SEC Drops to 1-5 in Postseason Bowl Games
The first days of the 2021 college football postseason have not been kind to the Southeastern Conference, and they have dropped to a 1-5 record in bowl games so far.
The downward trend started with Missouri when they lost to Army in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl. At least the Tigers kept it close-- they dropped a 24-22 heartbreaker after Army kicker Cole Talley drilled a 41-yard field goal as time expired.
Things didn't get much better in the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl, as Florida was soundly defeated by UCF. The Gators put up a good fight in the first half before completely falling apart. The Knights claimed the 29-17 victory, and a once-formidable Florida program fell to 6-7 to end the season.
The SEC endured its next two losses on Dec. 29. The first of these came in the early afternoon when Auburn lost to Houston by a score of 17-13 in the TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl. The Tigers kept it much closer than expected because the No. 21 Cougars came into the game with an 11-2 record and an AAC Championship appearance. Auburn quarterback TJ Finley just couldn't do enough to pull his team to the top.
The second loss of the day came late in the evening in blowout fashion. Mississippi State went into the AutoZone Liberty bowl as the heavy favorites and left with a 34-7 loss to Texas Tech. The Bulldogs were a bit thin on defense, but the offense couldn't make anything happen to keep the team in the game.
After a brief hiatus on Dec. 29, the conference saw another day of big matchups. Yesterday, South Carolina and North Carolina faced off in the Duke's Mayo Bowl, with the Gamecocks claiming the upset. They thoroughly defeated UNC by a score of 38-21.
Unfortunately, that was the only SEC victory of the day. The TransPerfect Music City Bowl matchup between Tennessee and Purdue did not work out in the Vol's favor. Purdue ended up claiming the slight 48-45 victory in overtime, but a horrible call by the officials that prevented Tennessee from converting a big fourth down for a touchdown skewed the results. If the game was judged fairly, then Tennessee would have come out on top.
There are still chances to improve in the coming days. Texas A&M backed out of the Dec. 31 Gator Bowl due to depth issues, but the two biggest games of the season thus far will make up for it. Both College Football Playoff semifinal games feature two talented SEC programs-- Alabama and Georgia-- that are both looking to make it into the national championship. Alabama will face Cincinnati in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl in the afternoon, while Georgia and Michigan will battle in the Capital One Orange Bowl to close out the day.
Three more SEC teams will ring in 2022 with big-time bowl appearances. Arkansas will be the first college football team to take the field in the new year as they look to win a huge game against Penn State in the Outback Bowl. Iowa and Kentucky will face off shortly afterward in the VRBO Citrus Bowl. Lastly, Ole Miss finished the regular season 10-2 and with a New Year's Six bowl berth: they will go up against the Big 12 Champion Baylor Bears in the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
The last confirmed SEC bowl game of the season will take place between LSU and Kansas State in the TaxAct Texas Bowl on Jan. 4. If either Alabama or Georgia wins their respective semifinal matchup, they will be playing in the CFP National Championship on Jan. 10. There is a good possibility of an all-SEC championship, which would do wonders for the conference as a whole.
Despite a rough start, there are still at least six matchups to go before the clock runs out on the SEC postseason. The teams remaining will need to fight hard and bring back the conference pride that has dwindled over the past week.
