[Cactus Jack]

I like a lot of your predictions. I hope Ohio State does make it back to the CFP. As far as Kentucky vs West Virginia in a bowl game I would love to see that. Maybe Kentucky can reverse their loss to the Eers back in the early 80's. I remember watching that game on a very small black and white tv that my brother had just gotten in his room.

Memphis is an underrated city to spend a few days in. Have heard that the Liberty Bowl venue leaves a bit to be desired though. With so few teams in the East looking bowl eligible, I think it's a likely destination.

The Neal Brown angle could get some interest in the game. It's a better storyline than the overplayed "Basketbowl" against Kansas, North Carolina, or Duke that undersells itself to the casual fan from the jump.

A Mississippi State win probably puts them there and moves UK to Charlotte.

I'd think the SEC would rather have Florida in Charlotte should they win, especially given that it'd mean they'd just beaten a top 5 Florida State.

You'd think a South Carolina win makes them an automatic for Charlotte, but they've already played there once this year. They'll also have played North Carolina and Clemson by then, so scheduling a third bowl-eligible ACC game that isn't a rematch could be tricky.

At the end of the day, the Liberty usually looks West, but as is, no one, including Missouri, really fits that bill this year unless Texas A&M doesn't end up in Houston or Auburn winds up there... if the latter, then Tennessee is either going to be unable to politic out of the Music City or the reps in Nashville are going to risk a 2nd year in a row where there's a dud in attendance involving the Cats.

The last time a Music City Bowl game with Kentucky topped 50K in attendance was 2009 & the last time over 60K was in 2007. The UK numbers in 2017 & 2022 were bad, even compared to teams playing in the COVID era. Running head-to-head with the Louisville basketball game and not having the juciest matchups probably contributed to that, but after a low gate in 2019 and having to cancel entirely in 2020, I think their committee wants to make a splash here.

An Auburn-Wisconsin type matchup might be two bad teams, but it's two underachievers whose fans will probably travel to see them play.