This is the first game featuring two ranked teams since the Las Vegas Bowl, and historically the Chic-Fil-A Bowl is usually a very fun New Year's Eve college football game. South Carolina was in the SEC title game with Sugar Bowl aspirations before getting knocked around against Auburn, but now they get a chance to redeem themselves in the Georgia Dome.
However, will South Carolina be motivated to play since they were so close to the Sugar Bowl, but on the other hand this is the biggest bowl game in a long time so that may lend for enough motivation.
Florida State will have starting quarterback Christian Ponder in the lineup which will be key for Florida State to win this game. Ponder has had elbow issues with swelling since late November, but the team said he is good to go tonight.
Both offenses are really good so there could be a lot of points especially since the Florida State secondary is not very good so look for Steve Spurrier to take advantage of secondary matchups. South Carolina is the better of the two, but with Ponder throwing the ball for Florida State they will be challenged.
The line on this game has South Carolina as a field goal favorite, and now onto the predictions.
Rivals - The Rivals writers are split at two apiece between South Carolina and Florida State while the Yahoo'ers overwhelmingly take South Carolina wit 74 percent of the vote.
CBS Sports - Four of the five pick South Carolina to beat Florida State.
USA Today - Five of eight writers lean toward South Carolina for the win.
Fanhouse - Brett McMurphy makes his picks by the spread and takes Florida State and the points.
AccuScore - The computer takes South Carolina to win by an average score of 32.5 to 26.4 and is the winner 63 percent of the time.
ESPN Bloggers - SEC blogger Chris Low takes Florida State 28-21 while ACC blogger Heather Dinich predicts South Carolina 28-24.
The Chic-Fil-A Bowl kicks off at 5:30 p.m. (MT) on ESPN at the Georgia Dome.