Week 14 College Football Bowl Projections
Entering the final weekend, there are 83 bowl-eligible teams for 82 bowl spots. The good news: no teams with losing records will be needed to fill any bowls. The bad news: one 6-6 bowl-eligible Group of Five team will not play in a bowl.
So, who will? As far as the College Football Playoff, I’m projecting — and this is dangerous — that the favorites will win their conference title games: Georgia over Alabama (SEC), Oklahoma State over Baylor (Big 12), Michigan over Iowa (Big Ten) and Cincinnati over Houston (AAC).
If that happens, I’m projecting the College Football Playoff semifinals will feature No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 4 Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl and No. 2 Michigan vs. No. 3 Oklahoma State in the Cotton Bowl.
There are obviously dozens (hundreds?) of chaos scenarios besides what I listed above, but I’m going with the most likely outcome.
In that case, rounding out the New Year’s Six bowls would be: Utah vs. Ohio State (Rose), Alabama vs. Baylor (Sugar), Ole Miss vs. Pitt (Peach) and Michigan State vs. Notre Dame (Fiesta).
The College Football Playoff pairings will be announced on Sunday along with the remaining bowl matchups, although three teams have already officially accepted bids: East Carolina to the Military and Middle Tennessee vs. Toledo in the Bahamas Bowl.
Each bowl projection includes the projected point spread for each game based on Action Network senior writer Collin Wilson’s updated college football betting power ratings.
Updated College Football Bowl Game Predictions
CFP Semifinals
New Year's Six Bowls
Other Bowls
Teams highlighted and in bold have officially accepted bowl bids.
* The highest-rated champion from the Group of Five conferences (American, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West and Sun Belt) will be selected to play in the Fiesta Bowl if it does not qualify for College Football Playoff.
