What are the latest bowl projections for Ole Miss following win over Auburn?
Winning takes cures a lot of things that ails a football team and in Ole Miss’ case it also greatly improves bowl projections on a weekly basis.
Long gone are the projections of heading up to Memphis for the Liberty Bowl or out West to the Las Vegas Bowl.
After defeating Auburn on Saturday and keeping a zero in the loss column, No. 7 Ole Miss (7-0, 3-0 Southeastern Conference) has a very bright outlook when it comes to where it might head for a postseason game.
There are still five games left, and all of them SEC West opponents, but Ole Miss controls its destiny in a lot of ways here on out. In a bit of irony the Rebels can thank Tennessee for that.
So where do the prognosticators and talking heads have Ole Miss heading late December or early January? Lets take a look.
Always Sunny in Florida
An overwhelming consensus sees Ole Miss spending the holiday season in Florida but the destination is a 50-50 split this week.
There are four projections out there this week that have Ole Miss heading to Orlando and the ‘Happiest Place on Earth’ to play in the Citrus Bowl against a Big Ten opponent.
ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura, CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm, Sporting News and College Football News all have the Rebels playing on Jan. 2 at Camping World Stadium. The only differing of opinion comes from who will represent the Big Ten.
Bonagura and Sporting News have Illinois playing Ole Miss while Palm projects Purdue and College Football News projects Penn State.
Related: Making the Grade: How did Ole Miss fare in its win over Auburn?
Ole Miss heading to South Beach?
The other side of the split projections sees Ole Miss returning to the New Year’s Six for a second straight season, but this time in a little different location.
Four projections this week have the Rebels playing in the Capital One Orange Bowl. ESPN’s Schlabach, Sports Illustrated’s Richard Johnson, Action Network’s Brett McMurphy and Pro Football Network (which I did not know did bowl projections) all have Ole Miss heading to South Beach.
Similar to the Citrus Bowl projections the opponent the Rebels are projected to face in the Orange Bowl also varies.
Schlabach and Johnson have Wake Forest playing the the Rebels at Hard Rock Stadium on Dec. 30. McMurphy projects Syracuse and Pro Football Network has Clemson projected.
In one bit of a footnote: Johnson has the Rebels in the Sugar Bowl playing TCU in his projections as well. Though given it is the outlier from everyone else’s picks I am going to assume that is a typo. Though its the second week in a row he has had the Rebels playing two bowl games this postseason, so maybe he just really loves him some Lane Kiffin and Co.
Ole Miss can improve, or keep things steady, its bowl projections this weekend when it travels to Baton Rouge to play LSU (5-2, 3-1). Game time is set for 2:30 p.m. CT on CBS.
