The two heavyweights, Alabama and Florida, moved a step closer to BCS bowls in Week 11.
Otherwise, the bowl picture in the SEC grew a little more jumbled. Ole Miss’ 42-17 win over Tennessee and Georgia’s 31-24 win over Auburn are going to make the selections of the Outback Bowl, Cotton Bowl and Chick-fil-A Bowl really interesting.
As for the Capital One Bowl, which gets first choice after the BCS selections are made, it looks like the LSU-Ole Miss winner this coming weekend could be heading to Orlando.
The big loser was Tennessee. The Vols had put themselves near the top of the bowl pecking order, but dropped back down in the pack after being trounced by Ole Miss.
You’re now looking at a scenario in the SEC where you could conceivably have five teams that finish 7-5 -- Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Arkansas, Georgia and Kentucky all joined the ranks of bowl eligible teams with their wins on Saturday. That gives the SEC nine bowl eligible teams.
Mississippi State (4-6, 2-4) has to win both of its last two games against Arkansas and Ole Miss to become bowl eligible, while Tennessee (5-5, 2-4) needs to win one of its last two games against either Vanderbilt and Kentucky to gain bowl eligibility.
Here’s a stab at the way I see the SEC bowl picture shaping up with two weeks left in the regular season:
BCS National Championship Game: Alabama vs. BCS team
Allstate Sugar Bowl: Florida vs. BCS team
Capital One Bowl: LSU vs. Big Ten team
Outback Bowl: Ole Miss vs. Big Ten team
Cotton Bowl: Arkansas vs. Big 12 team
Chick-fil-A Bowl: Tennessee vs. ACC team
Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl: Georgia vs. ACC team
Autozone Liberty Bowl: Auburn vs. Conference USA team
Advocare Independence Bowl: Kentucky vs. Big 12 team
Papajohns.com Bowl: South Carolina vs. Big East team