Florida gets new, but familiar bowl destination in SI projections

Florida has a new bowl projection from Sports Illustrated, although the destination should look familiar.

SI now projects the Gators to face Nebraska in the ReliaQuest Bowl on Dec. 31 in Tampa, moving Florida away from last week’s projected Gator Bowl matchup against Wake Forest in Jacksonville.

Tampa is not a new landing spot in SI’s projections, though. The outlet had Florida headed to the ReliaQuest Bowl against Penn State before switching the Gators to Jacksonville following their upset win over Texas. Now, after Florida’s bye week, SI has circled back to the same bowl with a different Big Ten opponent.

Bryan Fischer’s latest projections pair Florida with Nebraska, creating a matchup between two of college football’s most recognizable programs.

There is also growing agreement around that potential matchup. CBS Sports projects Florida to beat Nebraska in Tampa, and ESPN’s Mark Schlabach made the same pick in his latest postseason forecast.

Florida enters Saturday’s rivalry game against Georgia at 5-2 and still needs one more victory to officially become bowl eligible.

The Gators remain outside SI’s projected College Football Playoff field, but there is still plenty of opportunity to change their postseason trajectory. Florida already owns ranked wins over Ole Miss and Texas and closes the season with Georgia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Florida State.

SI projects Georgia as the No. 1 seed in the playoff, giving Florida an immediate opportunity to add its biggest win of the season and potentially force another change in next week’s bowl projections.