Where will the Georgia Bulldogs go for a bowl? Which teams will come to Atlanta for the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl? And who will face North Carolina A&T in a new Atlanta bowl, the Celebration Bowl?
Those questions will be answered next weekend, when college football’s bowl matchups will be set.
Here’s an update on where things stand:
UGA’S DESTINATION
Georgia is expected to be among the teams placed by the SEC in the so-called “pool of six” bowls — the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Music City Bowl in Nashville, TaxSlayer Bowl in Jacksonville, Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Texas Bowl in Houston and Belk Bowl in Charlotte.
The SEC has no official pecking order among those games under the new bowl structure that began last season, leaving the league to make assignments in consultation with member institutions and the bowls after the College Football Playoff, Sugar Bowl and Citrus Bowl choose their teams from the SEC. Georgia is an unlikely candidate for the Citrus Bowl in Orlando because a higher-ranked SEC team would be available.
Recent bowl projections by college football analysts have had the Bulldogs going to the Outback, Music City, TaxSlayer or Liberty bowl. The SEC isn’t expected to send Georgia back to the Belk Bowl because the Bulldogs played there last season.
PEACH BOWL
The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl matchup will be determined by the College Football Playoff selection committee Dec. 6. As part of its move last year into the upper tier of college football’s postseason, the 48-year-old Atlanta bowl relinquished the decision on its matchup.
Although the Peach doesn’t host a playoff game this season, the selection committee sets the matchups each year for all six bowls, including the Peach, that rotate as national semifinal sites. The Peach, which will be played Dec. 31 at the Georgia Dome, expects to be assigned two teams from among the nation’s top 15 or so in the committee’s final rankings.
The committee considers geography in its pairings, meaning it generally — but not always — would lean toward giving the Peach a team from the SEC or ACC, as it did last year with Ole Miss. Florida State has been a popular pick for the Peach in analysts’ recent projections.
CELEBRATION BOWL
This is a new postseason game that debuts Dec. 19 at the Georgia Dome between champions of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and Southwestern Athletic Conference.
In the inaugural Celebration Bowl, which will be televised on ABC, MEAC co-champion North Carolina A&T will oppose the winner of the SWAC championship game between Grambling State and Alcorn State.
North Carolina A&T (9-2, 7-1 MEAC) finished in a three-way tie for the MEAC title with Bethune-Cookman and North Carolina Central and won the tiebreaker by virtue of having the highest Sagarin rating among the three teams. The SWAC championship game will be played Dec. 5 in Houston.
The MEAC and SWAC have a six-year agreement to play the Celebration Bowl in Atlanta: the first two years in the Georgia Dome and the next four in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
