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Despite earlier rumors that had Texas A&M and Missouri heading to Tampa for the Outback Bowl, it looks like Les Miles will be taking LSU to get a bloomin' onion. Reporters put the Bayou Bengals up against Iowa in the tilt, which usually features an SEC East team.
Breaking: source tells The Advocate #LSU will play Iowa in the Outback Bowl bowl Jan 1 in Tampa.
— Scott Rabalais (@RabalaisAdv) December 8, 2013
LSU going to the Outback almost certainly means they made a trade with the Cotton Bowl, which will now take an SEC East team. That will likely be Missouri, given the rumors that South Carolina is headed to the Capital One Bowl. The Cotton Bowl wanted to get away from another game with LSU, and the Outback Bowl wanted to be the Outback Bowl.
Iowa looked disappointing earlier this year, when the Hawkeyes lost to Northern Illinois and only beat Missouri State of the FCS by 14 points. There were already a million "Kirk Ferentz gets paid how much each year?" jokes being made. But Iowa kind of turned it around later, still losing three more games but beating Minnesota, Michigan and Nebraska in the process. (Hey, they play in the B1G; that's about as impressive as it's going to get.)