Bowling anyone?
Ummm … yeah.
There’s no doubt that the University of South Carolina’s football team improved its bowl positioning Saturday by virtue of its 34-17 blowout win over Clemson … but where will South Carolina wind up playing its final game of the 2009 season?
And when will we find out the destination?
Obviously, a lot of that depends on how the various conference championships shake out.
The SEC’s top two teams – Florida and Alabama – will play in BCS bowls, that much is guaranteed. The undefeated SEC Champion (our money is on Florida) will then get a chance to play in the national championship game, while the runner-up will play in the Sugar Bowl.
From there, the SEC still has eight bowl slots to fill - Capital One (Jan. 1), Outback (Jan. 1), Cotton (Jan. 2), Chick-fil-A (Dec. 31), Music City (Dec. 27), Liberty (Jan. 2), Independence (Dec. 28) and Papajohns.com (Jan. 2).
In addition to Alabama, four teams (LSU, Ole Miss, Arkansas and Auburn) are bowl-eligible from the SEC West. Meanwhile, in addition to Florida, four teams (Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee) are bowl-eligible from the SEC East.
Ten eligible teams, ten bowl slots. In other words, it’s just a question of finding the best match-ups.
With Americans less inclined to fork over big bucks for holiday travel this year, bowl officials are likely going to offer bids to nearby teams, where possible.
That’s why South Carolina’s win over Clemson, for example, has it squarely in the mix to receive a bid to the Chick-fil-A Bowl (formerly the Peach Bowl), which is held every New Year’s Eve in Atlanta.
It just makes sense geographically, as Atlanta is only a three-and-a-half hour drive from Columbia on Interstate 2o.
Of course, bowl officials might look at USC’s historic fan strength and bet that Gamecock fans would be more inclined than fans at other schools to make a longer trip (like the one Sic Willie made at the end of the 2006 season, when FITS was in its infancy).
They’d probably be right, which means USC could be headed for another Liberty or Outback Bowl appearance.
As for us … we wanna go bowling with these girls!
UPDATE: You gotta be kidding us … South Carolina drew the PapaJohns.com Bowl? WTF?
By Skidmarks November 29, 2009 at 10:49 am
Chick-fil-A Bowl is ACC vs SEC. Clemson will probably get a bid after Tech beats them. So, would they go for a repeat of USC vs Clemson? I hope not.
By kierthos November 29, 2009 at 9:51 pm
The Chick-fil-A Bowl?
Seriously?
This is what we’ve come to in selling out to big business? Good christ. How much longer before college players are required to wear advertising patches on their jerseys, or helmets? Or required to change their names to support corporate masters?
By Toyota Kawaski November 30, 2009 at 8:13 am
Music City vs The U or the liberal think tank of America
By utah November 30, 2009 at 5:14 pm
no way a 5-loss clem-tech is selected to the CFA over 9-win Va. Tech.