Mississippi State's postseason destination has been speculated for weeks, but one bowl game is eyeing the Bulldogs hard.
Harold Graeter, the associate executive director of the Liberty Bowl, spoke with Andy Kostka of the Clarion-Ledger on Thursday. According to Graeter, the Liberty Bowl has "great interest" in hosting the Bulldogs.
“Mississippi State is certainly a team we have great interest in,” Graeter said. “They have a great following; we have a great history with them. It’s been eight years since we’ve had the Bulldogs.”
The last time State visited Memphis for the Liberty Bowl was in late December of 2013. Quarterback Dak Prescott led his team to a 44-7 blowout victory over Rice. He finished the game 17-of-28 passing for 283 yards with three touchdowns, and he also added two touchdowns on the ground. Prescott's performance was a great foreshadowing of the success he would lead the Bulldogs to in the 2014 season. Besides that appearance eight years ago, Mississippi State has played in the Liberty Bowl in 2007, 1991 and 1963.
However, the Liberty Bowl is not the only postseason spot that the Bulldogs have a chance of landing in this season. Projections from various national outlets over the past few weeks have noted that the team could go to the Texas Bowl, Outback Bowl, Music City Bowl or Gator Bowl. These four games-- along with the Liberty Bowl and Duke's Mayo Bowl-- get to choose from the SEC teams that don't make it to a New Year's Six game.
For a selection to work out, the games will submit a list of their top three choices for which SEC school they would like to host. Likewise, the eligible SEC schools get to pick the three bowls that they would most like to attend. In the end, the SEC finalizes the matchups. Graeter is preparing to submit the game's list to the SEC in time for Selection Sunday and praises the Bulldogs highly.
“Again, a team we have great interest in. We know how passionate their fans are. They’re certainly on our list of teams we’re interested in. We’ll be letting the league know our list of preferences and then we look forward to Selection Sunday when the league office assigns us our team.”
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