SEC sets its single season record for most Top 25 bowl game wins

SEC football teams weren't allowed to schedule non-conference opponents during the 2020 regular season due to COVID-19 protocols implemented by the league. But the conference certainly hasn't let opportunities to prove itself against outsiders go by since bowl season got underway last month. Following No. 5 Texas A&M's 41-27 win No. 13 North Carolina in the Capital One Orange Bowl on Saturday, SEC teams improved to 6-2 overall, with Alabama still to play No. 3 Ohio State in the national championship game after the Crimson Tide took care of business against the No. 4 Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal. 

But what makes this bowl season performance so special for the SEC? Alabama and A&M aren't the only schools that have notched wins over ranked opponents within the past few weeks. In fact, all six bowl wins for the conference this season came against Top 25 teams, the most bowl game wins of such ever by the conference in a single season. And the opportunity remains for a seventh ranked-postseason win, of course, come Monday when the Tide and Buckeyes battle for all the marbles. 

Below is a rundown of the SEC's postseason results:

SEC BOWL GAME RESULTS 

- No. 7 Florida: Lost Cotton Bowl vs. No. 6 Oklahoma, 55-20

- Mississippi State: Won Armed Forces Bowl vs. No 24 Tulsa, 26-28

- No. 9 Georgia: Won Peach Bowl vs No. 8 Cincinnati, 24-21

- Auburn: Lost Citrus Bowl to No. 14 Northwestern, 35-19

- No. 1 Alabama: Won Rose Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal vs. No. 4 Notre Dame, 31-14

- Kentucky: Won Gator Bowl vs. No. 23 NC State, 23-21

- Ole Miss: Won Outback Bowl vs. No. 11 Indiana, 26-20

- No. 5 Texas A&M: Won Orange Bowl vs. No. 13 North Carolina, 41-27

*** South Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas either unable to play in bowl game and/or had game canceled 

Judged by many as the toughest league in the college football landscape, another collectively strong bowl-game showing in the books only boosts the SEC that much more heading toward the 2021 campaign. And of course, an Alabama victory over Ohio State -- one that would give Nick Saban his sixth national title since taking over the Tide in 2007 -- would only do the conference that many more favors from a publicity standpoint. Should Saban and Co. pull it off, it would be the third national title won by an SEC team in a span of four seasons -- LSU won the 2019 national championship --  and 11th by the conference dating back to the 2006 season. 

The SEC wasn't the only league to see widespread success this bowl season either. In the Big 12, all five of the conference's teams that participated in a bowl game won their contests. TCU was additionally scheduled to face Arkansas in the Texas Bowl, but the game was canceled after COVID-19 issues hit the Horned Frogs program.

Others, however, were not so lucky. While the Pac-12 only sent two teams to bowl games -- many programs opted out of the bowl season -- only to see Oregon and Colorado both lose by double-digits, the ACC suffered an even bigger scar. Despite sending six teams -- three to the New Year's Six including two in the College Football Playoff -- ACC squads went a combined 0-6 in the postseason, sending the conference into 2021 on perhaps its most sour note in recent memory after a promising outlook. 


SOURCE: Straka, Dean. "SEC sets its single season record for most Top 25 bowl game wins." 247Sports.com, 3 January 2021, https://247sports.com/Article/sec-wins-record-number-bowl-games-top-25-opponents-single-season-alabama-georgia-texas-am-158471902/