Iron Bowl 2011: Predicting Which Bowl Games Alabama and Auburn Are Headed to

The last game of the season can be monumental in determining which bowl games different teams get to play in.

For the Auburn Tigers, it probably won't make much difference either way. On the other hand, today's game will be huge in deciding where the Alabama Crimson Tide play in January.

Here are the bowl projections for the two Iron Bowl participants, Alabama and Auburn, as determined by whether each team wins or loses today.

Alabama Crimson Tide (If They Win): BCS National Championship Game

If the Alabama Crimson Tide beats the Auburn Tigers today, Alabama is almost certainly going to the 2012 BCS National Championship Game.

Right now, the Crimson Tide sit at No. 2 in the BCS Standings. The No. 3 team, the Arkansas Razorbacks, were throttled yesterday by the LSU Tigers. No. 4 and No. 5 are the Oklahoma State Cowboys and Virginia Tech Hokies, respectively.

With Oklahoma State's bad loss to the Iowa State Cyclones and Virginia Tech's weak strength of schedule, neither team has any hope of jumping Alabama.

A win today in the Iron Bowl would lock up the first ever intra-conference BCS Championship Game, with a rematch between Alabama and LSU.

Alabama Crimson Tide (If They Lose): Sugar Bowl

If the Alabama Crimson Tide lose to the Auburn Tigers today, they will likely still make a BCS bowl, though it wouldn't be the BCS Championship Game. I'm guessing that with a loss, Alabama would drop to somewhere around No. 8 in the BCS Standings.

That would still be good enough to get them an at-large spot in the BCS. The likely destination for the Crimson Tide would be the Sugar Bowl, which has a tie-in with the SEC Champion.

With the champion (presumably LSU) going to the title game, the Sugar Bowl would be free to pick Alabama.

Auburn Tigers (If They Win): Chick-fil-A Bowl

With a 7-4 record, the Auburn Tigers unfortunately have no shot of making a BCS bowl this season. However, with a win over their hated rivals today, the Tigers would probably move up to about No. 18 in the BCS Standings.

In that position, they would be around the fifth-highest-ranked SEC team, depending on how the South Carolina Gamecocks and Georgia Bulldogs do against their rivals today.

They would likely be looking at either the Chick-fil-A Bowl or the Outback Bowl. My guess would be the Chick-fil-A, which hasn't hosted an Auburn team since 2007 (while Auburn played in the Outback Bowl the year before last).

Auburn Tigers (If They Lose): Gator Bowl

As they are facing the No. 2 team in the country, a loss today wouldn't do much damage to the stock of the Auburn Tigers.

Falling to the Alabama Crimson Tide would drop the Tigers out of the Top 25. They would be the seventh-highest-ranked SEC team, and probably the seventh choice of their prospective bowls. With Alabama and the LSU Tigers playing in BCS games, they would get the No. 6 slot in the SEC, which goes to the Gator Bowl.

Since Auburn hasn't played in this game since 1974, the Gator Bowl would jump at the chance to host the Tigers.