With conferences eagerly working to line up and lock in partnerships with bowls for the 2014-19 cycle, the slate of games for 2013 — the last year of the current cycle — was released by the Football Bowl Association yesterday.

The dates and times for the SEC’s games are as follows (all times Eastern):

Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl

Nashville, TN

Monday, 12/30, 3:15pm

SEC versus ACC

AdvoCare V100 Bowl

Shreveport, LA

Tuesday, 12/31, 12:30pm

SEC versus ACC

AutoZone Liberty Bowl

Memphis, TN

Tuesday, 12/31, 4:00pm

SEC versus Conference USA or AAC (old Big East)

Chick-fil-A Bowl

Atlanta, GA

Tuesday, 12/31, 8:00pm

SEC versus ACC

TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl

Jacksonville, FL

Wednesday, 1/1, 12:00pm

SEC versus Big Ten

Capital One Bowl

Orlando, FL

Wednesday, 1/1, 1:00pm

SEC versus Big Ten

Outback Bowl

Tampa, FL

Wednesday, 1/1, 1:00pm

SEC versus Big Ten

Allstate Sugar Bowl

New Orleans, LA

Thursday, 1/2, 8:30pm

SEC versus BCS qualifier

AT&T Cotton Bowl

Arlington, TX

Friday, 1/3, 7:30pm

SEC versus Big XII

BBVA Compass Bowl

Birmingham, AL

Saturday, 1/4, 1:00pm

SEC versus AAC (old Big East)

Ten bowl partners.  Three games against the ACC.  Three games against the Big Ten.  Not a single game outside the SEC footprint.

Our take?

For the love of all that’s holy, is there no way to shake things up a bit?  (Of course there is and we’ve talked about it before… but it’s not going to happen.)

Earlier this week, SI.com’s Stewart Mandel tried to piece together what the next cycle of bowl games might bring us.  His SEC projections were: Sugar, Capital One, Outback, Gator, Belk (in Charlotte), Music City, Meineke Car Care of Texas (in Houston) and then possibly the Liberty, AdvoCare v100, or the-bowl-soon-to-be-known-as-the-bowl-previously-known-as-the-BBVA Compass Bowl.  The SEC will also have an occasional path to the Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens.

That’s two new games on a regular basis.  The Belk Bowl is at least technically outside the SEC’s borders, though not by much.  Unfortunately, it will likely feature yet another SEC/ACC clash.

The Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas will probably be another matchup against the Big XII.  It would be played indoors at Reliant Stadium.

As for the carry-over games, the Sugar will match the SEC against the Big XII when not part of the College Football Playoff.  The Capital One will still be an SEC/Big Ten game.  Ditto the Outback Bowl.  The ACC and Big Ten will flip-flop sending teams to the Gator and Music City bowls to face the SEC.

Yawn.

Sorry, but that’s still pretty blah.  There’s not a single matchup with the Pac-12.  And unlike the Big Ten’s national bowl lineup — which will stretch from Yankee Stadium to Florida to San Diego — the SEC continues to stick within its own region come the holidays.

We get that shorter travel makes things easier on SEC fans, but couldn’t one long-distance bowl be added to the schedule?

It looks now like the ACC will be facing the Big Ten in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl.  Aren’t there some SEC fans out there who would have liked to see the SEC and Big Ten trade in the Gator Bowl for a cold-weather date in the house that replaced the House that Ruth Built?

And while Juarez, Mexico has gone from tourist destination to crime capital, fans staying on the US side of the border in El Paso might have enjoyed seeing an SEC squad face a Pac-12 team once a year.  Instead, the ACC will keep its slot against the Pac-12 in the Hyundai Sun Bowl.

The SEC knows how to make money and it knows how to win bowl games.  If only the league knew how to excite its fans come bowl season.  The same ol’ same ol’ just doesn’t get the job done.

Yesterday we noted that the Football Bowl Association had finalized its 2012-13 schedule of postseason games.  We provided you with a link to the master list as well.

But a few of you asked for an SEC-only breakdown of the games, so below are the contests that feature SEC tie-ins (including the BCS Championship Game which has basically become an additional SEC bowl).

We include day, date and time as well as broadcast network and the opponent’s conference affiliation.  Print it, save it, post it on the fridge:

Friday 12/28, 2:00pm ET on ESPN — AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl

SEC vs ACC

Monday 12/31, 12:00pm ET on ESPN — Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl

SEC vs ACC

Monday 12/31, 3:30pm ET on ESPN — AutoZone Liberty Bowl

SEC vs C-USA

Monday 12/31, 7:30pm ET on ESPN — Chick-fil-A Bowl

SEC vs ACC

Tuesday 1/1, 12:00pm ET on ESPN2 — TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl

SEC vs Big Ten

Tuesday 1/1, 1:00pm ET either ESPN or ABC — Capital One Bowl

SEC vs Big Ten

Tuesday 1/1, 1:00pm ET either ESPN or ABC — Outback Bowl

SEC vs Big Ten

Tuesday 1/1, 8:30pm ET on ESPN — Allstate Sugar Bowl

SEC vs BCS Foe

Friday 1/4, 8:00pm ET on Fox — AT&T Cotton Bowl

SEC vs Big 12

Saturday 1/5, 1:00pm ET on ESPN — BBVA Compass Bowl

SEC vs Big East

Monday 1/7, 8:30pm ET on ESPN — Discover BCS National Championship Game

SEC? vs SEC? (Hey, it happened last year.)

Thoughts:

* As a new bowl day dawns in 2014, here’s hoping the SEC can dump a game against the ACC and pick up a game with the Pac-12.  All the SEC’s existing bowl tie-ins go bye-bye in two more years.  So movement/change is possible/likely.

* The SEC and Big 12 will launch the “Champions” Bowl in 2014 either as a stand-alone event or as a re-branded, rebuilt Sugar or Cotton Bowl.  When the playoff was first rubber-stamped, most believed that a merger was in the offing, probably with Jerry Jones’ Cowboys Stadium-based Cotton Bowl.  Since then, however, it’s looking increasingly like the conferences will indeed create the game on their own and bid it out to a different city each year.  Stay tuned.

* If the SEC and Big 12 want to partner up on another bowl game, St. Louis makes a heckuva lot of sense and there’s no question that city’s sports commission wants in on the bowl action.  If not the Big 12, then The Gateway to the West would serve as a good meeting ground for the SEC versus Pac-12 game we suggested above.

* The rationale behind the SEC and Big Ten scheduling three games opposite each other on New Year’s Day is obvious.  It’s called “roadblocking” in the television industry and it creates the impression that both leagues own New Year’s Day.  No matter where you flip from noon to 3pm ET, you’re probably going to see SEC and Big Ten teams.  But that doesn’t make it any better for the fans of those leagues who have to decide which game to watch, while missing out on two others.

* Here’s hoping the trend of non-BCS bowls being played between New Year’s Day and the BCS title game — I’m looking at you AT&T Cotton and BBVA Compass — will die out with the new playoff.  That’s probably not likely to happen, but here’s hoping.

The tour will be giving away 15 pairs of Allstate Sugar Bowl tickets in Fayetteville this weekend.
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FAYETTEVILLE - The University of Arkansas has already sold out its allotment of 17,500 tickets for the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 4.

The school received more than 24,000 pre-orders during a two-week span. Donors to the school’s athletic foundation and season-ticket holders should all receive tickets to the game, according to a press release, but all others will likely be left out in the cold.

“The demand for tickets to the Allstate Sugar Bowl has been far greater than the tickets we were allotted by the bowl game,” Arkansas athletics director Jeff Long said in a release. “We appreciate the tremendous response from the Razorback fans.”

No tickets are listed for sale on the Sugar Bowl’s official website, though several online ticket sites such as StubHub.com have tickets listed for the game.

For more visit WholeHogSports.com. You can follow Matt Jones on Twitter @NWAMatt.

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