GT to the Chick-Fil-A Bowl!

Barnhart's saying it at the AJC, and Scott just tweeted it: Georgia Tech will be playing in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl against LSU. (Yeah, I kinda still like calling it the Peach Bowl, but Chick-Fil-A is a product I love so I can accept their corporate overlording of the bowl game.)

The Champs Sports Bowl and Gator Bowl are both still possible, but Barnhart's a reliable source, and the other options don't seem likely to me. The Gator Bowl would be ecstatic to invite Florida State, who will essentially bring a home crowd to Jacksonville. The Chick-Fil-A Bowl, as the AJC noted the other day, strives to arrange the best game possible, and GT is playing well down the stretch. Also, based on listening to "The Good Word" on the radio, it sounds like Radakovich has established a good relationship with Gary Stokan, president of the Chick-Fil-A Bowl.

This will make a rematch of the 2000 Peach Bowl, when Tech got beat by LSU 28-14. I recall how miserable I was on the MARTA ride home from that game, with their corndog-smelling fans. I blame that more on me than them, though; I was in high school and still didn't "get it." Speaking of LSU fans, you'll want to prepare one of these if you're going to tailgate for the bowl game:


Your historical notes on this bowl selection: Georgia Tech has never won the Peach Bowl/CFA Bowl. LSU is undefeated in the Peach Bowl (four appearances). Also, you may hear fans say we play there every four or five years, but that's historically untrue. GT has played in three Peach Bowls: 1971, '78, and 2000.

The one reason we want this bowl invite, despite being o-fer in the series so far? (I learned this face in Cromartie's Clean Old Fashioned Hate.) Only three teams in the country have won each of the seven eight oldest bowls (Rose, Orange, Sugar, Sun, Cotton, Gator, Citrus (CapitalOne), and Liberty): Alabama, Georgia, and Georgia Tech. Only one team has won each of the eight nine oldest bowls (Peach is the eighth ninth): Georgia. If and when we win the Peach Bowl, that will be a point of pride for all Peach State fans, not just the boys up the road.