SEC Bowl projections after Week 3: Major shake-up after Tiger Bowl

LSU, you won me over.

The Bayou Bengals opened their season with a big victory over Miami. But the result made me wonder if LSU was that good or if Miami was overrated.

Saturday’s Tiger Bowl gave us an answer.

LSU’s last-second victory at Auburn vaulted the Tigers (the purple ones) into the thick of the SEC West division title race already.

ESPN had a great stat — LSU is the fourth team in the Associated Press poll era (since 1936) to beat two top-10 teams in the first three weeks. The Tigers join Colorado in 1971 and two teams from 1959 (Northwestern and Georgia Tech) in pulling off the feat.

The result also raised another question: Could the SEC put four teams into the New Year’s Day 6 bowls? We still have two pegged for the College Football Playoff (Alabama and Georgia) and we now have LSU in the Sugar Bowl.

Auburn might very well wind up in the top 11 when the CFP committee releases its final rankings. Unless Mississippi State or Texas A&M do so instead. For now we’re sticking with three SEC teams in the six major bowls, but it’s worth keeping an eye on.

One thing seems certain: The Big Ten, which had four teams in major bowls in 2016 and three last season, does not look like a good candidate to put more than two teams in the NYD6 this year. Apart from Ohio State’s solid win over TCU in what was essentially a road game Saturday, the B1G was a hot mess in the nonconference portion of the schedule.

That might open the door wider for the SEC. It probably should.

Anyway, on to the projections: