2011 Bowl Predictions: SEC Heavyweights That Will Ring In New Year With Win

All eyes will be on the SEC as the bowl competition heats up this winter, especially on Jan. 9 when No. 1 LSU meets No. 2 Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game.

But before we get to that game, which other SEC teams will begin 2012 with a program-boosting win?

Not the Auburn Tigers, that's for sure. The defending national champions have less than two weeks left as the reigning national champions, and their 7-5 record earned them a spot in New Year's Eve's Chick-fil-A Bowl.

The Tigers will face off against the surprising Virginia Cavaliers from the ACC, who have won six out of eight overall, and four out of five road games in 2011. 

A loss in Atlanta will not be the worst thing that has ever happened to Auburn, but it will eliminate them from our list of SEC heavyweights primed to ring in 2012 with a bowl win:

Florida Gators

Florida will have a huge advantage this bowl season, essentially hosting fellow 6-6 squad Ohio State in Jacksonville for the Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl on Jan. 2.

Urban Meyer will be wishing he never left Gainesville for Columbus by the end of this one. 

Florida's backfield duo of Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps has combined for 1,329 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground. 

Rainey is also a legitimate threat in the passing game, he leads the Gators in receptions with 28, and has scored twice out of the backfield. 

Meanwhile, the Buckeyes have lost their last three games to end the season by a combined 15 points, and their freshman quarterback needed the regular season finale against Michigan to finally complete more than eight passes in a game.

This bowl game will belong to the Gators, who have lacked explosion in recent seasons but will recapture some of it against a down Ohio State program, depressed by the new NCAA sanctions. 

Arkansas

Consider that the Razorbacks have not lost to any team this season outside of the two teams vying for the BCS crown, and then shift your attention to a Kansas State team that needed four overtimes to top Texas A&M at home and suffered a 41-point drubbing at home to an overrated, overhyped Oklahoma team.

Don't get me wrong; Arkansas has its weaknesses and should be called out for its pitiful performances against Alabama and LSU on the road, losing by 24 points in both matchups, but the Wildcats rank 69th in the nation in scoring offense, and their Cotton Bowl opponent will exploit that time and again.

Arkansas junior Tyler Wilson led the country's 13th-best aerial attack in 2011, throwing for 3,422 yards and 22 touchdowns this season. 

The Razorbacks can score the ball as well, they cracked the top-15 this year in scoring offense, posting more than 37 points per game against some of college football's most stout defenses in the SEC.

A bitter Arkansas team will easily edge Kansas State in the AT&T Cotton Bowl on Jan. 6, proving it will be right there with LSU and Alabama in the SEC West in 2012. 

LSU

How can anyone pick against the undefeated team that took down the championship challenger on its home turf just two months prior? 

What about 9-6 is hard to understand? 

LSU is flat-out dominant, and that won't change on Jan. 9 when they welcome Alabama to New Orleans for an epic rematch in the BCS National Championship Game. 

The Tigers and Crimson Tide both boast exceptional defenses, but unfortunately for Alabama and running back Trent Richardson, the Tide's skill set plays directly into the Tigers' hands. 

Both defenses are ranked No. 1 and 2 in the nation, but LSU's defense is a playmaking one, which preyed on Alabama's offense in the first matchup. 

The Tigers don't have to be great offensively to beat the Tide a second time, obviously. 

But their Heisman Trophy candidate plays defense and special teams, the super sophomore Tyrann Mathieu, who will make plays in this game. 

His teammate in the secondary Morris Claiborne is equally as talented and able to destroy Alabama with a pick-six or kick off return TD. 

Unfortunately for the Tide, it's Richardson or bust, just like it was on Nov. 5 in Tuscaloosa. Three points doesn't sound like a beatdown until you consider Alabama only scored six.