SEC bowl projections following Week 3: Apologies to Florida
I was wrong about Florida. I was even more wrong about Tennessee.
As the season has worn I expected the top of the SEC to … I don’t know, figure itself out? The opposite has happened.
Florida, which looked lost against Utah, walked into The Swamp with a perfect game plan and knocked off the Vols in dominant fashion, 29-16. Tennessee, which looked like it had finally figured out some of its defensive woes heading into 2023, reverted to 2021 fashion and looked dreadful against the Gators.
To be frank, the Vols looked like Florida in Week 1 Saturday night.
But it extends far past that as far as bad performances are concerned. Alabama completely abandoned Jalen Milroe and looked terrible against USF. Georgia won again but had a rough first half against South Carolina. Arkansas, in its first real test of the season, laid an egg against visiting BYU.
The only team that has not looked bad at any point of this season in the SEC is Ole Miss. And the Rebels’ toughest opponent so far has been Georgia Tech. A big one looms next week as the Rebels’ legitimacy is put to the test against the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa.
Florida still plays a tough, backloaded schedule, but its win over Tennessee gives the Gators at least 6 safe wins as of now. And if they play like they did against UT, they could nab 1 or 2 more. Hats off, Gators. As for Tennessee? That’s an 8-win team at the absolute best right now.
Real quick, let’s shout out Mizzou. The Tigers and Gators tied for the most surprising win of Week 3.
Brady Cook looked great against Kansas State. Luther Burden continues to be one of the best wide receivers in the nation and, though they bent some throughout the game, the Tigers’ defense should still be strong moving forward. Mizzou defeated No. 15 Kansas State with a 61-yard game-winning field goal, the longest by an active SEC team in conference history.
The Tigers are 1 of just 5 SEC teams with a 3-0 record heading into Week 4. It’s not hard to see around 8 wins and a 5-0 record heading into Week 6 against LSU.
Here are the rest of the SEC bowl projections following Week 3:
SEC college football bowl projections following Week 3
Sugar Bowl (Playoff semifinal): Georgia vs. Texas
Rose Bowl (Playoff semifinal): Michigan vs. Florida State
Cotton Bowl: LSU vs. USC
Cheez-It Citrus Bowl: Alabama vs. Iowa
ReliaQuest Bowl: Ole Miss vs. Wisconsin
Mayo Bowl: Texas A&M vs. Duke
Music City Bowl: Mizzou vs. Maryland
Texas Bowl: Florida vs. Oklahoma
Gator Bowl: Tennessee vs. Miami
Liberty Bowl: Kentucky vs. TCU
Birmingham Bowl: Auburn vs. Kansas
Gasparilla Bowl: Mississippi State vs. Coastal Carolina
Boca Raton Bowl: South Carolina vs. UNLV
Armed Forces: Arkansas vs. West Virginia
Music City bowl? ??? Will we ever get a NYD bowl?
January 1st, 1960 – Orange Bowl:
Dawgs 14
Mizzou 0
1961 Orange Bowl
Mizzou 21
Navy 14
(Georgia didn’t MAKE a bowl game that year) ;)
The 2008 Cotton Bowl never happened? Mizzou 38 – arkie 7.
Mizzou was good in those days. Pinkel was one of the best head coaches I’ve seen.
Pinkel is kind of like Stoops does more with less and loyal to their team and turns down bigger schools
Keep winning and y’all will. That’s why this weekly article is one of the most ridiculous.
I know it’s early in the season, but putting Mizzou in the Music City Bowl after that upset yesterday feels almost criminal. Music city is typically a 6-6 or 7-5 team. I can easily see Mizzou going 8-4.
Ethan is a kid. Give him a break.
Heck no!
Anyone who gets the level of writing for SDS has to learn to face the music from the readers.
Hum…level of SDS, that’s not a very high standard is it.
If Bama gets enough SEC wins to be the Citrus Bowl selection then this conference is going to be some kind of cr8p this year.
“Birmingham Bowl: Auburn vs. Kansas”
Weird, last week you had AU playing Okie in a better bowl.
“Ethan Stone was an editor for his student newspaper ”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHHHAAHHAHHA
I take no pleasure in saying this but this is the weakest I’ve seen the SEC in at least a decade. It’s a sad state of affairs when Tyler Buchner can even sniff the starting qb spot at Alabama. I’m not thrilled with Bobo but I’d like to think that the first half scare by USC was exactly what UGA needed bc the urgency and level of play was soooo much better in the 2nd half.
There’s some truth to that in the sense that the top of the SEC doesn’t look as dominant as it once did so far this year. Progress isn’t linear, though, and teams don’t play the championship in September. With that said, Mizzou beat a Kansas State squad that will compete in the Big 12. Teams will evolve, and I agree that this may have been just what UGA needed to get themselves right.
Just wait, people will eventually see that LSU is every bit the team it was projected to be at the start of the season. Right now it is carrying the weight of being judged by a single poorly played 2nd half against FLSt, more accurately, a single poorly played 4th qtr. When the pollsters and media begin to put that game into perspective, the Tigers will be in playoff contention.
You sound almost desperate to believe that. The “pollsters and media” are not what’s going to make LSU a playoff contender. Consistently play up to your potential and the rest will take care of itself.
This is shaping up to be such a weird season.
It is a weird season. I think the portal is now becoming a serious consideration in how teams are built and how quickly they can fill holes in the ranks. I think we have achieved the NFL model, striving for mediocracy across the board. If nothing else, this season promises to provide endless entertainment and “what the…..” moments.
Well the Vols have certainly done their part to spread mediocrity
Coaches are now figuring out Josh Heupel’s offense.
“ The only team that has not looked bad at any point of this season in the SEC is Ole Miss. And the Rebels’ toughest opponent so far has been Georgia Tech.”
That’s not true. Did Ethan not watch the Tulane – Ole Miss game? Tulane played them hard and was winning until the final 4 minutes of the game. Ole Miss has looked good this season, but they were fortunate to win against Tulane and are grateful that Pratt didn’t play in that game or they might just have lost in New Orleans.
But that’s not playing bad. That’s a hard win against a tough team. There’s a difference
Tulane is not a tough team when it is playing it’s backup QB. Not close.
Tulane is a better team than anybody LSU has played this season, except FSU, and we all saw how that worked out.
You can believe that if you want to. State would beat them.
I have no doubt that had Pratt Played against Ole Miss, Tulane would have won that game.
Rat poison. I hope CBN and staff continue to drill into the team the truth – they have minimal room for error and need to execute against every opponent like they did in the first half against UT. The reality is the pressure is on CBN not to allow UF to lose three straight to UK, which is unheard of.
I maintain that CBN is a really good coach and the Gators are lucky to have him. You just need a bit of patience.
I believe most rational Gator fans agree Gig, he just needs time. Still the players and coaches should keep in mind this team has very little margin for error and needs to over prepare for each opponent. As CBN stacks top 5 classes over the next few years the margin for error won’t be as much of an issue with top 150 players across the roster
And just in case anyone is wondering the last time UF lost three straight to UK was 72 years ago in 1951 (it was actually 4 in a row).
That was when “The Bear” was there. He could “take yourin’ and beat you, gis like he’d taken hisin’ and beat you.”
Ethan, with due respect, no. Bama will not be in the Sunshine State for a bowl. And TN vs Miami would be ugly. The SEC is, as Savimus says, weird.
Birmingham Bowl?
They just line up the usual suspects for the top half and juggle the bottom half.
I think we gotta slow on the Florida train. The game was at home, historically they’ve won that game for 20 years, even last years Gators beat a top 10 Utah team and look at the train wreck that was the 2022 Gators. Just saying I would wait before I’d think that Napier is righting that ship
Yeah but the gators beat utah last season because no one was prepared for ar and how he would be used last season, after that game film existed on him. Some teams were then able to scheme around his obvious deficiencies.
This seasons win against UT is different because no one was surprised by UFs game plan, they just couldn’t stop it.
This is a “for amusement only” article folks. Nine games to go so enjoy the ride.
Beginning next year with the expanded playoff, these bowl prognostications are going to be much harder to project. Eight teams will go to the post-season, but play on-campus games. Four will move on to NY6 bowls to play the 4 bye teams in playoff quarter-finals, and four more will move on to the other 2 NY6 bowls to play the semi-finals. The whole bowl-projection industry is going to be turned on its head.
I like the parody in college football now. I don’t know if it’s the NIL, Portal or both but it makes for fun football. I personally get tired of Ohio St., Clemson, Bama every single year (no disrespect to Bama).
The parody is hilarious, but the parity is not bad, either.
Sure, that to, or is it two, or too
Lane Kiffin “Lane Kiffin said #OleMiss is preparing for an Alabama defense coordinated by Travaris Robinson and not Kevin Steele:
There seems like there’s been a change there. I don’t know what happened after the Texas game, but our guys watching the TV copy and schematically in this last game, certainly seems like T-Rob’s now calling the defense.”
Kiffin already sending shots.
The TN team that played saturday will be closer to 4 wins than 8. TN is not as bad as they played saturday and Florida isnt as good as they played. But how bad and good are they? Remains to be seen.
Playing in The Swamp with a sellout was definitely a factor. You can feel the noise in your bones.
Project that the Hogs will be playing in the Toilet Bowl.
January 1st, 2015 – Citrus Bowl:
Missouri 33
Minnesota 17
Arkansas will not qualify for a bowl and the boosters really don’t care.
Y’all still see 6 wins on the Arkansas schedule? The way 2 FCS teams and BYU has had their way with our offensive line?