Yesterday did nothing to clear up Auburn's bowl picture. South Carolina beat Clemson. LSU beat Arkansas. Tennessee beat Kentucky. And Georgia beat Georgia Tech.

What does it all mean? Six SEC teams, including Auburn, finished the season at 7-5, creating quite a mess for the bowl selection process. Here's a look at the conference's bowl eligible teams:

• Florida 12-0, 8-0
• Alabama 12-0, 8-0
• LSU 9-3, 5-3
• Ole Miss 8-4, 4-4
• Tennessee 7-5, 4-4
• Georgia 7-5, 4-4
• South Carolina 7-5, 4-4
• Kentucky, 7-5, 3-5
  
• Auburn 7-5, 3-5
• Arkansas 7-5, 3-5

The SEC has nine bowl tie-ins, 10 if you figure it will get two teams in BCS bowls (a foregone conclusion with the No. 1 and 2 teams playing next week in Atlanta for a right to be in the national title game). Here are the SEC affiliated bowls in the order they select:

• BCS national title game vs. BCS No. 2 (Pasadena, Calif., Jan. 7, 8 p.m. ET)
• Sugar Bowl vs. BCS at-large (New Orleans, Jan. 1, 8:30 p.m. ET)
• Capital One Bowl vs. Big Ten No. 2 (Orlando, Fla., Jan. 1, 1 p.m. ET)
• Cotton Bowl vs. Big 12 No. 2 (Dallas, Jan. 2, 2 p.m. ET)
• Outback Bowl vs. Big Ten No. 3 (Tampa, Fla.,, Jan. 1, 11 a.m. ET)
• Chick-fil-A Bowl vs. ACC No. 2 (Atlanta, Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m. ET)
• Music City Bowl vs. ACC (Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 27, 8:15 p.m. ET)
• Liberty Bowl vs. C-USA No. 1 (Memphis, Tenn., Jan. 2, 5:30 p.m. ET)
• Independence Bowl vs. Big 12 No. 7 (Shreveport, La., Dec. 28, 5 p.m. ET)
• PapaJohns.com Bowl vs. Big East (Birmingham, Ala., Jan. 2, 2 p.m. ET)

A few things to keep in mind with the bowl selection order:

• The Cotton and Outback bowls basically pick at the same time. The Cotton has preference to take a Western Division team; the Outback an Eastern Division team. But the bowls can choose from the other division if there is no conflict.

• Records and head-to-head meetings don't really have a bearing on where teams end up. The only rule a team can't jump another team two wins ahead of it in the standings. So the only restriction here would be that none of the 7-5 teams could be selected for a bowl game ahead of 9-3 LSU.

• The Liberty and Music City bowls make their choices at the same time in consultation with the SEC office. They both rank the schools as they would like them and submit them to the conference. If there are no conflicts, the everything moves ahead. If there is a conflict, the teams involved in the conflict would get a choice of where it wants to go.

So where does Auburn go in this whole thing? Who knows? I think LSU to the Capital One is a pretty solid lock. Ole Miss would figure to be the next team for the Cotton Bowl, but the Rebels just went there last year. And on the Outback side of the bowl picture, a bunch of Eastern Division teams seem like candidates.

It will basically come down to who the bowls think will sell tickets. The highest, I would think, Auburn could go is the Chick-fil-A Bowl. It's close to Atlanta and probably would send a decent contingent of fans there (not that that bowl ever has trouble selling out). But with Georgia now in the picture there, that looks like a longer shot.

The Music City Bowl in Nashville is another option that's very drivable for the Auburn fan base, although Tennessee and Kentucky are nearby and could just as easily have a good following.

The Independence Bowl is an intriguing one. It pits and SEC team against a Big 12 team. What if a 6-6 Iowa State is sitting there for the picking to match up with Auburn? That would certainly create some buzz to match up Gene Chizik against his old school, which just so happens to be coached by former Auburn defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads. Ultimately, that's what these second-tier bowl games are trying to accomplish.

ESPN.com SEC blogger Chris Low has Auburn slotted in the Independence Bowl in his latest projections.

FoxSports is projecting Auburn to the PapaJohns.com Bowl against Rutgers.

CBSSportsline is saying Auburn to the Independence Bowl against Iowa State.