Chick-Fil-A Bowl Set: South Carolina, Florida State To Clash

It will be a battle of championship game losers, but that doesn’t mean the Chick-Fil-A Bowl will be an also-ran in this season’s bowl schedule.

The Chick-Fil-A Bowl is bringing South Carolina and Florida State to Atlanta for its traditional 7:30 p.m. Eastern start on New Year’s Eve, and giving Stephen Garcia and Christian Ponder chances to finish down years on high notes.

Neither quarterback has been great this season — Garcia was stellar in the Gamecocks’ upset of Alabama, and up-and-down thereafter, while Ponder has battled injuries all year and did not play in the ACC Championship Game due to an elbow ailment — but both were once considered NFL prospects and have similar skill sets. Each can throw the ball well, with puzzling bouts of inaccuracy, and each is underrated as a runner.

All of that doesn’t make this a particularly great game, but the Chick-Fil-A Bowl has a tendency to draw good performances out of at least one of its teams. If that will happen this year, those who care about momentum will probably bet on Florida State to put it on: the Seminoles looked game despite a double-digit loss to Virginia Tech on Saturday, while the Gamecocks were listless late against Auburn.