SEC Bowl Projections after Week 8

After their demolition at the hands of Auburn, Arkansas failed to become bowl eligible last weekend, so Alabama and Texas A&M remain the only bowl eligible teams in the SEC. The Razorbacks, along with LSU, will have to wait another week as they enter their bye weeks, but Tennessee and Auburn can crest the six-win mark with wins this weekend over South Carolina and Ole Miss respectively.

The biggest mover in our projections this week is LSU as three of the projections feature the Tigers in a New Year’s Six bowl game while Vanderbilt enters a projection and Mississippi State fell out of a few prognostications.

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College Football Playoff

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Alabama continued to have a stranglehold on making the playoff after their steamrolling of Texas A&M, and should do so next week as well as they enter their bye week.

Alex Dusza	Alabama
Cam Newton	Alabama
Niesha Middlebrooks	Alabama
Jonathan Waldrop	Alabama
Tom Stephenson	Alabama

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New Year’s Six Bowls

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LSU got a bump in a few picks, mine included, up to the Sugar Bowl while Texas A&M is still picked by all selectors to go to an Access Bowl.

	Sugar	Orange	Cotton
Alex Dusza	LSU		Texas A&M
Cam Newton	Tennessee	Texas A&M
Niesha Middlebrooks	LSU	Texas A&M
Jonathan Waldrop	LSU		Texas A&M
Tom Stephenson	Texas A&M

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Citrus Bowl

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Alex Dusza	Tennessee
Cam Newton	Auburn
Niesha Middlebrooks	Tennessee
Jonathan Waldrop	Florida
Tom Stephenson	Auburn

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Group of Six Bowls

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	Belk	Liberty	Music City	Outback	TaxSlayer (Gator)	Texas
Alex Dusza	Florida	Ole Miss	Kentucky	Georgia	Auburn	Arkansas
Cam Newton	LSU	Ole Miss	Kentucky	Florida	Georgia	Arkansas
Niesha Middlebrooks	Florida	Ole Miss	Kentucky	Auburn	Georgia	Arkansas
Jonathan Waldrop	Tennessee	Ole Miss	Arkansas	Auburn	Georgia	Mississippi State
Tom Stephenson	Georgia	Ole Miss	Arkansas	Tennessee	Florida	LSU

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Birmingham and Independence Bowls

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Tom is picking Vanderbilt to round out the SEC's bowl contingent at a 5-7 record based on their APR scores. For convenience sake, I've put them below in the Independence Bowl, but if the Commodores or any 5-7 team selected for a bowl, it would be selected after all other 6-6 teams are chosen. So at that point, really, Vanderbilt could be going anywhere.

	Birmingham	Independence
Alex Dusza
Cam Newton
Niesha Middlebrooks	Mississippi State
Jonathan Waldrop
Tom Stephenson	Kentucky	Vanderbilt*