Kentucky Football Bowl Projections Week 2: Falling in Love with Florida

Each year the Labor Day holiday brings overreactions from around the college football world. This year Kentucky‘s SEC East foes are the benefactors from week one wins, causing a hit in postseason bowl projections.

Georgia absolutely annihilated Oregon, scoring touchdowns on all seven possessions to blow the Ducks off the turf. It’s clear there will not be a National Championship hangover. Their opponent in the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party is also receiving a ton of love. Unranked to start the season following Dan Mullen’s departure, the Gators brought the physicality to Utah, holding off the seventh-ranked Utes in The Swamp with a late interception in the end zone.

Entering the season Kentucky was picked to finished second in the SEC East as Billy Napier began the Gators’ rebuild. As you’ll see in all of these bowl projections, Florida is leap-frogging Kentucky into a New Year’s Six Bowl. It may seem a bit premature to look ahead to the postseason, but let’s have a little fun.

Music City Bowl

As you might expect, most prognosticators have already put Florida in the Sugar Bowl. Why even play the game Saturday when it’s already a lock? Setting aside sarcastic remarks, Sports Illustrated calls for Kentucky to play in the Music City Bowl against Michigan State. This year the game in Nashville will be played Dec. 31 at Noon on ABC. Kentucky will play Louisville in basketball at the same time on CBS.

Over at CBS Sports, Jerry Palm predicts the exact same matchup for Kentucky in the Music City Bowl. 247 Sports, also owned by CBS, is on the same page. Brad Crawford predicts Kentucky to play Wisconsin in the Music City.

ReliaQuest Bowl, a.k.a the Outback Bowl

The Action Network’s Brett McMurphy is also drinking the Florida Kool-Aid, predicting a Sugar Bowl berth for the Gators. However, he is not relegating Kentucky to Nashville. McMurphy projects a return to Tampa for the Wildcats in the new ReliaQuest Bowl against Notre Dame on Jan. 2. In ESPN’s two predictions, one has the Wildcats in the ReliaQuest Bowl while the other is bringing the Wildcats back to the Gator Bowl.

Las Vegas Bowl

Kentucky basketball fans can attest: Las Vegas is lovely in December. The Las Vegas Bowl recently upgraded its conference affiliations, securing a spot for the SEC every other year. This year will be the first time an SEC team plays postseason football in Allegiant Stadium and College Football News predicts a matchup with the Wildcats and Washington State, Dec. 17 at 7:30 pm on ABC. It may not be Bourbon Street or Broadway in Nashville, but the Las Vegas strip isn’t a bad consolation prize.