ShareThisSo I dial the phone number of the Cotton Bowl, ask for the person I need to contact inquiring about Ole Miss' chances for a second straight trip to Dallas.
I'm put on hold for maybe five seconds and this is what I hear: "McCluster, in the Wildcat formation, takes the snap. . ."
It's an audio clip from last year's Ole Miss victory over Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl.
Coincidence? Maybe.
According to Charlie Fiss, the right-hand man of Cotton Bowl president Rick Baker, the Rebels, along with LSU, Arkansas and maybe even Tennessee are in the Cotton Bowl mix. And Cotton Bowl has no reservations about inviting the Rebels two consecutive years, especially since the bowl has moved to the billion-dollar Cowboys Stadium.
But Fiss, like the rest of the people who work in the nine bowls that have a contract to invite Southeastern Conference teams, understand the wacky parity of the league has made the situation fluid.
"Right when you think you have this thing figured out, you don't have it figured out," Fiss said.
The truth is that bowl reps are like the rest of us schmos trying to figure out which team is going where. From week to week, just for kicks, they write down who they think will end up in their game.
Then Saturday comes and by Saturday night, their list is in the garbage can.
For instance, a couple of weeks ago, Liberty Bowl officials were feeling pretty good about a Arkansas vs. Houston matchup, a battle of two of the nation's best passing quarterbacks, a renewal of an old Southwest Conference rivalry.
Then, Houston lost at Central Florida on Saturday, putting the 8-2 Cougars behind SMU in the Conference USA's Western Division. And Arkansas, even at 6-4, has a shot of moving up the SEC bowl chain, because the league (aside from No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Alabama and No. 9 LSU), is astoundingly even.
"It's sort of the same as last year," Georgia coach Mark Richt said. "You've got two teams that have basically run the table with LSU right there, also. And everyone else in a big wad is banging away at each other. 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."
Almost every SEC team can schedule itself for a reasonable chance at a bowl bid, which requires six wins. Schedule four winnable non-conference games, and only a 2-6 league record is needed to qualify for a bowl.
That's what happened last year with Kentucky, which beat Conference USA champ East Carolina in the Liberty Bowl. The same thing could happen to the Wildcats again this year, already bowl eligible at 6-4 overall and 2-4 in the SEC with remaining games at Georgia and home vs. Tennessee.
"As I told our team, all those guys talking about wanting to climb the food chain and get to a better bowl, it's in their lap," UK coach Rich Brooks said. "They can do it if they choose to do it, and if they don't do it, they only have themselves to blame."
So who goes where? Here's my projections. Keep in mind some of the SEC bowl agreement ground rules, such as the Cotton Bowl having first choice of Western Division teams and the Outback Bowl having first selection of Eastern teams:
-- BCS national championship game: Florida/Alabama SEC championship game winner vs. Texas
-- Sugar: Florida or Alabama SEC championship game loser vs. Cincinnati
-- Capital One: LSU vs. Penn State
-- Outback: Tennessee vs. Wisconsin
-- Chick-Fil-A: Georgia vs. Clemson
-- Cotton: Ole Miss vs. Nebraska
-- AutoZone Liberty: Arkansas vs. East Carolina
-- Music City: Auburn vs. Boston College
-- Independence: South Carolina vs. Missouri
-- Papajohns.com: Kentucky vs. West Virginia
These predictions will self-destruct at midnight on Saturday.
(Ron Higgins writes for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn.)
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