Cowbell Corner

Mississippi State football gets one more game in Duke's Mayo Bowl

The Bulldogs' season was brought back to life Sunday after other teams turned down bowl invitations, leaving a spot open for them.
Taylor Hodges|
Mississippi State Bulldogs quarterback Kamario Taylor (1) celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Mississippi Rebels in the first half at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field.
Mississippi State Bulldogs quarterback Kamario Taylor (1) celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Mississippi Rebels in the first half at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field. | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

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Mississippi State Bulldogs

Have you ever wondered what Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby would look like with a large tub of mayonnaise poured on his head?

We may get our chance to find out after Mississippi State accepted a bowl invitation to the Duke's Mayo Bowl on January 2. The opponent hasn't been announced other than it'll be an ACC team.

UPDATE: Mississippi State will play Wake Forest in the Duke Mayo's Bowl.

One of the biggest clichés, stereotypes, coach speak-like things us sports writers like to use is that anything can happen.

Whether talking the potential for a huge upset or a crazy injury taking out a key player, you’ll find a variation of anything can happen.

The problem is that in sports, anything really can happen, like Mississippi State going to a bowl game this season.

Two weeks ago, after the Bulldogs’ ended their season at 5-7 in a 38-19 loss to Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl, everyone assumed there were no more games to be played.

But whatever the “anything” is in anything can happen, happened. Mississippi State is going bowling.

The opportunity for a bowl game opened after Kansas State and Iowa State both declined bowl invitations (and accept a $500k fine from the Big 12). That left two spots open for teams that didn’t win six games.

The NCAA selects the teams using Academy Progress Rate (APR) as the metric to put the teams in a picking order. Per On3’s Brett McMurphy, the top five teams in the APR were Rice, Auburn, UCF, Mississippi State and Florida State.

Auburn wasn’t likely to accept a bowl invitation with its new coach busy preparing South Florida for the Cure Bowl in Orlando against Old Dominion.

That left the Bulldogs needing one of either Rice or UCF needing to turn down bowl invitations. Neither team is undergoing a coaching change.

And now the Bulldogs are going bowling.

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Taylor Hodges
TAYLOR HODGES

Award-winning sports editor, writer, columnist, and photographer with 15 years’ experience offering his opinion and insight about the sports world in Mississippi and Texas, but he was taken to Razorback pep rallies at Billy Bob's Texas in Fort Worth before he could walk. Taylor has covered all levels of sports, from small high schools in the Mississippi Delta to NFL games. Follow Taylor on Twitter and Facebook.

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