The SEC didn’t play its most dominant football this year, but it led all conferences with 12 bowl teams. We look at who, where, and what to expect in this year’s bowl season.
No other conference has ever sent double digit teams to bowl games in four consecutive season, except for the SEC. The 12 SEC teams going bowling this go around make it the second time in the last three seasons that the conference has sent a dozen teams. That’s also a record.
Beyond bowl eligibility, the SEC led the nation in several impressive categories. No conference had more All-Americans than the SEC. No conference had more teams ranked in the top 10 this season than the SEC. The SEC had more non-conference top 25 victories than any other conference in college football.
Last year the SEC finished 9-2 compared to a 5-5 finish by the Big Ten, a 6-3 finish by the Pac-12, a 4-6 finish by the ACC, and a 3-4 finish by the Big XII.
We break down the first 11 games in the slides that follow and make our predictions for the non-playoff games. The SEC has their chance to prove they’re no pushovers even in a “down” year for the conference.
***Stats from NCAA, ESPN, and Sports-Reference***