The ideology and process behind bowl eligibility is a funny thing.
Teams design their schedules to get to six wins because they have strong financial incentives to do so. While the College Football Playoff captures our attention, most teams are just fighting to get to that magic six mark.
And sometimes, it can come down to the very last moments.
Oregon State, at 5-5, probably needed to beat Washington State to get bowl-eligible because it plays Oregon next week. The Beavers held a two-score lead with two minutes left on Saturday, only to give up a touchdown, an onside kick and another touchdown almost as time expired. It likely ended OSU's postseason hopes.
Washington State, on the other hand, secured a postseason bid with the victory.
Below you'll find the projections for every bowl game below, plus projected point spreads on those matchups via our oddsmaker-style power ratings. Action EDGE members can use them to make a line between any two teams.
2019 College Football Bowl Projections
CFP & New Year's Six Bowls
More so than the other bowls, there's still so much to be decided in the New Year's Six space.
- The Big Ten's Rose Bowl bid goes to the highest-ranked team remaining, which could be Penn State assuming Wisconsin beats Minnesota then loses to Ohio State in the title game.
- If Oklahoma wins out and gets into the playoff, Baylor would take the Sugar Bowl spot.
- There's a bunch of teams vying for the Group of Five's top New Year's spot. Memphis has a tough road relative to Boise State or Appalachian State, but the Tigers are the best G5 team, in my opinion.
As for the CFP, here's the scenario I have now. Utah wins out and beats Oregon. Everyone else holds serve. The Utes' schedule, dominance of that schedule (only two games have been decided by single digits) and conference championship will propel them into that No. 4 spot.
Every Other Bowl Game
This is a very strange year for bowl eligibility.
The SEC could have four teams in New Year's Six bowls, and it has just four other bowl-eligible teams right now (Mississippi State can get there with a win on Thursday).
That will leave some of its bowl spots open for six-win MAC or Sun Belt teams that normally get snubbed. Congrats (we think), Eastern Michigan.
A handful of teams need to win this week to get bowl-eligible: Boston College, Michigan State, Mississippi State, TCU, Ohio.
And there are others that we don't have listed but can get to six wins with an upset in Week 14:
- Nebraska
- UL Monroe
- Troy
- Colorado
- Oregon State
- Kent State
- Army
Action EDGE members can use our betting-style power ratings to project point spreads between any two teams, including in remaining regular season games and bowls.
2019 Bowl Game Tie-Ins
Peach Bowl — CFP Semifinal
Fiesta Bowl — CFP Semifinal
Sugar Bowl — SEC vs. Big 12
Rose Bowl — Big Ten vs. Pac-12
Orange Bowl — ACC vs. SEC/Big Ten/ND
Cotton Bowl — at-large vs. at-large
Mobile Bowl — MAC vs. Sun Belt
Armed Forces Bowl — Big Ten vs. Mountain West
Potato Bowl — MAC vs. Mountain West
Gator Bowl — Big Ten vs. SEC
Birmingham Bowl — American vs. SEC
Citrus Bowl — ACC/Big Ten vs. SEC
Outback Bowl — Big Ten vs. SEC
Alamo Bowl — Big 12 vs. Pac-12
Arizona Bowl — Mountain West vs. Sun Belt
Liberty Bowl — Big 12 vs. SEC
Sun Bowl — ACC vs. Pac-12
Belk Bowl — ACC vs. SEC
Redbox Bowl — Big Ten vs. Pac-12
Music City Bowl — ACC vs. SEC
First Responder Bowl — Big 12 vs. C-USA
Camping World Bowl — ACC vs. Big 12
Cheez-It Bowl — Big 12 vs. Pac-12
Holiday Bowl — Big Ten vs. Pac-12
Texas Bowl — Big 12 vs. SEC
Pinstripe Bowl — ACC vs. Big Ten
Military Bowl — ACC vs. American
Quick Lane Bowl — ACC vs. Big Ten
Independence Bowl — ACC vs. SEC
Hawaii Bowl — BYU vs. American
Gasparilla Bowl — American/ACC vs. C-USA
New Orleans Bowl — C-USA vs. Sun Belt
Las Vegas Bowl — Mountain West vs. Pac-12
Camellia Bowl — MAC vs. Sun Belt
Boca Raton Bowl — American/C-USA/MAC
Cure Bowl — American vs. Sun Belt
New Mexico Bowl — C-USA vs. Mountain West
Frisco Bowl — American vs. C-USA/MAC/Mountain West
Bahamas Bowl — C-USA vs. MAC
