With the set of college football playoffs, the rest of the six-year-old New Year’s bowling games feature both newcomers and conference title losers who want to end their seasons on a high note.
Baylor and Georgia will try to make up for losses in their respective conference championship games when they face the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day in New Orleans (20:45 ET, ESPN and ESPN app).
Both teams watched their hopes of reaching the final on Saturday night. Baylor fell 30-23 in overtime to Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game, while Georgia lost the Southeast Conference Championship game 37-10 to LSU.
Georgia is trying to prevent a repeat of last year’s hangover effect. The Bulldogs followed up their 35-28 SEC championship loss to Alabama last year by falling 28-21 to 12 and a half points from Texas in the Sugar Bowl.
“I know we have a lot of players I have to meet today and they want to get the bad taste out of last year’s mouth with the loss,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. Smart said coaches and support staff in Georgia took notes after last year’s Sugar Bowl to get an idea of how they can better prepare for bowling games in non-playoff situations.
“The bottom line is that your job is to play a football game and you have a great opportunity,” Smart said. “There are a lot of teams across the country that would die for playing in a game like this. We’ll sell it that way, which is a great opportunity to be Sugar Bowl champions. None of our team’s players have ever been Sugar Bowl champions. They will have the opportunity to do so. “
The mooring of Baylor’s Sugar Bowl continues with the remarkable resurgence of the program under coach Matt Rhule. Baylor won 1-11 the year before Rhule arrived and is the first Power 5 team to win 11 games in two seasons of losing 11.
Rhule called the opportunity to coach the Sugar Bowl a “bucket list.” Rhule, a former Penn State defender, grew up rooting in the Nittany Lions and remembers seeing his future alma mater win the 1982 national championship by beating a Herschel. Georgia team led by Walker at the Sugar Bowl.
“Watching Gregg Garrity take a dive touch down Todd Blackledge’s left side, just having this one of my earliest football memories, of what bowling games mean, when family and friends get together to root their teams, either in person or [from] very, very far, “Rhule said.” For me, it will be just an amazing opportunity on a very personal note. “
Virginia and Florida head to the Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens, Florida, Dec. 30 (8 p.m. ET, ESPN and ESPN App). It is the first football match between schools since 1959.
Florida won their way to the game after going 10-2 in the regular season and only lost to Georgia and the playoff-linked LSU. It is the fourth Orange Bowl for the Gators and the fifth time they will play in a game hosted by the Orange Bowl Committee.
“This team had to deal with so many adversities, so many injuries, so many other things,” said Dan Mullen, the Florida coach who became the first in the school’s history to begin his career. Gators with two-digit consecutive seasons. “I think we were a better team at the end of the year, so it was a very successful year. We have another game.”
Virginia came on as an ACC representative despite a major loss in the league title game to defending national champion Clemson. This is the first Orange Bowl for the Cavaliers, who turned down an invitation to play the 1952 game because of the school’s desire at the time to avoid being a part of major college football.
“I’m very happy for our players,” said Carla Williams, Virginia’s athletic director. “This kind of recognition is the result of a lot of work over a long period of time.”
The Cavaliers are 9-4 and could tie a school record for victories if the Gators win.
Oregon will face Wisconsin in the 106th edition of the Rose Bowl (17:00 ET, ESPN and ESPN App). These schools regularly visit on New Year’s Day in Pasadena; Wisconsin is in the Rose Bowl for the fourth time in ten seasons, though the first in seven years, while Oregon finished fourth in 11 seasons.
This game is a rematch of the 2012 Rose Bowl, in which Oregon beat Wisconsin 45-38 in one of the game’s highest-scoring editions.
Wisconsin withdrew Penn State to get the Big Ten berth in the Granddaddy of Them All, despite a 34-21 loss of the badgers against Ohio State in the conference title game. The Nittany badgers and lions finished with the same record of the regular season, and Wisconsin gave the Buckeyes, tied for the playoffs, a hard game before falling.
“I have a group that has never been there when it comes to players, so it’s going to be a fantastic experience for them,” Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst said. “And they play against a really good Oregon team. It’s kind of everything you expect and dream about.”
Oregon has reached the Rose Bowl four times in 11 years under three coaches, winning two of those first three trips. The Ducks won the Pac-12 title for the first time in five years and return to Pasadena for the first time since that 2014 season, when Marcus Mariota propelled Oregon to a 59-20 thrashing of Florida State and a place behind the national championship game.
“Our seniors have gone through a 4-8 season in their freshman year,” said Oregon coach Mario Cristobal. “All the credit in the world for staying focused, keeping the course and making this a great season for our football team.”
Memphis will go to the Cotton Bowl to represent the group of 5 teams after winning the American Athletic Conference title. The Tigers (12-1) will play at Penn State (10-2) on Dec. 28 at AT&T Stadium (noon ET, ABC and ESPN App), the home stadium of the Dallas Cowboys.
After the best four-year stretch in Tigers history, they play in their first game of the New Year’s Six. However, his coach, Mike Norvell, is moving to the state of Florida. The current plan is for interim coach Ryan Silverfield to put himself on the sidelines of the Tigers at the Cotton Bowl, with possible assistance from Norvell.
“We’re moving forward and we’re just focused on me and the staff that is right now to coach this bowling game,” Silverfield said.
Penn State goes to its fourth Cotton Bowl, but the first in 45 years: the last Cotton Bowl of the Nittany Lions won 41-20 at Baylor on New Year’s Day 1975. The Nittany Lions have reached a bowl in the six seasons with coach James Franklin, who has just reached an agreement on a new six-year contract. This will be Penn State’s 50th overall bowl.
“We’re excited about the Cotton Bowl … I’ve never been to the Cotton Bowl,” Franklin said. “I’m looking forward to being at JerryWorld, I’m looking forward to it all. I think it’s going to be a tremendous opportunity.”
Memphis is in a bowl for the sixth year in a row and the 12th in school history.
An unusually absent team from the PCP and New Year Six games is Alabama, who will face Michigan in the Vrbo Citrus Bowl on January 1st.
It is the first Crimson Tide Citrus Bowl since 1995, when they demolished the state of Ohio. Michigan makes its sixth visit to the Citrus Bowl, where it is 4-1.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.