Tag: Bowl Season

Could Auburn square off with former head coach Gus Malzahn in a bowl game?

How excited would you be to watch this potential matchup?

Auburn enters week five of the college football season with a 3-1 record, and could easily earn a magic sixth win to secure bowl eligibility before season’s end.

According to the latest bowl projections by CBS Sports, the Tigers could meet up with a former head coach in a bowl game.

UCF, who is competing in their first season as a member of the Big 12, enters week five with a 3-1 record after dropping their first game of the season to Kansas State last Saturday night. Both the Tigers and the Knights have endured similar seasons to this point, and their paths could cross at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis on Dec. 29.

This matchup would be interesting, as it would pit UCF head coach [autotag]Gus Malzahn[/autotag] against his former squad, now led by friend [autotag]Hugh Freeze[/autotag].

When Freeze took over the Auburn job last November, Malzahn extended a “congratulations” to Freeze, and even offered him several gifts.

Auburn has faced UCF four times and holds a 3-1 advantage over the Knights. However, the most infamous game between the two took place in the 2017 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, when UCF won, 34-27. The Knights claimed the 2017 National Championship by transitive property. In 2021, UCF hired Malzahn as its next head coach after Josh Heupel’s departure for Tennessee.

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Sporting News predicts Auburn to face old rival in bowl game

Tickets to this game would sell fast if this projection were to come true.

As the 2023 season continues to inch closer, many outlets are predicting Auburn to return to bowl season following their disappointing 5-7 campaign last season.

Sporting News has recently dropped their preseason bowl game predictions and has given Auburn an interesting draw.

According to this projection, Auburn will be the first team from the SEC to participate in bowl season by traveling to Tampa, Florida on Dec. 22 to compete in the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl against longtime rival, Georgia Tech.

The Tigers and Yellow Jackets have played 90 times in history, with Auburn holding a 47-41-2 advantage. Despite the rivalry’s lengthy history, these two teams have not played since 2005, when Georgia Tech stunned Auburn fresh off of their undefeated season by earning a 23-14 victory at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Outside of history, these teams playing in a bowl game would be refreshing for both fanbases. Both programs failed to receive a bowl invite last season and will be competing in 2023 under first-year head coaches. With the date of the bowl game scheduled before Christmas, it can be assumed that both teams would need six-seven wins in order to qualify for the Gasparilla Bowl.

Here’s a rundown of where each SEC program will be heading this postseason according to Sporting News’ projections.

Auburn’s return to bowl season ‘seems likely’ in 2023

CBS Sports believes that Auburn will fulfill the necessary requirements to earn a bowl invite in Hugh Freeze’s first season.

The last two seasons have been arduous for the Auburn Tigers.

After starting 6-2 in 2021, Auburn dropped four straight games to keep their bowl eligibility. That season would end with a 17-13 loss to Houston in the Birmingham Bowl, which would bring Auburn’s record to a 6-7 mark.

Then, last season, Auburn failed to make a bowl for the first time since 2012 after finishing with a 5-7 record.

Auburn has hired [autotag]Hugh Freeze[/autotag], and his work to this point has Auburn fans believing that the program will make great strides toward becoming a contender for the SEC West crown in the next several seasons. College football experts across the country see the Tigers making those improvements as well.

CBS Sports writer David Cobb recently listed the ten teams that have the best chance to return to bowl season after missing the mark in 2022. Auburn cut, and was placed in the “seems likely” category alongside Michigan State and FAU.

Cobb says that Auburn’s schedule works out in its favor.

The last time Auburn failed to reach a bowl in consecutive seasons was 1998 and 1999. It could be close, but the Tigers ought to reach six wins in coach Hugh Freeze’s first season. Instead of playing Penn State as their Power Five nonconference foe like last season, the Tigers face a weak Cal program. With Vanderbilt on the schedule as Auburn’s rotating cross-division opponent, there’s a chance the Tigers could reach bowl eligibility with a mere 1-5 mark against SEC West competition.

As part of this list, Cobb says that Texas A&M, Miami, and Appalachian State have the best chance to return to bowl season, while programs such as Iowa State, Nebraska, and Arizona will need to catch a lucky break or two to earn the magic sixth win needed to become bowl eligible.

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The Cheez-It Bowl is now the Pop-Tarts Bowl

The Cheez-It Bowl is no more, now we will see the first Pop-Tarts Bowl in 2023.

There is now a new bowl sponsor for the annual game featuring the ACC and Big 12.

The Dec. 28 game will now be known as the Pop-Tarts Bowl according to a press release from Florida Citrus Sports. Last season it was known as the Cheez-It Bowl and featured the Florida State-Oklahoma matchup. Ultimately the Seminoles were able to pick up the win, their 10th of the season.

The Cheez-It Citrus Bowl will remain the same and that game will kick off on Jan. 1 featuring a matchup of the Big Ten and SEC. The newly named Pop-Tarts Bowl will kick off at 5:45 ET and will be live on ESPN.

“Since turning toast and jam into an ingenious toaster pastry almost 60 years ago, Pop-Tarts has always been about making the world more fun, more unexpected and more delicious for fans of all kinds,” said Heidi Ray, Senior Director of Marketing, Pop-Tarts. “We’re ecstatic to be the new title sponsor of the Pop-Tarts Bowl with our partners at Florida Citrus Sports and cannot wait to host Crazy Good experiences for fans and players alike in Orlando, and for those joining us from home.” via Florida Citrus Sports press release

It remains to be seen if Pop-Tart will have anything like what we saw from Cheez-It.

Action Sports predicts a sunny bowl season for Auburn

After missing bowl season last year, Brett McMurphy of Action Sports predicts the Tigers will head to a warm destination in 2023.

Another set of bowl predictions has been released for the 2023 college football season, this time from Action Sports.

Brett McMurphy, whose bowl predictions finished with a 95% accuracy rate for the 2022 season, has predicted the Auburn Tigers to take on the Louisville Cardinals in the Gator Bowl at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida.

Auburn is looking for its first bowl victory since beating the Purdue Boilermakers in the Music City Bowl to close out the 2018-19 season. The Tigers fell to the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the Outback Bowl to close out the 2019-20, the Northwestern Wildcats in the Citrus Bowl to close out the 2020-21 season and the Houston Cougars in the Birmingham Bowl to close out the 2021-22 season. The Tigers did not qualify for a bowl game in the 2022-23 season after finishing the season with a 5-7 record.

Auburn has a minimal history with the Cardinals. There have been two meetings in history between Auburn and Louisville, with Auburn winning both. The Tigers defeated Louisville, 16-3, in Birmingham on Sept. 14, 1973. The most recent meeting took place in the Georgia Dome on Sept. 5, 2015, when Auburn defeated Louisville in the Chick Fil A Kickoff Game.

Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Daniel on Twitter @DanielJLocke

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Bowl Game Rankings. How Good Were All The Bowls From Worst To Best?

Bowl game rankings – how good were they? Ranked from the worst to the best, here’s our review of all the bowl games.

How good were all of the games in the 2022-2023 bowl season? Ranking all the bowl games from the worst to the best.

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You spent the time to watch them – or at least have them on in the background at work, holiday parties, and everywhere in between.

How good were the bowl games? Which ones were worth your while, which ones were instantly forgettable, and which bowls made the finish to the college football season great?

There’s one big one to go – and hopefully the College Football Playoff National Championship is the best of the bunch. Until that’s done …

Bowl Game Rankings 2022-2023

Bowl Rankings 2022-2023
Bowls of Sad | Instant Memory Dumped Bowls
Just Bowls | Very Good Bowls | Great Bowls
Classic Bowls No. 8 | No. 7 | No. 6 | No. 5 | No. 4
No. 3 | No. 2 | No. 1 | Bowl Scoreboard

Bowl Rankings: Bowls of Sad

These bowls made the world a lesser place and were an affront to all humanity.

43. TransPerfect Music City Bowl

Iowa 21, Kentucky 0
Pre-Bowl Matchup Ranking: 29
Pre-Bowl Ranking: 2021: 12, 2020: NA, 2019: 26
Post-Bowl Ranking: 2021: 3, 2020: NA, 2019: 22

This was supposed to be awful with every key offensive player opting out, and wow did it overdeliver on that.

No, it doesn’t quite beat out the 2018 Cheez-It Bowl – TCU over Cal 10-7 in overtime – for the honor of being the ugliest sporting event or athletic contest in the history of competition, but it made a big push.

Iowa went 0-for-11 on third downs and 0-for-2 on fourth downs, and it won because of one decent drive and two pick-sixes. Kentucky amassed 185 yards of total offense and was 2-of-18 on third downs.
What Happened, Player of the Game, Fun Stats, What it Means

42. Cheez-It Citrus Bowl

LSU 63, Purdue 7
Pre-Bowl Matchup Ranking: 6
Pre-Bowl Ranking: 2021: 15, 2020: 19, 2019: 12
Post-Bowl Ranking: 2021: 12, 2020: 14, 2019: 16

The final score was 63-7 only because LSU didn’t want it to be 84-7. Even so, it was the biggest blowout in the history of the bowls … until Georgia took that title against TCU.

Both LSU and Purdue had massive issues with opt-outs and transfers, but Purdue had it far worse. It showed from the start, LSU came out roaring and sharp, and this was brutal in a hurry. The only saving grace was the production from the Tigers – they played great – but Purdue couldn’t do anything until late in the third quarter when the game was all but done.
What Happened, Player of the Game, Fun Stats, What it Means

41. SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl

Oregon State 30, Florida 3
Pre-Bowl Matchup Ranking: 20
Pre-Bowl Ranking: 2021: 31, 2020: NA, 2019: 15
Post-Bowl Ranking: 2021: 17, 2020: NA, 2019: 36 

There were players out there wearing Florida Gator uniforms, but that was about it for this looking like a big-time SEC school against a solid Pac-12 program having a strong year.

How bad was it? The Gators kicked a field goal in the final minute down 30-0 just to find something positive – the program is on a record-setting non-shutout streak. But give credit to an Oregon State team that came to play on both sides of the ball to make this a snoozer from the start.
What Happened, Player of the Game, Fun Stats, What it Means

40. Wasabi Fenway Bowl

Louisville 24, Cincinnati 7 
Pre-Bowl Matchup Ranking: 34
Pre-Bowl Ranking: 2021: 41, 2020: NA, 2019: NA
Post-Bowl Ranking: 2021: 36, 2020: NA, 2019: NA

This was every bit as meh as expected. Both teams put up a fight with great effort, but Cincinnati just didn’t have enough to do anything offensively, the two teams combined for six turnovers, and there was little drama.

Scott Satterfield left one team and was waiting in the wings to coach the other, major parts weren’t present, there were about 19 fans in the stands outside of friends and family, and the novelty of the game being played in a baseball stadium wore off quickly.
What Happened, Player of the Game, Fun Stats, What it Means

39. Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl

Fresno State 29, Washington State 6
Pre-Bowl Matchup Ranking: 16
Pre-Bowl Ranking: 2021: 18, 2020: NA, 2019: NA
Post-Bowl Ranking: 2021: 21, 2020: NA, 2019: NA

You know it’s an awful bowl when the guy it’s named after goes into the booth and can’t stop yapping about how boring it was. It didn’t help that this was going on about the same time as Indianapolis was in epic meltdown mode against the Vikings.

There was some redeeming value in Fresno State’s combination of QB Jake Haener and RB Jordan Mims going off against a Washington State defense missing a slew of key players, but there wasn’t much offense on the other side to make this competitive.
What Happened, Player of the Game, Fun Stats, What it Means

Bowl Rankings 2022-2023
Bowls of Sad | Instant Memory Dumped Bowls
Just Bowls | Very Good Bowls | Great Bowls
Classic Bowls No. 8 | No. 7 | No. 6 | No. 5 | No. 4
No. 3 | No. 2 | No. 1 | Bowl Scoreboard

NEXT: Bowl Rankings: Instant Memory Dumped Bowls

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How every SEC program fared during bowl season

The SEC went 6-5 in bowl season heading into its final matchup in the national championship.

Another bowl season is in the books.

Only one game remains before we close the final chapter of the 2022 season — a matchup between Georgia and a Cinderella TCU squad in the national championship at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on Monday night. Georgia’s playing in that game by virtue of its 42-41 win in a thrilling Peach Bowl semifinal against Ohio State.

That victory was one of six during bowl season for the SEC, which finished at 6-5 and will look to stay above .500 when the Bulldogs go for their second-straight national championship.

In the meantime, here’s how every other league team fared.

SEC Bowl Recap: A wild bowl season comes to a close

After a slow start, the SEC closes bowl season on Monday with two big wins by Mississippi State and LSU.

It was not the best of starts for the SEC when it came to positive bowl results, but, thankfully, bowl season ended on a high note.

The LSU Tigers put a cap on bowl season with a 63-7 beatdown of Big Ten West champion Purdue in the Citrus Bowl on Tuesday. Before that, Mississippi State earned an emotional win over Illinois in the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa. The game was Mississippi State’s first since the passing of head coach, Mike Leach.

The conference began on a sour note, as Florida and Missouri opened bowl season with losses to Oregon State and Wake Forest respectively. The conference’s first win came in the Liberty Bowl when Arkansas defeated Kansas in three overtimes, 55-53.

The most exciting game of bowl season took place on New Year’s Eve when Georgia knocked off Ohio State to earn a trip to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. The Bulldogs erased two different 14-point deficits to win the Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Georgia will face TCU at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on Monday, Jan. 9 for a chance to win its second national championship in as many years.

The SEC finishes bowl season with a record of 6-5, with one game remaining. Here’s a look back at how the SEC performed during bowl season.

How the Big 12 fared in 2022 bowl games

The Big 12 sits at 2-6 in bowl games this season.

Eight Big 12 Conference teams qualified for bowl games this season. Only Iowa State and West Virginia missed the six-game mark to make the cut.

The league as a whole did not find much success in bowl games this season. The eight Big 12 squads combined for a 2-6 record, the worst winning percentage among the Power Five conferences.

The future Big 12 schools went 2-2 as BYU and Houston came away with wins.

The good news for the Big 12 is the College Football Playoff drought is over. TCU became the first Big 12 team to win a semifinal game with an instant classic over Michigan. The Frogs will square off against No. 1 Georgia in the national title game on Monday night.

The Big 12 was 0-4 in playoff semifinal games. All of the losses were by the Oklahoma Sooners.

Here is a look at how each Big 12 team fared in 2022 bowl games.

Opinion: How the SEC is faring this bowl season

Despite a rough start, the SEC has an opportunity to close out bowl season strong.

The best conference in college football, the SEC, is off to a rough start to bowl season.

So far, the conference has a record of 1-3 with the only win coming by way of Arkansas beating Kansas in triple overtime. The three losses were all double-digit losses as Florida got destroyed by Oregon State 30-3, Missouri lost to Wake Forest 27-17, and Ole Miss lost to Texas Tech 42-25.

Therefore, the SEC is the butt of all the other conference jokes. They suffer from SEC fatigue. They are tired of seeing Georgia and Alabama in the playoffs and in the National Championship game.

The truth is, the SEC has won six of the last 10 national championships. Only one of those games didn’t have an SEC in the title game, Ohio State vs. Oregon in 2014. In the other three, Florida State beat Auburn (2013) and Clemson beat Alabama twice (2016, 2018).

The SEC has a chance to flip the script on their record still, with seven, possibly eight, more games left. South Carolina takes on Notre Dame today and Beamer ball can give the SEC East its first win this bowl season.

Tennessee will face off against Clemson tonight in the battle of whose orange is uglier. What a coincidence they are facing off in the Orange Bowl. On Saturday, Alabama takes on Big-12 champion Kansas State in what will be Bryce Young and Will Anderson’s last game.

Kentucky takes on Iowa, and Georgia will likely beat Ohio State like a drum. Next Monday, Mississippi State will play Illinois and LSU will play Purdue. So, the SEC can finish with a great record if they have a great final stretch, and I believe they will.

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