AU FOOTBALL: Bowl hopes on line for Tigers, Dawgs

Any hopes of making a run at their respective divisions were lost long ago for Auburn and Georgia, but whichever comes away victorious in the 113th meeting of the oldest rivalry in the Deep South will see its respective bowl stock soar.

A win for Auburn either against the Bulldogs or in the Iron Bowl would likely put the Tigers in the Cotton Bowl, which is regarded as one of the more player-friendly non-BCS bowls in the entire country. Winning both games would give Auburn a legitimate shot at the Capital One Bowl — considered the next-best bowl behind the likely two BCS spots landed by SEC teams.

Back-to-back losses to finish the season, though, could drop Auburn down the cluttered SEC totem poll enough to land it at the less-glamorous Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La.

Even after one of these scenarios plays out, nothing is guaranteed other than the assurance that the Tigers will definitely return to the postseason bowl scene after a one-year hiatus.

“You have to win before you can get to a bowl,” linebacker Craig Stevens said. “Mostly we’ve just been focusing on who’s the next opponent and how we can come out with a victory.”

Getting past that seven-win threshold would make things a lot less complicated.

Behind Alabama, Florida and LSU, every team in the SEC — with the exception of Vanderbilt — can still reach that plateau. Teams like Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee, Ole Miss and South Carolina, with their respective opponents in front of them, all appear to be on a collision course for seven.

Alabama and Florida are basically locks for two BCS spots, one likely being in the BCS National Championship game in Pasadena, Calif., and the other in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Barring a late-season collapse, LSU is the odds-on favorite for the Capital One Bowl.

The Outback Bowl in Tampa and the Cotton Bowl, which will be played at the new, billion-dollar Cowboys Stadium, choose next, with the Outback picking from the East Division and the Cotton picking from the West. The bowls are allowed to switch, but that hasn’t happened since 1996.

A Georgia win would be big Saturday for its Outback Bowl hopes. The Bulldogs, though, have yet to even clinch bowl-eligibility and will likely need Tennessee to drop at least one of its final three games to have a crack at the New Year’s Day bowl game.

The Chik-fil-A Bowl chooses next. Auburn last played in the New Year’s Eve, Atlanta-based bowl in 2007, which proved to be an easy drive, but lacked adventure, tailback Ben Tate said.

“I don’t want to go back to the Chick-fil-A Bowl,” Tate said. “It’s just that Atlanta is right there. You want to go somewhere that’s a little different — or that you can’t get to easily. We can get to Atlanta any time. It’s only an hour away.”

Chairman of the Chik-fil-A Bowl selection committee Leeman Bennett wrote on the bowl’s official blog Thursday that “talk around our table was that Auburn needs to win one of these two games” to have a shot at making the bowl.

If the Tigers miss out there, they’ll likely end up in one of the two Tennessee-based bowls.

The Music City Bowl (Nashville, Dec. 27) and Liberty Bowl (Memphis, Jan. 2) choose at the same time. If both bowls pick the same team, the selected team gets its preference.

A trip to Memphis would likely land Auburn in a matchup with No. 15 Houston — the expected Conference USA champion. The Music City Bowl matches an SEC team with the third team selected from the ACC.

The Independence Bowl (Dec. 28) and PapaJohns.com Bowl (Jan. 2, Birmingham) get the final two selections, though it’s likely Auburn won’t fall that far.

“We think about it,” Tate said. “What if we win these next two? Or what if we win one and lose one? We think about it. Hopefully we can get to a good bowl game — the Cotton Bowl again, Capital One Bowl, Outback.”

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