2011 Bowl Predictions: SEC Powers That Will Fall Flat This Winter

Bowl season has officially arrived, and college football fans everywhere want to know two things: Why are we to be subjected to another LSU vs. Alabama contest, and which SEC squads will come up short this postseason?

Unfortunately, I can't answer the first question, but as far as the SEC bowl game disappointment is concerned, I got you covered.

Teams like Florida and Vanderbilt barely squeaked into the bowl picture at 6-6, while other teams like South Carolina and Georgia earned bowl bids with more deserving regular-season resumes. 

Regardless of how they got in though, here are three SEC powerhouses that will slip on black ice this bowl season.

Auburn Tigers 

From national champion to 7-5. Oh, what a difference Cam Newton can make. The Tigers have been disappointing defending champs in 2011, and that trend will only continue on New Year's Eve in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

Auburn will take on a surprising 8-4 team in the Virginia Cavaliers, who were set to shock the ACC and the rest of the college football nation this season before falling to Virginia Tech late in the season.

The Tigers have been blown out in nearly every big-time game this season, however, getting trounced by the SEC West's best (LSU, Alabama and Arkansas) by a combined 87 points. 

The Cavaliers knocked off Miami and Florida State on the road this season, so a hostile environment like the Georgia Dome won't intimidate Virginia.

Auburn will head into 2012 with question marks. At 7-6, the Tigers' NC crown will be a distant memory, and instead they'll be Chick-fil-A Bowl losers.

South Carolina Gamecocks

South Carolina will play the Big Ten's Nebraska Cornhuskers in the Capital One Bowl, and it won't be pretty for the Marcus Lattimore-less Gamecocks.

Just the fact that SC failed to run the table on a rare SEC schedule that did not feature games vs. LSU or Alabama is the reason why they will lose to Nebraska in Orlando.

Nebraska will wear down the Gamecocks D with the nation's 13th-ranked rushing attack, and will dominate possession against a team that has lacked offensive explosion since the loss of former Heisman candidate RB Marcus Lattimore.

Connor Shaw has played admirably, but he's simply not Taylor Martinez.

Georgia Bulldogs

Georgia looked like something special before falling victim to yet another LSU blowout in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta. 

The Outback Bowl will be another tough test for the Bulldogs as they take on a bitter Michigan State Spartans team that also fell short in their conference title game.

The Spartans boast a dominant scoring D, ranked ninth in the country, that was exposed against Wisconsin, but then again so was Georgia's 17th-ranked scoring D against LSU.

The Bulldogs have lost all momentum after watching their 10-game win streak come to an end in early December, and the Spartans will represent the Big Ten beautifully en route to a low-scoring victory.

This matchup is arguably the most even one of the entire bowl season slate, but Michigan State gets the edge considering what they've done against some of the nation's most high-powered offenses, posting wins over the 10th- and 12th-ranked rushing attacks of Wisconsin and Michigan respectively.