Auburn picked up a crucial 27-13 win over Mississippi State on Saturday to put itself right back in line to qualify for a bowl game after the 2023 regular season. Auburn just needs wins in upcoming games against Vanderbilt and New Mexico State to hit the six-win mark.

And with that bowl path becoming more evident after the Mississippi State win, Auburn’s bowl projections continue to narrow in on the Gasparilla Bowl in Tampa or the Liberty Bowl in Memphis.

The criteria for selecting the bowl games use the following path, according to the SEC’s website. First, teams are picked for the College Football Playoff and remaining New Year’s Six bowl games with SEC tie-ins. Then, the Citrus Bowl gets the first choice of remaining SEC teams, which typically means the selection of the best SEC to miss out on New Year’s Six games.

After the Citrus Bowl, the SEC works in conjunction with a group of six bowl games (Texas Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl, Music City Bowl, Gator Bowl, Liberty Bowl and ReliaQuest Bowl) to pick the next six SEC teams. After those next six teams are picked, ESPN then gets a pick of an SEC team to send to the Birmingham Bowl and Gasparilla Bowl. Those will typically be the two worst bowl-eligible SEC teams.

Having recently appeared in the Birmingham Bowl in 2021 — Auburn’s last bowl appearance at all — it is unlikely to be picked there again even with the geographic ease. And Auburn seems to hover around the bottom of the six teams after the Citrus Bowl keeping it on a metaphorical fence between the Liberty Bowl — probably the lowest tier bowl of that group of six — and the Gasparilla Bowl.

Here’s a look at this week’s bowl projections.

The Action Network:

Brett McMurphy projects Auburn to play USF in the Gasparilla Bowl on Dec. 22 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

Auburn plays essentially a true road against USF in its home stadium. Though USF isn’t exactly known for a raucous home crowd.

ESPN:

ESPN makes two projections for Auburn. One reporter has the Tigers playing Liberty — Hugh Freeze’s last coaching stop before Auburn — in the Gasparilla Bowl.

Another has Auburn playing Tulane in the Birmingham Bowl — played on Dec. 23 at Protective Stadium.

USA Today:

Here, Auburn is picked to play TCU in the Liberty Bowl. That game is played on Dec. 29, at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.

247Sports:

Auburn is projected to play Iowa State in the Liberty Bowl.

Athlon Sports:

Auburn is projected to play Georgia Tech in the Gasparilla Bowl

The Sporting News:

A bit of a shakeup: Auburn is projected to play Kansas in the Texas Bowl. That is played Dec. 27, at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]