Vanderbilt football bowl projections, where Commodores could go if not College Football Playoff

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Vanderbilt football still has a chance to make the College Football Playoff. But those chances have diminished after Oklahoma defeated Alabama.

That result made it possible that six SEC teams could finish with 10 or more regular-season wins. The Commodores (8-2, 4-2 SEC) are considered to be last in the pecking order among those teams because they are the only one of the six that doesn’t have a win over a team in the CFP picture while also having losses to Alabama and Texas.

If Vanderbilt doesn’t make the playoff, it is likely to end up in a mid-to-upper tier bowl. But which bowls are in play? Here are five projections:

How SEC bowl selection works

The Citrus Bowl gets to select its SEC representative after the playoff is selected but before any other bowls. This bowl is not required to select the highest-ranked SEC team that doesn’t make the playoff, so there is a scenario where Vanderbilt could be the first team out but passed up for the Citrus Bowl by another school like Texas or Tennessee.

After that, there’s a group of six additional bowls with SEC tie-in: the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa, the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte, the Texas Bowl in Houston, the Music City Bowl in Nashville and the Liberty Bowl in Memphis. The SEC assigns teams to these bowls in conjunction with the schools and bowls themselves.

Typically, the best bowls among this group are considered to be the ReliaQuest and Gator Bowls. Last year, the SEC’s top-ranked teams that missed the playoff went to the Citrus (South Carolina), ReliaQuest (Alabama) and Gator (Ole Miss), while 9-3 Missouri went to the Music City Bowl.

The Birmingham Bowl, which Vanderbilt went to last year, and the Gasparilla Bowl are assigned after the group of six bowls and are typically assigned to teams that have 6-7 wins.

Vanderbilt football bowl projections

ESPN: Citrus Bowl vs. Michigan

The Athletic: Gator Bowl vs. Miami

USA TODAY: Gator Bowl vs. Virginia

Sports Illustrated: Gator Bowl vs. Miami

Athlon Sports: Gator Bowl vs. Miami

Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X @aria_gerson.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Vanderbilt football bowl projections if no College Football Playoff

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