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Last week, we had Mississippi and Kentucky projected to New Year’s Day 6 bowls. But they both lost on Saturday, further jumbling an extremely crowded middle of the pack in the SEC.
After unbeaten Georgia and 1-loss Alabama, a quartet of league teams has 2 losses: Auburn, Mississippi, Kentucky and Texas A&M. The way things are going around the country, it seems unlikely that a 3-loss team from the SEC will make a NYD6 bowl. It could happen, but the more likely scenario is that one of those teams will have to run the table in November to make a major bowl.
Our call? We are leaning toward a team that was off on Saturday.
Texas A&M already owns one of the best wins in the nation, having beaten Alabama at home. The Aggies still have to face Auburn, Ole Miss and LSU. But of the 2-loss SEC teams jockeying for a major bowl, A&M looks the most likely, from a talent standpoint and for the fact that the Aggies already have Bama in the rearview mirror. If A&M manages to beat Auburn and Ole Miss in the next 2 weeks, Jimbo Fisher’s bunch (which gets a breather before the finale against LSU by facing Prairie View A&M on Nov. 20) will have a solid chance at the NYD6.
The rest of the projections have been scrambled accordingly, but that happens every week now. Have we mentioned that the middle of the SEC is crazy in 2021?
Oh, one more thing: The first College Football Playoff rankings come out on Tuesday, so we will finally have a picture about the preliminary thoughts of the committee members who actually determine the 4-team CFP field and the rest of the 6 major bowls.
As always, this is where we predict how teams will finish the season, not the current standing.
After the league champion goes to a New Year’s Day 6 bowl (most likely in the CFP) and the NYD6 spots are filled, the next-best SEC team will go to the Citrus Bowl. From there, the conference has 6 bowls that are considered equal: The Outback, Gator, Liberty, Music City, Texas and Duke’s Mayo games. The Birmingham Bowl would get the next-best SEC pick if any bowl eligible teams remain.
These are the latest SEC bowl projections:
| Bowl | Date | Location | Matchup |
| Cotton (CFP semi) | Dec. 31 | Arlington | Georgia vs. Ohio State |
| Sugar | Jan. 1 | New Orleans | Alabama vs. Baylor |
| Peach | Dec. 30 | Atlanta | Texas A&M vs. Wake F. |
| Texas | Jan. 4 | Houston | Arkansas vs. Kansas State |
| Citrus | Jan. 1 | Orlando | Kentucky vs. Minnesota |
| Outback | Jan. 1 | Tampa | Auburn vs. Wisconsin |
| Gator | Dec. 31 | Jacksonville | Florida vs. Clemson |
| Duke’s Mayo | Dec. 30 | Charlotte | Mississippi St. vs. Pitt |
| Music City | Dec. 30 | Nashville | Tennessee vs. Penn State |
| Liberty | Dec. 28 | Memphis | Ole Miss vs. Iowa State |
| Birmingham | Dec. 28 | Birmingham | LSU vs. Syracuse |
| Gasparilla | Dec. 23 | Tampa | Missouri vs. Marshall |
Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a copy editor and writer with SaturdayDownSouth.com.
