{"id":4288,"date":"2016-12-02T08:41:58","date_gmt":"2016-12-02T13:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordoncollegefootball.com\/?p=4288"},"modified":"2025-09-13T15:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T19:18:09","slug":"five-possible-kentucky-wildcats-bowl-destinations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2016\/12\/02\/five-possible-kentucky-wildcats-bowl-destinations\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Possible Kentucky Wildcats Bowl Destinations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cfb\/players\/mark-stoops-2.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mark Stoops<\/a>&#8216; <\/strong>club is going bowling for the first time since 2010.\u00a0 After their huge win over Louisville, the bowl fortunes for the Cats has really improved. Let&#8217;s take a look at the five possible Kentucky Wildcats bowl destinations.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Southeastern Conference<\/strong> has tie-ins to 12 different bowl games but only has 11 bowl eligible teams. <strong>Mississippi State<\/strong> won&#8217;t be a part of the SEC games but could make a bowl because of the APR score even with a 5-7 record. Here is a quick reference to how this process works.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">SEC Bowl announcements will be next Sunday late afternoon. Here is how the selection process works: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/aeIoa4ngHD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/aeIoa4ngHD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Chuck Dunlap \ud83c\udfc8 (@SEC_Chuck) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SEC_Chuck\/status\/803245753359417345?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 28, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The thought has been with a 7-5 record Mark Stoops&#8217; club will fall somewhere towards the tail end of the SEC pool of six games. However in the last couple of days one game is looking more and more likely.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Leader In The Clubhouse<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>TaxSlayer Bowl- (Dec. 31 11:00 am ESPN)-<\/strong> The game formally known as the <strong>Gator<\/strong> <strong>Bowl<\/strong> would pit the Wildcats against an ACC squad. <strong>Georgia Tech<\/strong> or <strong>Miami<\/strong> are the most likely opponents for this one.<\/p>\n<p>The Yellow Jackets and their triple option running game would present a tough test of the Kentucky defense.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand a chance to play of college football&#8217;s storied programs would certainly be intriguing for Cats fans.<\/p>\n<p>A big thing helping Kentucky is a rule of the TaxSlayer Bowl not wanting to take the same team within three years.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Georgia<\/strong> and <strong>Tennessee<\/strong> are also being looked at for this game but each team has played there in the last two years.<\/p>\n<p>There was no talk of Kentucky playing in <strong>Jacksonville<\/strong> until a couple of days ago when hints started dropping on social media.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">woke up to check my BBM and all I see is <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BBN?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#BBN<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pgUXFVlZ52\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/pgUXFVlZ52<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; TaxSlayer Gator Bowl (@taxslayerbowl) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/taxslayerbowl\/status\/803968249159360512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 30, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>If <strong>Alabama<\/strong> beats <strong>Florida<\/strong> on Saturday as expected, the head of the TaxSlayer Bowl all but confirmed Kentucky would be the team.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">TaxSlayer Bowl president: \u2018Kentucky is the major contender for our bowl game\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LLYEgbvlHl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/LLYEgbvlHl<\/a>  <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BBN?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#BBN<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/L8z4rKobkf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/L8z4rKobkf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; SEC Country Kentucky (@SECCountryUK) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SECCountryUK\/status\/804002804792705024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 30, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>When<strong> Austin MacGinnins&#8217;<\/strong> kick sent the Cats to a 41-38 win over Louisville on Saturday it did two things for the program.<\/p>\n<p>It gave Mark Stoops a $250,000 bonus for winning seven games.<\/p>\n<p>It sent the Cats from the <strong>Birmingham<\/strong> or <strong>Independence<\/strong> Bowls to the best game since the 1998 Outback Bowl.<\/p>\n<p><em>Plan B<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Suppose Florida shocks the world and beats Alabama where does that leave the Wildcats. It would most likely knock the Cats down a few spots in the bowl picks. Under this scenario Kentucky would probably play in one of two games.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Belk Bowl- (December 29th- 5:30 ESPN)<\/strong>&#8211; The game in<strong> Charlotte<\/strong> would match the Cats up against a team from the ACC, most likely <strong>North Carolina<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Bluebloods of college basketball the Cats and Tar Heels have met ten times in football, the last time in 1990. The schools have each won five times including a 21-0 Kentucky win in the <strong>1976 Peach Bowl.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The schools meet on the basketball court on December 17th in <strong>Las Vegas<\/strong>. A chance to beat Carolina twice in a couple of weeks would be too good for Cat fans to resist.<\/p>\n<p>There is definitely interest in having the Cats in Charlotte and would be the clear number two choice for Kentucky.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Music City Bowl- (December 30th- 3:30 ESPN)-<\/strong> For True Blue Fans fans this is the most ideal location. <strong>Nashville<\/strong> is only a three hour drive from <strong>Lexington<\/strong> and Kentucky fans would head drive down I-65 in droves.<\/p>\n<p>The Wildcats played in Nashville in 2006, 2007 and 2009 winning two of the three games. They would be pitted against a team from the Big Ten most likely<strong> Indiana.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Representatives of the Music City Bowl want to invite <strong>Iowa<\/strong> but it is doubtful the Hawkeyes will be available.<\/p>\n<p>Originally the bowl didn&#8217;t seem that interested in the Cats but possible game against the Hoosiers would be great from a fan standpoint.<\/p>\n<p>Kentucky and Indiana played every year in football between 1987 and 2005. The Hoosiers lead the overall series 18-17 with one tie.<\/p>\n<p>Since they can&#8217;t agree on a basketball series why not have the two schools play in football.<\/p>\n<p><em>Two Other Choices<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It is doubtful Kentucky will fall past the Music City Bowl but two other games could be in play.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Liberty Bowl<\/strong> in<strong> Memphis<\/strong> and the <strong>Independence Bowl<\/strong> in <strong>Shreveport<\/strong> could be possibilities.<\/p>\n<p>Kentucky beat<strong> East Carolina<\/strong> in the 2009 Liberty Bowl and Memphis is about a seven hour drive from Lexington.<\/p>\n<p>Oxford, Mississippi is only an hour away from Memphis so Cat fans could get a two for one deal out of the trip.<\/p>\n<p>Shreveport is about an 11 hour drive from Lexington and is definitely the least desirable of the possible locations.<\/p>\n<p>The Big Blue Nation won&#8217;t know for sure where the Cats will play until Sunday evening but after six years it will be worth the wait.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/625978940\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 74.074074% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/625978940?et=O7nLl6UqSHtl_kAzJ6dxvw&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=CCOucg_TCFQTS3EBj9GKu1pf7xXjtvNV10mJ9aB8p-A=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"440\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mark Stoops&#8216; club is going bowling for the first time since 2010.\u00a0 After their huge win over Louisville, the bowl fortunes for the Cats has really improved. Let&#8217;s take a look at the five possible Kentucky Wildcats bowl destinations. The Southeastern Conference has tie-ins to 12 different bowl games but only has 11 bowl eligible [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":877,"featured_media":4355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,35579],"tags":[1140,184,334,21,1141,126,1139],"class_list":["post-4288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sec","category-kentucky-wildcats","tag-belk-bowl","tag-cfb","tag-college-football-predictions","tag-kentucky-wildcats","tag-music-city-bowl","tag-ncaa","tag-taxslayer-bowl"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/877"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78764,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4288\/revisions\/78764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}