New bowl projections: Two national outlets predict UK in New Year’s Six game
Kentucky’s victory over Vanderbilt on Saturday night made Mark Stoops and the Wildcats bowl-eligible for the third consecutive year, bringing a little more meaning to those postseason projections that have been updated every week since the beginning of the season.
The latest predictions, which started rolling in Sunday morning, have the Cats in a good spot.
CBS Sports analyst Jerry Palm, who didn’t have Kentucky projected for a bowl game at the start of the season, now has the Cats playing in one of the New Year’s Six games — the Peach Bowl in Atlanta — on Dec. 29.
The New Year’s Six games are decided by the College Football Playoff selection committee and represent many of the nation’s oldest bowl games. This season’s Peach Bowl will be televised on ESPN at noon, and Palm is matching UK up against Texas in that game.
Palm is also predicting that Alabama — ranked No. 1 nationally — will be in the College Football Playoff, and he has fellow Southeastern Conference programs Louisiana State and Georgia in other New Year’s Six games.
Kentucky travels to Missouri for its next game Saturday, and then the Wildcats will be back home in Kroger Field on Nov. 3 for a matchup with Georgia that could decide the SEC East.
Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated alluded to that possibility in his Sunday morning post, which ranked Kentucky at No. 9 nationally — up one spot from last week. Staples also brushed off the not-so-pretty victory over Vanderbilt, pointing out that undefeated Notre Dame also struggled to beat the Commodores at home earlier this season.
“Sometimes, a good team just needs to gut out a win,” he wrote.
USA Today, which updated its bowl projections Tuesday, is also predicting a New Year’s Six game for the Wildcats. Those projections have Kentucky playing Texas in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz. That bowl game is schedule for a Jan. 1 kickoff at 1 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN.
Both of ESPN’s bowl analysts — Mitch Sherman and Kyle Bonagura — are also predicting that Kentucky will play on Jan. 1.
Sherman has the Wildcats facing off with Purdue in the Outback Bowl, which will be played in Tampa. Fla., and televised nationally on ESPN2 at noon. Sports Illustrated is also projecting that Kentucky will play in the Outback Bowl — against Michigan State — on Jan. 1. Bonagura put UK in the Citrus Bowl against Iowa.
The Sporting News’ latest predictions, which were posted Monday, also have UK matched up with Iowa in the Citrus Bowl, a game that will be played in Orlando, Fla., at 1 p.m. on Jan. 1 and televised nationally on ABC
The latest projections from SB Nation and CollegeFootballNews.com also placed Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl against Penn State. Veteran college football journalist Brett McMurphy of WatchStadium.com and 247Sports’ newest projections have UK in the Citrus Bowl against Wisconsin.
The Orlando Sentinel’s latest projections have UK playing North Carolina State in the Belk Bowl in Charlotte on Dec. 29.
SEC-affiliated bowl games
*-Notre Dame a possible opponent
This story was originally published October 21, 2018 at 9:42 AM.