While Texas A&M deserved to be in the College Football Playoff, the SEC stole the bowl show.
Not counting the championship game, there are 28 bowls after a handful opted out due to the coronavirus.
The SEC landed 12 of its 14 teams in a bowl game, and exactly half of them had losing records. This was before Tennessee withdrew from the Liberty Bowl on Monday because of a covid-19 outbreak.
Of the 56 teams picked for bowl games, only nine had losing records. Counting the Vols, the SEC was responsible for six of them.
The six-win bowl eligibility mark was waived this season because of covid-19, and now we know why that rule exists. If not, the SEC always would have almost all of its teams in a bowl.
It is the best conference with the best fans in the country.
Only winless Vanderbilt and LSU — which self-imposed a bowl ban in hopes of drawing sympathy from the NCAA after its investigation into sexual abuse is settled — are missing out.
Because of the delayed season, bowl bids went out really late. By the time they were revealed Sunday, Appalachian State and North Texas already were in Myrtle Beach, S.C., for their game that happened Monday.
There are two more games today.
By the time this week ends, 11 bowl games will be over.
None of those schools can say they accepted a bowl bid to get extra practice time. They barely had time for lunch and to cash their travel money checks.
All things considered, the 3-7 Arkansas Razorbacks did great.
They got the last game of this crazy 2020, a 7 p.m. kickoff on New Year’s Eve in the Texas Bowl against former Southwest Conference opponent TCU.
Staying home and watching that game will be a lot safer and make the country a better place than going out and flirting with the virus at parties and bars.
The Hogs do get extra practice days, which is a chance for young guys to get more snaps. Even bigger, the game is in Houston, an area where Division I football players practically fall off trees.
The last bowl Arkansas attended was the Belk Bowl in Charlotte, N.C., in 2016, but only after the former AD bargained to be shipped to the Texas Bowl. He lost, per usual.
Can’t remember whether the Razorbacks signed anyone from North Carolina that season, but if they did, he probably transferred.
Arkansas is a 5 1/2-point underdog to the 6-4 Horned Frogs.
Mississippi State has the same 3-7 record as the Hogs and will play Tulsa in an 11 a.m. game in Fort Worth on Dec. 31.
That game also was on Arkansas’ wish list.
Each SEC school signed an agreement to play in a bowl before the bids went out, and then they got to fill out what is called in boot camp as a dream sheet, or a list of places they would like to be stationed.
Unlike the military, the bowl folks listened.
MSU will kick off Dec. 31; San Jose State and quarterback Nick Starkel — who has had a great season — face Ball State at 1 p.m. The Liberty Bowl is at 3 p.m., where West Virginia will take on Tennessee’s replacement.
And the last game of the craziest year in history is Arkansas and TCU.
Just how many fans will be allowed to attend hasn’t been announced. And even shedding this year like an ugly Christmas sweater won’t mean the pandemic is over.
It will mean there are nine more college games, including the national championship, but the virus is going to be around a few more months.
We’ve made it nine months, the least we can do is mask up for a few more months, wash hands and social distance in hopes of eradicating this thing.