Win sends Gamecocks to Sugar Bowl, loss muddles situation
CLEMSON – Depending on how South Carolina fairs in its first SEC Championship Game in school history five days from today, its bowl outlook is either incredibly simple or incredibly complex.
Upset No. 2 Auburn, and the Gamecocks are headed to New Orleans and the Sugar Bowl as the SEC’s automatic BCS bid.
Lose to the Tigers, however, and USC could find itself in play for as many as three bowls.
If USC doesn’t win the SEC title, the Capital One, Outback and Chick-fil-A Bowls all figure to be in play for the Gamecocks.
The Jan. 1 Capital One Bowl, located in Orlando, has the first selection after the BCS. The Gamecocks would likely be competing with two teams for the invite — LSU and Alabama.
In regards to both, USC has advantages and disadvantages. The Bayou Bengals (10-2) have more wins than USC, but played in the Capital One Bowl last year, while Alabama brings the allure of hosting the defending national champion, albeit one USC has a head-to-head win over.
If the Capital One Bowl were to take one of the West teams, the next step of the selection process would be a shared pick by the Cotton and Outback Bowls. The Cotton Bowl annually takes the best remaining West team while the Outback Bowl traditionally takes the best remaining team from the East, although it passed up Tennessee last year for Auburn.
Conventional wisdom would have the Outback Bowl, played in Tampa, Fla., on Jan. 1, taking USC, but USC brings some baggage to the Outback Bowl table. The Gamecocks played in the Outback Bowl after the 2008 season and disappointed the bowl’s executives by both failing to sell their allotment of tickets and flopping in the game, losing to Iowa 31-10. If past memories prove too much for the Outback Bowl to move past, it could take Mississippi State (8-4) for its second curious invitation in as many years.
If that all were to happen, the Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A Bowl, which has desired USC in its Dec. 31 game for years, would be guaranteed to pounce, sending USC to its second game in the Georgia Dome in a month.
Arkansas doesn’t figure into USC’s bowl scenarios much because it already has an invitation in hand — sort of. After a 31-23 win over LSU, the Razorbacks (10-2) were promised a Sugar Bowl invitation, provided Auburn wins the league title and plays for the national championship, leaving the SEC’s contractual tie-in open.
But, if USC was to win the league title, the Gamecocks would go to New Orleans and a 12-1 Auburn team would likely be invited to the Orange Bowl, locking the Razorbacks out, as any single conference can place only two teams in the BCS.
With that in mind, USC isn’t going to have a whole lot of fans in the state of Arkansas come Saturday afternoon. That will be a national anomaly, though. As the last line of defense between Auburn and a trip to the national title game, there will likely be many across the nation pulling for the Gamecocks, the vast majority of them in Fort Worth, Texas, where TCU, the team that would likely leap to No. 2 and into the title game with an Auburn loss, is located.
With all the support for mid-major programs such as TCU afoot, in a sense, USC might be able to call itself “America’s Team” for a week — something it is OK with.
“Hopefully America’s right,” wide receiver Alshon Jeffery said.