I’m sure some would love to go to 24 teams like FCS. Honestly? Fuck that. But expansion is coming and we know it. Could be here as early as the 2023 season so the graphic above will only make sense for this season and possibly next and that’s it, that’s all. The new era of college football truly begins (regardless of what happens in realignment).
But for now we stick with the way things are meaning it’s bowl projection time! I can now take all I’ve done over the past few weeks and wrap it up in a nice, neat, little package. OK maybe neat is too strong a word. I’m sure it will be somewhat messy. And you won’t agree with all the choices. Oh well, it is what it is.
Let’s get right to it and start with the College Football Playoff matchups. If you read all the conference preview posts (every single one, right?) you have a good idea who’s here. Remember, the rankings I have here are the rankings I believe these teams will be going into the bowl season. Most of the time I have hit pretty well on these picks although I have had some real stinkers like picking Michigan State when they went 3-9. So yeah it’s not all good for ol’ Bossman:
| December 31st | Orange Bowl | #2 Alabama | #3 Ohio State |
| December 31st | Cotton Bowl | #1 Oklahoma | #4 North Carolina |
First of all, ugh. New Year’s Eve semi-final games. I’m sure most will hate this. Bama was an easy pick as everyone would have them #1 for the season but with one loss they would get in at #2. Most have Oklahoma as well and I have them running the table to this point so makes sense to have them #1. Ohio State should outlast their Big Ten foes and with only one loss as well they should easily slot in to #3 and a huge matchup with the Tide out in Miami. And at #4….not Clemson! This is probably the Tar Heels’ best shot at winning the ACC. Clemson has a new quarterback and UNC has a Heisman hopeful in Sam Howell. Despite the Tigers running the table and heading into the conference championships at #1, their loss would do enough to harm them and move them down the rankings. Plus it would look really shitty on The Committee if they kept Clemson above Mack Brown’s boys after a conference title game loss. North Carolina should be #5 going into the ACC Championship and I think The Committee will do the right thing after a Heels win. Yes, Clemson fans will scream bloody murder but to no avail. It’s about time they learn how to lose (somewhat) again after so many years at the top.
Now we get the New Year’s Six with three of those four games actually on New Year’s Day (why couldn’t the other one have been on New Year’s Eve?):
| January 1st | Sugar Bowl | #11 Texas A&M | #9 Iowa State |
| January 1st | Rose Bowl | #14 Wisconsin | #8 USC |
| January 1st | Fiesta Bowl | #6 Notre Dame | #10 Washington |
| December 30th | Peach Bowl | #5 Clemson | #7 Cincinnati |
Cue the debates. As is usually the case, the top 11 ranked teams will head to the CFP or NY6. Georgia will not get in after, once again, losing the SEC Championship to Alabama. I see Georgia falling to #12, just below the Aggies, who will sneak into the New Year’s Six, still probably seething from Texas coming to the SEC. Cincinnati actually won’t be the undefeated Group of Five team this season. Coastal Carolina will be but the Bearcats’ schedule is quite difficult whereas the Chanticleers’ schedule, not so much. Therefore, it’s an easy choice for Cincy to be well in the Top 10 and heading to Atlanta. Notre Dame has, yet again, a brutal schedule but will navigate enough of it to be clearly a Top 10 team and have their shot out in the desert to win a New Year’s Six bowl game. Iowa State finishes at #9 and could end up with their best finish ever (again) with a win over the Aggies in New Orleans. USC and Washington will both get in probably no matter the result of the Pac-12 Championship.
And then we have the Big Ten runner-up, the 14th-ranked Wisconsin Badgers. The Big Ten is contractually obligated to send a team to the Rose Bowl unless the Rose is a College Football Playoff semi-final. The Badgers luck out with Iowa and Georgia losing in their respective conference championships as Wisky sits at home and watches. Let’s be honest: this isn’t all that bad. Better than having a team that’s ranked like #20 getting into a prestigious bowl game because of stupid bowl tie-ins. That issue goes away for the most part with the 12-team playoff but then a different problem comes up. You think being #13 or #14 and missing out on the New Year’s Six rankles the fans? Wait until the #13 team misses out on the CFP. Their fans will be livid for sure. Good times.
Now for the rest of my predicted bowl matchups:
| January 4th | Texas Bowl | #12 Georgia | Iowa |
| January 1st | Citrus Bowl | #19 Florida | #16 Penn State |
| January 1st | Outback Bowl | Auburn | Indiana |
| December 31st | Sun Bowl | Virginia Tech | #22 Utah |
| December 31st | Gator Bowl | #24 Ole Miss | #17 Miami |
| December 30th | Las Vegas Bowl | #25 Northwestern | #15 Oregon |
| December 30th | Arizona Bowl | Boise State | Ball State |
| December 30th | Redbox Bowl | Nebraska | #20 Arizona State |
| December 30th | Music City Bowl | #18 LSU | Michigan |
| December 30th | Duke’s Mayo Bowl | Kentucky | Wake Forest |
| December 29th | Alamo Bowl | #21 Texas | UCLA |
| December 29th | Cheez-It Bowl | #23 TCU | Boston College |
| December 29th | Pinstripe Bowl | Minnesota | Pittsburgh |
| December 29th | Fenway Bowl | UTSA | Memphis |
| December 28th | Guaranteed Rate Bowl | Tennessee | Oklahoma State |
| December 28th | Holiday Bowl | NC State | California |
| December 28th | Liberty Bowl | Missouri | West Virginia |
| December 28th | First Responder Bowl | Houston | Liberty |
| December 28th | Birmingham Bowl | Arkansas | UCF |
| December 27th | Military Bowl | Florida State | Eastern Michigan |
| December 27th | Quick Lane Bowl | Rice | Ohio |
| December 25th | Camellia Bowl | Louisiana | Buffalo |
| December 24th | Hawaii Bowl | Tulsa | Hawaii |
| December 23rd | Union Home Mortgage Bowl | Mississippi State | SMU |
| December 22nd | Armed Forces Bowl | Army | Baylor |
| December 21st | Frisco Bowl | Air Force | Texas State |
| December 21st | Idaho Potato Bowl | San Jose State | Toledo |
| December 20th | Myrtle Beach Bowl | Western Michigan | #13 Coastal Carolina |
| December 18th | New Orleans Bowl | Appalachian State | Florida Atlantic |
| December 18th | LA Bowl | Stanford | Nevada |
| December 18th | LendingTree Bowl | Kansas State | Central Michigan |
| December 18th | Independence Bowl | BYU | UAB |
| December 18th | New Mexico Bowl | Wyoming | Louisiana Tech |
| December 18th | Boca Raton Bowl | San Diego State | Southern Miss |
| December 17th | Cure Bowl | New Mexico | FIU |
| December 17th | Bahamas Bowl | Marshall | Kent State |
Fenway Bowl! LA Bowl!!! And they added the Myrtle Beach Bowl last year. And now with the new 12-team playoff on the horizon there may be downsizing. Hilarious. At least Canadians can see most of the bowl games as per usual. Well, as long as the specialty packs cooperate. Here’s some notes on the wacky fun-time bowl season predictions:
- I have three games predicted between ranked teams: Florida-Penn State in the Citrus, Ole Miss-Miami in the Gator, & Northwestern-Oregon in the Las Vegas. Really good games that you honestly would rarely get to see. This is really what bowl season always used to be about (at least on the field).
- I’m not even bothering with showing you which tie-ins couldn’t be satisfied or which bowls have teams with 5-7 records (there are a few). Trying to decipher how bowl season will shape up is difficult as is going into December. Imagine how difficult (or near impossble) it is to do now. Showing you all that info doesn’t matter much to be honest.
- Some of the better matchups include:
- the three ranked-on-ranked matchups mentioned above
- Auburn-Indy in the Outback Bowl
- Georgia-Iowa in the Texas Bowl
- BYU-UAB in the Independence Bowl
- Louisiana-Buffalo in the Camellia Bowl
- Texas-UCLA in the Alamo Bowl
- Virginia Tech-Utah in the Sun Bowl
- Now, the naming rights to the Arizona Bowl has gone to Barstool Sports. Interesting and not totally surprising. What is surprising is that it won’t air on regular television as far as I know. It will, as of this point, air on Barstool Sports’ website (which you would need to pay to see the game I believe). That’s the weird part and I wonder what kind of viewership they will get. Then again it is the Arizona Bowl so it’s not like they were getting a ton of viewers to begin with having it air on CBS Sports Network in the past.
The College Football Playoff semi-final games should actually both be good for once. Bama-tOSU should be a classic with the Tide pulling out the win. The other one should also be relatively close but the Sooners will finally get their semi-final win and their first berth in the national championship in the playoff era. But the winning streak will end in the national championship as I have Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide winning their second straight championship and their third in five seasons.
Next up is the post where I actually make some pretty good predictions: the Coaching Hot Seat Report. After that is a post I always do horrifically bad at for some reason, the Heisman Predictions. After that I might as well do some NFL predictions which are also historically kinda bad. We are 26 days away from the start of the college football season but at least now we have some actual football on the horizon to get us in the football watching mood…not that I usually need that but watching live football is gonna feel great after over six months of none. And soon enough I will have a schedule up for Week Zero. Will be interesting to see what ends up going to the specialty pack and if the specialty pack even starts that day. Wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t. Why? Because fuck you that’s why. Enjoy your Civic Holiday if you are actually celebrating it (by being civic-minded I guess).
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