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College Football

What we’re not overreacting to in the SEC after bowl selections

Brad Crawford

By Brad Crawford

Published:

Here’s what we’re not overreacting to in the SEC after the end of the regular season:

Tennessee pulls a surprise, heads to Jacksonville instead of Memphis: Several national media outlets, local news stations and even the NCAA and Liberty Bowl’s official web sites reported Sunday afternoon that Tennessee had accepted a bid to Memphis to take on West Virginia. With multiple confirmations, we ran with the story and later learned the Vols were waiting to hear back from the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl in Jacksonville before accepting an in-state bowl bid. It was one of several matchups that fell into place just after 5 p.m. EST during the first bowl season in which the conference had more say than bowl committees. The Vols, appearing in their first postseason game since 2010, are 3-2 in the Gator Bowl all-time and this year’s tussle with Iowa will be a physical altercation in the trenches.

Mississippi State leaps Michigan State and lands in Orange Bowl: The Playoff selection committee promised to hit the reset button every week this season when evaluating teams and they did the same on Sunday morning prior to the final rankings release, pushing Mississippi State ahead three spots despite not playing a game. Michigan State and Mississippi State finished with matching 10-2 records, but at final glance, the committee deemed the Bulldogs as the more impressive team which put Mississippi State in Miami to play Georgia Tech. This move essentially helped Ole Miss reach the New Year’s Six as well (Peach vs. TCU).

Brad Crawford

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