Georgia seeks way out of bowl ‘wad'

It's not that clear-cut, but with two regular-season games remaining, Georgia's possibilities in a crowded SEC bowl field do seem to run the gamut from Tampa's Outback to Shreveport's Independence.

"It seems like there is a big wad," said Richt, referring to the league's nine bowl-eligible teams. "You have two guys over here [Florida and Alabama], one kind of over here [LSU], and then there is a big wad. We're in the middle of that wad, and I'd like to separate from that group if we could and convince the bowl people that we've done that. It's going to be interesting."

A closer look at Georgia's bowl situation:

Q: Which bowls remain possibilities for the Bulldogs?

A: You can eliminate the Sugar (which will take the loser of the SEC Championship Game between Alabama and Florida, assuming the winner heads to the BCS national-title game) and the Capital One (which likely will take LSU or Ole Miss). But any of seven other bowls with SEC tie-ins remain possibilities for Georgia.

Q: Why do the Dogs seem focused on the Outback?

A: The Outback is entitled to the next choice from the SEC East after the BCS title game, the Sugar and the Capital One make their picks. If Georgia beats Kentucky, the Dogs will finish 5-3 in the SEC and clinch second place behind Florida in the East. The Outback wouldn't be required to take the division runner-up -- Tennessee could be attractive to the Tampa bowl if the Vols win their next two games -- but Georgia would aggressively lobby its case. (The Outback also could choose to take an SEC West team, but in that case would have to wait until after the Cotton Bowl makes its choice from the West.)

Q: If Georgia doesn't wind up in the Outback, then where?

A: The next possibility would be Atlanta's Chick-fil-A Bowl, but if Georgia is passed over by the Outback that probably would mean the Bulldogs lost to Kentucky and/or Georgia Tech, in which case they'd be 7-5 or 6-6 overall and no lock for the Chick-fil-A either. The Liberty and Music City bowls -- in Memphis and Nashville, respectively -- share the next two picks after the Chick-fil-A. Then the Independence Bowl. And finally the Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham.

Q: So there really is, as Richt put it, a "wad" of SEC teams?

A: "That's a pretty good word," Chick-fil-A Bowl president Gary Stokan said Wednesday.  "We've still got seven [SEC] teams in our process that are all playing one another. ... Nobody can tell you what is going to happen at this point."

SEC bowl pecking order

If an SEC team finishes in the top two of the BCS standings, as is expected to be the case with the winner of the Alabama-Florida SEC championship game, that team goes to the BCS national-title game. Then these bowls will divvy up the remaining eligible SEC teams (those with six or more victories) in this order:

1. Sugar Bowl (New Orleans).

2. Capital One Bowl (Orlando).

3-4. Outback Bowl (Tampa) and Cotton Bowl (Arlington, Texas). The Cotton is to pick from the Western Division and the Outback from the Eastern Division, although either bowl can select from outside its divisional affiliation after the other has made its pick from within its divisional affiliation.

5. Chick-fil-A Bowl (Atlanta).

6-7. Liberty Bowl (Memphis) and Music City Bowl (Nashville), not in any specific order, but in consultation with the SEC office.

8. Independence Bowl (Shreveport, La.).

9. Papajohns.com Bowl (Birmingham).