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LSU football bowl projections: How Texas A&M affected LSU's bowl game outlook

cory diaz, lafayette daily advertiser
·4 min read
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BATON ROUGE — LSU football has reached its second and final off week of the 2024 regular season and will be extra rested for what will seemingly be a pseudo-College Football Playoff elimination game next weekend against rival nationally-ranked Alabama.

Why the game has turned into that is because both teams have two losses with No. 14 Alabama losing to Vanderbilt and Tennessee, while No. 16 LSU (6-2- 3-1 SEC) has losses to USC and most recently Texas A&M last weekend, 38-23.

Prior to its loss to A&M, LSU had been projected by some to be a participant in this season's new 12-team College Football Playoff. How did the defeat to the Aggies affect the Tigers' standing in the CFP and bowl game picture is now the question.

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Let's take a look.

LSU football bowl game projections

Most predicted: LSU to Music City Bowl

For a few weeks, the most predicted destination for the Tigers had been the Gator Bowl. After the Texas A&M loss, the majority — albeit a slight one — has now got LSU taking a trip to Nashville for the Music City Bowl (Dec. 30, 2:30 p.m., ESPN).

Action Network's Brett McMurphy has LSU facing Nebraska, ESPN's Kyle Bonagura and Bleacher Report see an LSU-Wisconsin matchup in the Music City Bowl.

Per the projections, Gator Bowl (Jan. 2, 7:30 p.m., ESPN) as well as the Citrus Bowl are firm possibilities to land the Tigers this bowl season.

Most common bowl game matchup: LSU vs Wisconsin/Illinois

Playing in an SEC vs Big Ten bowl game is the most popular scenario this bowl season for projectionists involving LSU. While intriguing matchups against Nebraska and Indiana are among the group, the most predicted opponents for LSU are Wisconsin and Illinois.

LSU played Wisconsin last season in the ReliaQuest Bowl so the two programs are no strangers to one another, but this time that game is projected to be in the Music City Bowl.

The possible LSU-Illinois contest are projected to happen at two different bowl sites, one in the Citrus Bowl by ESPN's Mark Schlabach and the other in the ReliaQuest Bowl by USA Today.

Full list of LSU bowl projections

All possible LSU bowl game destinations

Outside of landing in the College Football Playoff, which would include semifinal games at the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl this season, there are as many as nine possible bowl game destinations for the Tigers.

The SEC has seven primary tie-ins with bowl games, while there are two other locations that the league could help fill if needed.

Primary tie-ins include the Liberty Bowl vs. the Big 12, the Las Vegas Bowl vs. to be determined (it was supposed to be PAC-12), the ReliaQuest Bowl vs. the Big Ten/ACC, the Texas Bowl vs. the Big 12, the Gator Bowl vs. the ACC and the Music City Bowl vs. the Big Ten.

LSU could also fill a spot at the Birmingham Bowl vs. the American Athletic Conference or the Gasparilla Bowl vs. the ACC/American, both those bowl games are secondary tie-ins.

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Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU football bowl projections: Where Tigers are predicted to play after Week 9