David Whitley Discusses SEC Shake-Up For Florida Citrus Sports

National sportswriter David Whitley (Orlando Sentinel, Sporting News) has been contributing to the official Florida Citrus Sports website (FloridaCitrusSports.com) this season with an outsider’s perspective on the process of putting together a bowl game. This week he looked at Missouri’s emergence as an SEC contender after a weekend of upsets across the conference. The Tigers are not complete strangers to Orlando; they visited hometown team UCF last season and, as David points out, played in the 1981 edition of the Capital One Bowl (then the Tangerine Bowl) on a rare chilly December edition of the bowl.

From David:

With all due respect to Chicken Little, it’s time to chill. The SEC’s health doesn’t depend solely on keeping Nick Saban upright. All the upheaval is really quite therapeutic for fans in states like Mississippi and Tennessee. What’s more, it’s great for bowls.

Halfway through the season, a dozen SEC teams have shots at getting bids. Sure, only three teams have fewer than two losses. But six could still finish with 10 wins.

That makes them very interesting to the Capital One Bowl, which has the first choice of any SEC team outside the BCS. . Nothing against the aristocracy, but it’s sort of nice not to be rounding up only the usual suspects like South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Read more of his story at FloridaCitrusSports.com