Kentucky Football Bowl Projections: New Year's Six in play

My, what a difference a win over a top-ten team makes. When Kentucky was 4-0 last Monday, most college football writers had the Cats in a mid-tier bowl. Now that Kentucky is 5-0 with a win over Florida on its resume, some experts are predicting the Cats will make a New Year’s Six bowl. Thank you, Gators!

Before we hop into the bowl projections, a reminder of the postseason structure (because this is something we actually get to pay attention to now):

College Football Playoff

• College Football Playoff Semifinal: Cotton Bowl (Dec. 31, TBA, Arlington, TX)
• College Football Playoff Semifinal: Orange Bowl (Dec. 31, TBA, Miami, FL)
• College Football Playoff National Championship (Jan. 10, TBA, Indianapolis, IN)

Rest of the New Year’s Six Bowls

• Sugar Bowl: SEC vs. Big 12 (Jan. 1, 8:45 p.m., New Orleans, LA)
• Rose Bowl: Big 10 vs. Pac-12 (Jan. 1, 5 p.m., Pasadena, CA)
• Fiesta Bowl: At-large vs. at-large (Jan. 1, 1 p.m., Glendale, AZ)
• Peach Bowl: At-large vs. at-large (Dec. 30, 7 p.m., Atlanta, GA)

From here, teams are assigned to the rest of the bowls. The Citrus Bowl (Jan. 1), Outback Bowl (Jan. 1), and Texas Bowl (Jan. 4) are considered the best of that group.

On to the bowl projections, starting with the most exciting.

Sugar Bowl

January 1, 8:45 p.m. ET, ESPN, Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans, LA

Right now, a handful of writers have Kentucky in the Sugar Bowl. ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura pits the Cats vs. Oklahoma but notes that they could climb into the CFP conversation if they keep winning.

“At this point, any unbeaten Power 5 team deserves to be in the conversation for the other two [CFP] spots, and that list includes Wake Forest, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Iowa and Kentucky. They’re all 5-0, and then there’s 4-0 Cincinnati, which is trying to become the first Group of 5 team to crash the party. At this point, pulling names from a hat can be just as effective as trying to use logic to decipher which two are the best. It’ll get a bit easier next week after Iowa and Penn State play each other, but for now, we’ll stick with the Nittany Lions from the Big Ten. And after its impressive win at No. 9 Notre Dame, Cincinnati gets the No. 4 slot.”

The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel has Kentucky in the Sugar Bowl playing Texas, foreseeing a 10-2 finish to the regular season.

“And hey, look at Kentucky in the Sugar Bowl,” Mandel wrote. “The Wildcats are now 5-0, and looking at their remaining schedule, 10-2 certainly seems attainable. Given how the SEC West is already cannibalizing itself, you can see a path for Mark Stoops’ team finishing as the highest-ranked SEC team not named Alabama or Georgia.”

College Football News also has the Cats playing Texas in the Sugar Bowl. Reading that sentence doesn’t feel real, by the way.

Citrus Bowl

January 1, 1 p.m. ET, ABC, Camping World Stadium, Orlando, FL

Should the Cats not make the New Year’s Six, the Citrus Bowl is a pretty sweet consolation. Several writers have the Cats ringing in the New Year in Orlando, just as they did at the end of the 2018 season. ESPN’s Mark Schlabach has Kentucky playing Michigan, as does Saturday Down South‘s Jim Tomlin. CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm pits the Cats vs. Michigan State, while Brett McMurphy predicts a showdown with Ohio State. Bring it on, Buckeyes!

Other Bowls

247 Sports’ Brad Crawford doesn’t believe Kentucky’s ceiling is quite as high. He puts the Cats in the Music City Bowl vs. Minnesota (Dec. 30, 3 p.m., Nashville, TN).

“How high can the unbeaten Wildcats actually finish in the SEC this season? Kentucky will be favored in next weekend’s showdown with LSU and still controls its own destiny in getting to the SEC Championship Game. Who expected that at the midseason mark? Minnesota’s path to bowl eligibility goes through upcoming matchups with Nebraska, Maryland, Northwestern and Illinois. The Golden Gophers need to win three of those games due to the unexpected loss to Bowling Green.”

That’s an easy commute for this blogger, but after this weekend, I think all of our dreams for this season are much, much bigger.