LSU Bowl Projections

Another week and another head scratching loss for the Tigers. LSU has finished the regular season with a disappointing 7-5 record. My how the mighty have fallen.

Many fans will place the blame for the poor season on the quarterback, or lack of a true starting QB, but that wouldn't be fair. Despite sometimes erratic play from the QB position, LSU's offense wasn't the reason they lost five games. The main problem was the defense and every LSU fan will be looking to Les Miles to see what he does about it in the offseason.

Already rumors are flying that LSU has hired Tennessee defensive coordinator John Chavis or that Ed Ogeron is bolting the Black and Gold for the Purple and Gold. Both of these moves would be an upgrade over the two-headed monster of co-coordinators that LSU employed this year.

But before LSU can make changes and evaluate the season, they must truely finish the season. So where will the Tigers end up bowling? Lucky for LSU, this is a down year in the SEC, with the conference not having enought six-win teams to fill out their bowl tie-ins. Also helping the Tigers' case is that both SEC Championship participants, Florida and Alabama, are likely to get BCS berths, leaving the rest of the top bowl scrambling to fill their spots with Georgia, Ole Miss and the 7-5/6-6 average teams like LSU.

Looking at LSU's likely bowl chances, the Tigers will probably be facing a familiar oppenent with teams like Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and Iowa (all teams that LSU has faced recenlty in bowl or the regular season) in the bowl.

Here's where the experts project LSU to go bowling:

ESPN's Mark Schlabach:
Chick-fil-A:: LSU vs. Virginia Tech

ESPN's Bruce Feldman:
Outback: LSU vs. Iowa

CBS Sportsline:
Chick-fil-A:: LSU vs. Georgia Tech

NBC Sports:
Chick-fil-A: LSU vs. Georgia Tech

CollegeFootballNews.com:
Outback: LSU vs. Iowa

Sporting News:
Chick-fil-A: LSU vs. Georgia Tech

Stewart Mandel (SI.com):
Chick-fil-A: LSU vs. Georgia Tech


Also, for the record, I think Texas got hosed in the Big 12 championship. Sure there was a three-way tie and based on their tie-breaker, Oklahoma rightfully goes to the game. But you have to look at head-to-head between the two teams. Having Texas Tech involved was a joke. Sure they beat Texas, but Texas dropped a game clinching interception at the end and loss on a last second play and the Red Raiders should have lost to Baylor, ending the entire three-way problem.

If the Big 12 had a rule similar to the SEC tie breaker, Texas would go to the championship game. The Harris Poll voters tried to do the right thing but with the stupid BCS system, the computers liked Oklahoma more. How dumb is that? It's not what you do on the playing field anymore that matters. The main thing is if the computers like you.