Cats’ Outback Bowl hopes still alive

Just got off the phone with Mike Schulze, director of communications and sponsorships for the Outback Bowl.

He said that while UK certainly took a hit with its loss to Tennessee on Saturday, “Nobody with a 7-5 record or better is off the table yet.”

“Nobody has been eliminated at this point,” Schulze said. “We’re looking at all the possibilities.”

There are six SEC teams at 7-5: Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina, Arkansas and Auburn.

“It’s a big logjam,” he said.

Schulze said he expects the Outback Bowl to make its pick tomorrow. He’s expecting the SEC to declare on its Wednesday teleconference that Florida and Alabama will both be going to BCS bowls. After that, the bowls will be able to move forward with their picks.

Maybe the most interesting thing is that before Schulze let me go, he asked me to try and read the temperature of campus and the UK fan base to see how excited the fans would be to go. Of course, I told him the fans were pretty pleased with the season overall and that UK fans would love to head to Tampa for the New Year’s Day bowl game, which pits an SEC team with a Big 10 foe.

Stick around for more updates. I’ll be speaking with other bowl representatives in the coming days.