TaxSlayer Gator Bowl has multiple options with three weekends left in college regular season

There are three weeks left in college football's regular season and easily a dozen teams are still in play for the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl on Dec. 30 at TIAA Bank Field (3:30 p.m., ESPN).

The main reason is the number of teams who already are bowl-eligible (six victories or more), with the potential to reach eight or nine victories that will place them squarely in the mix for the Gator Bowl's SEC and ACC tiers.

Entering this week's schedule of games, the SEC has eight bowl-eligible teams and Florida (home against South Carolina) and Arkansas (home against LSU) can join them in getting their sixth victories.

Counting Notre Dame (6-3), which falls into the ACC bowl rotation if the Irish don't make a New Year's Six bowl (not likely), the ACC has nine bowl-eligible teams, with Pitt (at Virginia on Saturday) ready to join them.

"There's no question that we are getting a good matchup, due to the nature of how the season has played out," said Gator Bowl president Greg McGarity.

Bowl projections 'a good sign'

Consider the various bowl projections by national media outlets. The current forecasts are all over the map in regard to the Gator Bowl, with 10 teams mentioned in seven projections.

Among the current projections: Florida vs. Notre Dame by Athlon Sports, Florida State vs. South Carolina by ESPN's Mark Schlabach and Clemson vs. Mississippi State by Brett McMurphy of the Action Network.

Others include Kentucky, Pitt, N.C. State coming to Jacksonville.

"That's a good sign," McGarity said. "It shows how many possibilities are still out there, which shows what kind of options the conferences will have."

The Gator Bowl matches an SEC vs. an ACC team, with the conferences assigning teams to bowls under the following conditions:

• SEC: After the College Football Playoffs (the semifinals are at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta and the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix) and the other four New Year's Day Six games (Orange, Sugar, Rose and Cotton), the conference sends a representative to the Citrus Bowl in Orlando.

The next tier of games is the Gator, ReliaQuest (Tampa), Music City (Nashville), Texas (Houston), Liberty (Memphis) and Las Vegas Bowls.

The issue, as usual, is with how many SEC teams make the four-team CFP. If the SEC championship game is Georgia (9-0) vs. LSU (7-2) and Tennessee (8-1) runs the table against Missouri, South Carolina and Vanderbilt, the conference will get at least two teams in the playoff.

The SEC would get one more in a New Year's Six Bowl and another in the Citrus. That could leave the Gator Bowl with Florida (5-4), South Carolina (6-3), Arkansas (5-4) or Mississippi State (6-3).

• ACC: With Clemson's loss to Notre Dame last week, the Tigers (8-1) may be on the outside of the final four bubble for the College Football Playoff. If North Carolina (8-1) beats Wake Forest on Saturday, the ACC championship game will be set between Clemson and the Tar Heels, with the winner going to the Orange Bowl.

The championship game loser, Notre Dame, Florida State (6-3), N.C. State (7-2), Syracuse (6-3) and Pittsburgh (5-4) are the main candidates for the ACC's second tier of bowls, the Gator, Holiday (San Diego) and Cheez-It (Orlando).

Assuming another ACC title game victory for Clemson, and the Irish, FSU or North Carolina could fall to Jacksonville.

Key games this week include, UF, FSU

McGarity said games to watch this week are FSU at Syracuse and North Carolina-Wake on the ACC side, and South Carolina at Florida and LSU at Arkansas in the SEC.

"FSU-Syracuse could be huge for us," McGarity said. "I think we're going to see a little more separation this week and things might clear up a bit."

Florida at Florida State on the final weekend could also go a long way to determining the final Gator Bowl matchup.

If the Gators run the table to finish 8-4, or of the Seminoles can win two of three against Syracuse, Louisiana and UF to get to the same mark, McGarity thinks either fan base would be happy with their team in Jacksonville for the holidays.

Florida last played in the Gator Bowl in 2012 and FSU was last in the game in 2010.

"I think FSU and Florida fans will respond very well to coming here," McGarity said. "With Billy Napier in his first year at Florida and getting them in a bow, and the job Mike Norvell has done at FSU, those are two energetic fan bases that would certainly support this game."

Gator Bowl in line for marquee match

Since the conferences arrange the matchups, McGarity thinks the Gator Bowl might in line for some help after absorbing two matchups in the last two years that resulted in combined attendance of less than 39,000.

In the 2020 game, when the stadium was restricted to 25 percent capacity, the Gator Bowl accepted a Kentucky team with a 4-5 record against N.C. State, the second time in three years the Wolfpack had been to Jacksonville. Only 10,422 attended.

Last year, the ACC sent Wake as the conference championship game loser to Jacksonville, while the SEC shipped Texas A&M to the game for the second time in four years. The game was then jeopardized when the Aggies withdrew when a combination of players opting out and a spread of the COVID-19 virus left the team with only 38 available players.

In short order, the Gator Bowl took 5-7 Rutgers as a replacement under the NCAA rule of sending teams with the best Academic Progress Rate. Travel from the Northeast during the holidays was difficult and only 28,508 fans came to the game.

A Florida vs. Notre Dame, FSU vs. Arkansas, or Florida vs. Clemson game would go a long to helping the Gator Bowl from a financial standpoint.

"I think both conferences think highly of our bowl game and both understand the difficulties we dealt with last year," McGarity said. "We're hoping to be lucky this year."

Contact Garry Smits at gsmits@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @GSmitter

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Gators? Seminoles? Irish? Those are among TaxSlayer Gator Bowl possibilities