Scout.com Posts Early Bowl Picks

 Send This Story To A Friend

Ready to make your holiday travel plans?  Scout.com has posted its analysts’ predictions for 2011-12 bowl season.  You may want to hold off on booking those hotels and flights just yet, however.  A year ago, no one would’ve expected Auburn to spend the 2011 holidays in Arizona gearing up for the BCS title game.

Below are the SEC teams that Scout’s forecasters expect to go bowling at season’s end.  For the full list, here’s Part One and here’s Part Two.


Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl
Scout.com’s Take: Georgia vs Boston College
Our Take: If UGA finishes the season in a third-tier bowl, it will be interesting to see if Mark Richt is the man coaching in that bowl or not.

AutoZone Liberty Bowl
Scout.com’s Take: Tennessee vs Tulsa
Our Take: Considering the lack of depth when Derek Dooley took over, reaching back-to-back bowl games in his first two years would be a solid accomplishment.

Chick-fil-A Bowl
Scout.com’s Take: South Carolina vs Virginia Tech
Our Take: Columbia isn’t far from Atlanta, but it’s hard to see the Chick-fil-A taking the Gamecocks two years in a row.

Outback Bowl
Scout.com’s Take: Florida vs Nebraska
Our Take: Okay, we’re starting to see a trend of Scout just pushing teams into similar level bowls. 

Capital One Bowl
Scout.com’s Take: Arkansas vs Michigan
Our Take: Sugar and Capital One payouts in consecutive years would help to cover the cost of Bobby Petrino’s most recent salary bump.

Gator Bowl
Scout.com’s Take: Mississippi State vs Michigan State
Our Take: Yet another SEC team picked to finish right where it ended the 2010 season.

AT&T Cotton Bowl
Scout.com’s Take: Auburn vs Texas
Our Take: Anything’s possible, but how anyone can expect Auburn to replace Cam Newton, Nick Fairley, 15 other starters and reach a January bowl is beyond us.

BBVA Compass Bank Bowl
Scout.com’s Take: Ole Miss vs Cincinnati
Our Take: It ain’t the Cotton, but the BBVA Compass Bank Bowl would beat another holiday spent at home.

Sugar Bowl
Scout.com’s Take: LSU vs Wisconsin
Our Take: Of all the faux matchups so far, this one is the most appealing.

BCS Championship Game
Scout.com’s Take: Alabama vs Oklahoma
Our Take: Alabama has the homefield advantage over LSU this year, but the Tigers will have a veteran quarterback who — as much as he struggled last year — led LSU to an 11-2 record.  Therefore it’s hard for us to say that a pick of Bama or LSU in the title game is wrong.