Man, it’s the end of an era.
The SEC’s new bowl lineup, starting in 2020, will add the Las Vegas and Gasparilla bowls, while dropping the Independence Bowl, sources told Stadium…
Even though the Independence Bowl had an SEC tie-in for the past five seasons, only two league teams – South Carolina (2014) and Vanderbilt (2016) – played in the game because the bowl had the 10th pick from the SEC after teams were placed in the College Football Playoff and New Year’s 6 bowls. Between 1995 and 2009, the SEC played in the Independence Bowl in 13 of 15 seasons.
With the SEC opting to send its 10th selection to the Gasparilla Bowl in Tampa, the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La. is expected to replace the SEC with the Pac-12. The ACC will still be aligned with the Independence Bowl.
The SEC didn’t have to do that.
In the new six-year bowl cycle from 2020-25, the NCAA allows the SEC 11 bowl tie-ins – excluding the College Football Playoff and New Year’s 6 at-large bowls – but the league opted to only have 10 bowl alignments, sources said.
It’s a sad day. Besides that, chanting Gasparilla at another school doesn’t have the same insulting impact as Shreveport did. Another tradition bites the dust.
Get The Picture 
Yes, “Shreveport, Shreveport” always had a nice ring to it. The Independence Bowl will be missed.
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Las Vegas, you say….
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I guess the Poulan Weed Eater Bowl will have to live on in our hearts.
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+1 LOL
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When was the last time Georgia played Texas A&M?
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I was there. The Ginger Ninja closed out his career with the W there. Fun time.
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I was there too. Damn that was cold!!
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Was there. g/f left cause of cold.
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Oh, we can still chant ‘Shreveport! Shreveport!’ ever year. Just, you know, at Tech.
Also in that article is that the ACC has dropped their tie-in with the Detroit bowl, which is a shame, because Detroit in mid-December is EXACTLY where I want to see Tech in a ‘bowl’ every year.
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A fitting end, honestly, to the Triple Option Era: getting crushed during a Detroit ice storm by Minnesota.
(there may or may not have been an ice storm)
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File Under: things Georgia Fan does not need to worry about for the foreseeable future.
The Las Vegas Bowl is interesting. I hope we don’t play in it! It seems like the SEC could have placed it in a tier with the Citrus Bowl, though. It’s in that mish-mash tier of Outback/Belk/Gator/Music City/Liberty which means the team chosen is going to be the 4th best team in the SEC at best – more likely 5th or 6th. I guess they couldn’t share the spot with B1G in that scenario, so half a Pac-12 tie-in is better than none at all. In any case, whomever falls into that tier is going to want the LV Bowl, I’d guess.
Hell, looking at last year, the SEC had 4 teams in CFP/NY6 (Bama, UGA, UF and LSU. The Citrus got the 5th team from the SEC. Woof.
I think the real value of a NFL quality stadium in LV to fans of elite SEC teams is a neutral site kick-off game against a Pac-12 team. Not sure why they went with Zona-BYU to do that next year, but nothing the Pac-12 does makes much sense.
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I think the Vegas BOWL will sooner, than later, be in the running with the bigger boys on the BOWL packing order.
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Like whatcha did there, PTC!!
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Let’s be clear. It’s the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl.
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I actually have a reason to go take a nap in Rays stadium now! It is usually a snooze fest. An SEC team…makes it mildly interesting to me now.
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