JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Following Tuesday night’s TaxSlayer Bowl Team Selection Committee meeting, the TaxSlayer Bowl released the eight teams consideration for the Dec. 31 game at EverBank Field.
Based on the TaxSlayer Bowl’s partnership with the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl, the TaxSlayer Bowl will select a team from the Southeastern Conference (SEC) versus a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Selection Committee is currently considering Kentucky, Auburn, Florida, and Arkansas from the SEC and Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina and Virginia Tech from the ACC.
The final selection and announcement of the two participants will take place this Sunday at 6 pm. The TaxSlayer Bowl will be played at 11 a.m. New Year's Eve at EverBank Field and will be nationally televised on ESPN.
Tickets and parking are available for the TaxSlayer Bowl at www.taxslayer.com.
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TaxSlayer Bowl selection process
In each year of the current six-year agreement, one team will come from the SEC. Once the teams for the New Year’s Six Bowls and the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl are selected, the Southeastern Conference has created a Tier 1 Bowl pool that is made up of the TaxSlayer Bowl, the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl, the Outback Bowl, the Belk Bowl and the AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl. The pool of teams to populate these Bowls will be created by the Southeastern Conference and the Bowls will work with the Conference office and the schools’ athletic directors to create the best matchups possible.
The other team will come from the ACC after the New Year's Day games the Russell Athletic Bowl are selected, the Atlantic Coast Conference has created a Tier 1 pool that includes the TaxSlayer Bowl, the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl, the Belk Bowl, the New Era Pinstripe Bowl and the Hyundai Sun Bowl. The Bowls will work with the Conference and the schools’ athletic directors to create the best matchups while attempting to use regionalization in this process.
Once the teams for the New Year’s Six Bowls are selected, the Big Ten Conference teams will be placed as follows:
- Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl
- Outback Bowl
- National Funding Holiday Bowl
- TaxSlayer Bowl/Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl
- New Era Pinstripe Bowl
The conference office will work with the Bowls to ensure that the Big Ten teams do not have repeat games with the same Bowl.
The TaxSlayer Bowl and the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl have forged a partnership that allows the two Bowls to determine which Bowl selects a Big Ten team and which Bowl selects an ACC team in each year of this six-year agreement.