Considering four of the nation’s Top 5 teams are from the SEC West entering Week 9 of the college football season, your guess is as good as ours projecting the four-team Playoff selections. We have a good idea of how things will shake out for the 7 and 8-win teams, but there’s a handful of elites with too many games remaining against ranked teams to determine the pecking order at the top.

That doesn’t mean we are not going to try.

Florida’s bowl hopes are fading fast thanks to a lame duck coach and it appears a win over South Carolina on Nov. 15 is now essential to finishing with the necessary six wins. The regular-season finale at Florida State, one of four remaining unbeatens, is not a winnable game at this point.

Eight wins is likely the Gamecocks’ max heading into bowl season which could lead to a Gator Bowl invite. It wouldn’t be enough to get to Tampa since Mizzou could have an identical record with the head to head win. Seven — maybe six — victories and a short 94-mile trek to Charlotte seems more likely.

One of the biggest changes this week is putting Marshall in the Peach Bowl as an at-large invite against a possibly two-loss Georgia. The Thundering Herd would need to finish unbeaten and hope East Carolina loses one of its final six games … we think that’s going to happen.

2014 SEC BOWL PROJECTIONS AFTER WEEK 8 (11 invites)

  • College Football Playoff Semifinal (Rose Bowl): Mississippi State vs Oregon
  • College Football Playoff Semifinal (Sugar Bowl): Ole Miss vs Florida State
  • Peach: Georgia vs Marshall
  • Orange: Alabama vs Notre Dame
  • Citrus: Auburn vs Ohio State
  • Outback: Mizzou vs Nebraska
  • Music City: Kentucky vs Georgia Tech
  • TaxSlayer: LSU vs Maryland
  • Belk: South Carolina vs Virginia Tech
  • Texas: Texas A&M vs Kansas State

 On the outside looking in: Florida, Arkansas, Tennessee, Vanderbilt