2022 was a down year for the SEC Bowls compared to historical or recent history.

Should have been worse but A&M ran scared of wake forest and quit

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Not surprised. For the top SEC teams, it has become playoffs or bust. Many don’t care about playing in a non-playoff bowl game. Also, I would guess the SEC has more opt-outs, simply for the fact the SEC has the most draft candidates on a year-to-year basis. Last, when we have two teams in the playoffs, the SEC is getting matched against teams who finished higher in their conferences. For example, Baylor (1st in Big 12) playing Ole Miss (3rd in SEC).

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Historically, this has always been the case. Other conferences would only limit their top champion to a bowl game, while SEC would send all teams.

Even looking at more recent history(before the playoffs), the Peach bowl would be #2 ACC vs #5 SEC team. Most bowls were only 1 or 2 teams off.

You still have to take in consideration that the SEC was favored at the time of the bowls. We took 5 L to games we should of won and 1 upset with USC over North Carolina.

Opt outs really hurt and we were paired with some teams that would have very few opt outs. (UCF, Houston in particular)

And, in all honesty...outside of Georgia, Alabama and Ole Miss the SEC as a whole was down. Kentucky and Arkansas had good years, but as a whole we were down.

Then with two teams in the playoffs the pairings got shuffled around. Best SEC non playoff team went from either Alabama/Georgia to Ole Miss and so on down the line. So that affected the pairings.

I mean, we can come up with a lot of excuses, but that's what they are....excuses. The SEC just wasn't quite as strong. BUT, we were still stronger than most if not all the other conferences.

Huepel has you headed in the right direction, though and that has to be exciting for you.

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Then with two teams in the playoffs the pairings got shuffled around. Best SEC non playoff team went from either Alabama/Georgia to Ole Miss and so on down the line. So that affected the pairings.

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That's a good point. If Alabama loses the SECCG, or Georgia drops to say 5th after the SECCG, then that team likely plays in the Sugar Bowl (Georgia definitely, Alabama probably), so the remaining pairings for SEC teams gets a bit easier.

We had a losing bowl record in 2017 as well, when we sent two teams to the playoffs (5-6). This year we went 6-8 (played in an absurd 14 bowl games).

I am not even attempting to troll Auburn when I ask why in the hell they were favored against Houston? Auburn limped to the finish line while Houston was a top 15 team.

Not surprising, I think the SEC probably has more opt outs per team (because of having more talent) and non SEC schools get more motivated to play the SEC

UGA and Bammer represented the SEC AWESOMELY, because we are head and shoulders the class of the SEC.

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This is not true. First ~3 to 4 SEC teams go to the a BIG 6 Bowl(including Playoffs) for the top teams. After these selections, it goes to the regular SEC bowl pairings. We've had more teams selected in top bowl in previous years, and had a way better win rate.

New Years Big 6 selections
2021 = 3 SEC = Georgia, Ole Miss, and Alabama
2020 = 4 SEC = Georgia, Florida, Texas A&M, and Alabama
2019 = 3 SEC = Georgia, Florida, & LSU
2018 = 4 SEC = Georgia, Florida, LSU, and Alabama
2017 = 3 SEC = Georgia, Auburn, and Alabama

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I specifically listed the playoffs because no other conference has sent more than 1 (unless you include Notre Dame as an ACC member for 2020). So most conferences will have, at worst, their #2 team playing in their top tie-in bowl. This year, only one P5 conference (B1G) outside of the SEC had their best team in the playoffs instead of in other bowls. So you have the #3 SEC team playing the #1 Big 12 team, for example.

My point still stands - the Big 6 bowl designation is irrelevant for this. It's playoffs, then everything else.

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I specifically listed the playoffs because no other conference has sent more than 1 (unless you include Notre Dame as an ACC member for 2020). So most conferences will have, at worst, their #2 team playing in their top tie-in bowl. This year, only one P5 conference (B1G) outside of the SEC had their best team in the playoffs instead of in other bowls. So you have the #3 SEC team playing the #1 Big 12 team, for example.

My point still stands - the Big 6 bowl designation is irrelevant for this. It's playoffs, then everything else.

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Don't forget my other point. This has ALWAYS been the case though recently or historically. Historically, other conferences would only allow their conference champions to Bowl games, while the SEC would allow anyone to get a bid. In recent times, regardless of 2 playoff teams or not, the SEC would be paired up to a higher paired team from another conference in Playoff/BCS or even prior to that. This is because SEC fans travel well.

I would say it was a great year for SEC bowls, 13 teams played post season except one chickenshit program tapped out 2 weeks before the game vs Wake FLorist.

When you send that many their are mismatches.