Ultimately, 13 SEC teams ended up being bowl-eligible. There are nine SEC bowl tie-ins. That means that if four SEC teams make the College Football Playoff, all SEC teams will end up in an SEC bowl. That became more likely after Miami's loss to Syracuse.

K-State gets invited to this bowl game every time it gets a new name. The Wildcats have previously traveled to Arizona for this game when it was called the Copper Bowl, the Insight.com Bowl, the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl and the Cactus Bowl.