Big 12 to Face SEC in Liberty Bowl
The college football playoff is right around the corner (2014), but bowl games will remain a strong presence in the college football postseason.
It was announced earlier this week that the Big 12 and the Liberty Bowl signed a six year deal, officially making Memphis a soon-to-be Big 12 bowl destination beginning in 2014.
The Liberty Bowl is a mid-level bowl that will have the fourth selection of bowl-eligible Big 12 teams, which will make it similar to this year’s Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. However, what makes this announcement intriguing is the Liberty Bowl’s other conference tie-in, the SEC.
The Big 12 and SEC are no strangers to facing one another in contentious bowl games. The Cotton Bowl has long pitted the Big 12 (and formerly the SWC) against the SEC, where Texas played the likes of Alabama, LSU and Tennessee on several occasions.
This conference rivalry is sure to become even more heated when the Big 12 champion becomes the automatic tie-in to the Sugar Bowl, where they will face the SEC champion beginning 2014/15. This, of course, would only happen if neither conference champion is selected for the college football playoff. So, we will likely never see the Big 12 champion and SEC champion square off in the Sugar Bowl.
