No. 16 seed WKU destroys No. 13 seed Georgia Tech in Sirius XM’s Mascot Bracket, advances to Elite Eight

A WKU fan holds up Big Red after WKU’s 58-44 victory over Louisiana Tech at the Conference USA Championship on Dec. 3, 2016 at L.T. Smith Stadium. Kathryn Ziesig/HERALD

Nick Kieser

Big Red is now 4-0 in postseason play.

No. 16 seed WKU and Big Red knocked off No. 13 seed Georgia Tech and Buzz the Yellow Jacket in the Sirius XM Mascot Bracket on Wednesday, which means the Hilltoppers have advanced beyond their third-round matchup in the South Region and are heading forward to the Elite Eight round.

As voting ended at 11 p.m. on Wednesday, the big-mouthed red blob had tallied 80.5% of the votes, while Buzz got 19.5%. In total, 10,270 votes were cast for the Sweet 16 matchup.

{{tncms-inline account=”College Sports on SiriusXM” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/258fthOSow">pic.twitter.com/258fthOSow</a></p>— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) <a href="https://twitter.com/SXMCollege/status/1247917122795298816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 8, 2020</a></blockquote>” id=”https://twitter.com/SXMCollege/status/1247917122795298816″ type=”twitter”}}

WKU supporters turned out to vote on social media once again, and the Hilltopper faithful guided their beloved mascot to its second-most lopsided victory of the postseason, trailing only an 89.3% to 10.7% blowout over Landshark Tony, the mascot for the University of Mississippi’s athletic teams, on Sunday.

The Hilltoppers have now defeated four consecutive Power 5 opponents, previously knocking off SEC members Ole Miss, LSU and Auburn before their latest triumph over ACC member Georgia Tech.

{{tncms-inline account=”Big Red” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">16 seed?? CRAZY!!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoTops?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoTops</a> <a href="https://t.co/0tXttAMOl9">pic.twitter.com/0tXttAMOl9</a></p>— Big Red (@WKUBigRed) <a href="https://twitter.com/WKUBigRed/status/1247899706727870464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 8, 2020</a></blockquote>” id=”https://twitter.com/WKUBigRed/status/1247899706727870464″ type=”twitter”}}

{{tncms-inline account=”Big Red” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Squashed the competition and heading to the Elite 8. 😎<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoTops?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoTops</a> <a href="https://t.co/AFUMqbu6hd">pic.twitter.com/AFUMqbu6hd</a></p>— Big Red (@WKUBigRed) <a href="https://twitter.com/WKUBigRed/status/1248098908045217795?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 9, 2020</a></blockquote>” id=”https://twitter.com/WKUBigRed/status/1248098908045217795″ type=”twitter”}}

Big Red will now meet No. 14 seed Smokey, which represents the University of Tennessee’s athletic teams, in the Elite Eight on Thursday. Smokey earned the right to face the Hilltoppers by defeating South Carolina’s Cocky, Alabama’s Big Al and Virginia Tech’s HokieBird in the first three rounds.

Voting for the Elite Eight round of the Sirius XM Mascot Bracket begins at 11 a.m. on Thursday and lasts until 11 p.m. that night. With another upset win, Big Red would advance to the Final Four round.

If Big Red makes it to the Final Four, WKU would meet the winner of the Elite Eight matchup between No. 5 seed Colorado and No. 6 seed Oklahoma with a trip to the national championship game on the line.

Big Red supporters can vote WKU to the Final Four using the tweet below:

{{tncms-inline account=”College Sports on SiriusXM” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/3t8LBma7tC">pic.twitter.com/3t8LBma7tC</a></p>— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) <a href="https://twitter.com/SXMCollege/status/1248279544169140226?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 9, 2020</a></blockquote>” id=”https://twitter.com/SXMCollege/status/1248279544169140226″ type=”twitter”}}

Reporter Nick Kieser can be reached at [email protected]. Follow Nick on Twitter at @KieserNick.