Thank you, Purdue.

Who would have thought that, as September begins to grow long in the tooth, that two of the starting quarterbacks in the SEC would be guys who lost their starting jobs with the Boilermakers? And that the postseason hopes of a lot of SEC teams might rest on their play?

Purdue? Really?

Yup. Danny Etling has LSU on the upswing since replacing Brandon Harris as the starter. Etling left Purdue after 2014 after losing his job to Austin Appleby, who subsequently lost the job to David Blough in 2015 before leaving for Florida after graduation.

Appleby will likely be UF’s starter this week at Tennessee after starter Luke Del Rio suffered a knee injury in this week’s win over North Texas. The Gators had been looking like arguably the best team in the SEC East with Del Rio at the helm. Can they still be with a Purdue cast-off at quarterback?

And wouldn’t it be something if LSU and Florida were to play for the SEC championship against each other with an Etling vs. Appleby quarterback matchup? Wouldn’t that have Big Ten folks questioning the SEC’s supposed supremacy?

A couple of thoughts as we head to Week 4:

  1. It’s getting harder to find a path to six wins for Mississippi State and Auburn. For MSU to get there, it probably needs to win at BYU on Oct. 14 to make up for the upset loss to South Alabama. Offensively challenged Auburn will need to find a way to get two wins against LSU, Arkansas, Mississippi State, Alabama and Georgia. That’s looking less likely. With those two out, we drop from 12 bowl teams last week to 10, and we see the Independence and Birmingham Bowls having to look elsewhere to find bowl-eligible teams.
  2. With Del Rio out and Georgia playing in close games, we bumped Tennessee up to a New Year’s Six bowl — the Sugar Bowl — and we dropped Florida out, assuming that the loss of Del Rio will cost the Gators at Tennessee this week.

Here’s how we see it all working out at the end, taking into account the “Purdue Factor.”

2016 SEC bowl projections after Week 3 (10 invites)

  • College Football Playoff semifinal (Peach Bowl): Alabama vs. Houston
  • New Year’s Six (Sugar Bowl): Tennessee vs. Texas
  • New Year’s Six (Cotton Bowl): Texas A&M vs. Washington
  • Citrus Bowl: Florida vs. Wisconsin
  • Music City Bowl: Ole Miss vs. Miami
  • Outback Bowl: Georgia vs. Michigan State
  • TaxSlayer Bowl: LSU vs. Nebraska
  • Liberty Bowl: Arkansas vs. West Virginia
  • Texas Bowl: Missouri vs. Oklahoma State
  • Belk Bowl: South Carolina vs. Virginia Tech

On the outside looking in: Mississippi State, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Kentucky