UK football is bowl eligible for eighth straight season. Here’s where Cats could play.
Kentucky football clinched bowl eligibility for the eighth consecutive season with a 24-3 win over Mississippi State on Saturday.
The Wildcats’ three-game losing streak before the win has taken several bowl options off the table, but with three games remaining there is still time to rally for a New Year’s Day bowl. Here is a look at the possible postseason destinations for Mark Stoops’ team.
Citrus Bowl
It is theoretically possible for a 9-3 team to earn an at-large spot in the New Year’s Six bowls (Florida played in the Peach Bowl at 9-3 in 2019), but even if Kentucky runs the table and adds ranked wins over Alabama and Louisville to its resume it is almost impossible to imagine that scenario playing out for the Wildcats. Tennessee and Missouri would likely be in contention for one of the at-large spots in the Cotton, Fiesta and Peach Bowls in that scenario with a victory over Kentucky serving as a de facto tiebreaker for the playoff committee.
That leaves the Citrus Bowl, which has first pick of the remaining SEC teams after the playoff committee fills the New Year’s Six games, as the most prestigious bowl in play for Kentucky. Even with a 9-3 record Kentucky might not be the pick for the Citrus Bowl though. The bowl usually takes the highest ranked SEC team available, but it does not have to. If several SEC teams are grouped in the same range of the final playoff committee ranking, the fact that Kentucky has played in the Citrus Bowl twice since 2018, including two years ago in 2021, would work against the Wildcats’ chances of returning to Orlando.
SEC’s Pool of Six games
After the Citrus Bowl makes its selection, the SEC league office works with schools and a group of six bowls (ReliaQuest, Gator, Texas, Music City, Duke’s Mayo and Liberty) to make selections for its next tier of games. The bowls and schools submit their preferences to the SEC, but the league office makes the final decision on assignments. The league uses a variety of criteria in those choices, including avoiding repeat matchups and bowl trips in a short window, but teams with the most wins are generally given preference in their selections.
While the bowls in this tier technically have the same weight in the SEC selection process, the ReliaQuest Bowl (Jan. 1 in Tampa, Florida) has been perceived as the top target for schools due to its status as a New Year’s Day game played in Florida. The game formerly known as the Outback Bowl would surely be Kentucky’s top target, but it will need at least eight wins to have a chance to be placed there. UK probably needs to root for Tennessee and Missouri to be off the table by this point since both those schools would likely target the ReliaQuest Bowl as well and have the head-to-head tiebreaker with Kentucky if they finish with the same number of wins.
Of the five other games in this tier, the Music City Bowl (Dec. 30 in Nashville, Tennessee) is the only one off the table for Kentucky since the Wildcats played in Nashville last season. Kentucky has never played in the Texas Bowl (Dec. 27 in Houston, Texas), but the SEC has usually sent a West Division team to that game when one that has not played there recently is available. Kentucky last played in the Gator Bowl (Dec. 29 in Jacksonville, Florida) after the 2020 season but attendance was limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic so many fans were unable to make the trip. Kentucky last played in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl (Dec. 27 in Charlotte, North Carolina) in 2019 when it was still known as the Belk Bowl. If the SEC does not have enough bowl eligible teams to fill all the “Pool of Six” games, the Liberty Bowl (Dec. 29 in Memphis, Tennessee), where Kentucky last played after the 2008 season, has taken a team from another league.
Other options
In a worst-case scenario where Kentucky does not win another game, a 6-6 Wildcats team might not be placed in one of the “Pool of Six” games if there are enough bowl eligible teams from the SEC. That scenario would mean a trip to Birmingham or the Gasparilla Bowl. ESPN makes the selections for those games after the SEC assigns its teams to the “Pool of Six.” Both games will be played on Dec. 23 and feature a matchup with teams from the American Athletic Conference. Kentucky last played in the Birmingham Bowl after the 2010 season. UK has never played in the Gasparilla Bowl, which is played is in Tampa, Florida.
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College football final: Kentucky Wildcats 24, Mississippi State Bulldogs 3
