despite boasting of Bobby Petrino as head coach, the Cardinals pass offense doesn’t scare anyone.
7. Texas Tech (vs. LSU): Red Raiders games this season feature more than 1,100 yards on average. QB Patrick Mahomes II is third in the country in passing yards and attempts. But the team is 127th in the nation in total defense, ahead of only Kansas. If Leonard Fournette wants to make a statement, it shouldn’t be difficult against a front seven that’s softer than a cream puff. Still, face Texas Tech and your secondary better be on alert from the opening snap until the clock reads 0:00 in the fourth quarter.
CAN’T BEAT GOOD TEAMS
8. North Carolina State (vs. Mississippi State): Boy, doesn’t Florida wish that QB Jacoby Brissett still was in Gainesville. In the last two seasons, Brissett has thrown 42 touchdowns against 9 interceptions, while adding another 8 rushing touchdowns. The Wolfpack are fifth in the ACC in total offense and total defense. The team is pretty good in most all areas, but not great. Thus, losses by 15, 17 and 11 to Clemson, Florida State and North Carolina late in the season.
9. Penn State (vs. Georgia): The Nittany Lions have given up 39 sacks, 10 more than the Big Ten’s next-worst pass protection unit. The vaunted James Franklin/Bob Shoop defense is merely good, nothing like it was in 2014. Christian Hackenberg has not developed into something special like the Nittany Lions hoped. Saquon Barkley is a 1,000-yard back and Carl Nassib leads the nation with 15.5 sacks despite dealing with an injury late in the year. The problem with Penn State is that it can’t hold its own against good defensive front sevens.
10. Kansas State (vs. Arkansas): With a 24-23 upset of West Virginia, the Wildcats avoided becoming a 5-7 bowl team. Kansas State’s defense, normally a calling card under long-time coach Bill Snyder, is a pedestrian 101st in the country. The offense: 108th. It’s amazing Kansas State even scrapped out six wins. The team went 3-0 in the non-conference schedule, then lost six consecutive games before rallying thanks to a pair of one-possession wins. The offense runs through dual-threat QB Joe Hubener, and he can’t come close to competing with the standout Big 12 quarterbacks at Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
An itinerant journalist, Christopher has moved between states 11 times in seven years. Formally an injury-prone Division I 800-meter specialist, he now wanders the Rockies in search of high peaks.
