Alabama Football: Potential major bowl misses for SEC teams

As many in the national media continue to point to an Alabama Football decline, the opposite end of the SEC football spectrum provides perspective.

At least two and maybe three – and possibly four SEC teams may suffer the indignity of not playing in the postseason. The prestige of most of the bowls has so faded; no longer is making a bowl game the reward it was in the previous century.

Many Alabama football fans can remember dreadful excursions to Shreveport. Older Crimson Tide fans can think back to three depressing bowl games in the 1980s. The Tide’s three trips to El Paso produced three wins that did nothing to temper the disappointments of those seasons.

It has been fun for Bama fans to joke about Auburn’s trips to the Birmingham Bowl. This year we can even claim the Tigers will fail to make a bowl game, but college football pundits have the Tigers sneaking in a 6-6.

Bowls and Alabama Football ‘Opposites’

A month ago we discussed bowl predictions for SEC teams, using Brad Crawford’s prediction for 247Sports. Crawford had every SEC football team bowling, except the Vanderbilt Commodores. Crimson Tide fans no doubt enjoyed Crawford predicting another Birmingham Bowl for Auburn. That small amount of fun was obliterated by Crawford predicting Alabama Football to not make the CFB Playoff and meet Tulane, instead, in the Peach Bowl.

Two more sets of bowl predictions have been published since Crawford’s effort. They were provided by Athlon Sports and The Sporting News. A full rundown of the two predictions is provided below.

A quick peek is that along with Vanderbilt fans, Florida, Missouri, and Arkansas fans might be disappointed. Vanderbilt fans know well the danger of dreaming too high, but the other three fanbases, and especially the Gators and Razorbacks will be stunned if their teams can’t even earn a trip to Memphis or Birmingham.

Athlon Bowl Predictions for SEC Teams

• Auburn vs. North Carolina State in the Gasparilla Bowl
• Mississippi State vs. Marshall in the Birmingham Bowl
• Kentucky vs. Pitt in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl
• Texas A&M vs. TCU in the Texas Bowl
• Ole Miss vs. North Carolina in the Gator Bowl
• Missouri vs. Oklahoma State in the Liberty Bowl
• Arkansas vs. Minnesota in the Music City Bowl
• South Carolina vs. Miami in the ReliaQuest Bowl
• Tennessee vs. Wisconsin in the Citrus Bowl
• LSU vs. Penn State in the Peach Bowl
• Alabama vs. Michigan in a Rose Bowl, CFB Playoff semi-final
• Georgia vs. USC in a Sugar Bowl, CFB Playoff semi-final
• No postseason for Florida and Vanderbilt

Sporting News Bowl Predictions for SEC Teams

• Auburn vs. Georgia Tech in the Gasparilla Bowl
• Mississippi State vs. Wake Forest in the Birmingham Bowl
• Florida vs. Oklahoma in the Texas Bowl
• Kentucky vs. Duke in the TaxSlayer Bowl
• Ole Miss vs. TCU in the Liberty Bowl
• Texas A&M vs. Minnesota in the Music City Bowl
• South Carolina vs. Iowa in the ReliaQuest Bowl
• Tennessee vs. Wisconsin in the Citrus Bowl
• LSU vs. Texas in the Cotton Bowl
• Alabama vs. Clemson in the Peach Bowl
• Georgia vs. Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl, CFB Playoff semi-final
• No postseason for Missouri, Arkansas and Vanderbilt

As many as four SEC football teams not advancing to the post-season could make for at least two extremely tense fanbases and coaching staffs.