A set of pre-season projections would be incomplete without predictions for post-season bowl games.
Bowl Championship Series:
BCS National Championship Game, New Orleans: USC vs. Oklahoma
USC should make it to this game, a rematch of the 2004-05 Orange Bowl in which the Trojans laid a beating on the Sooners. The Sooners make it here thanks to the Georgia Bulldogs, who take out previously unbeaten LSU in the SEC championship game. I look for USC to win the national championship.
Rose: Michigan (Big 10 champ) vs. LSU (at-large)
Fiesta: Texas (at-large) vs. Hawaii (at-large)
Orange: Virginia Tech (ACC champ) vs. Penn State (at-large)
Sugar: Georgia (SEC champ) vs. Rutgers (Big East champ)
The team that gets royally hosed in this scenario is West Virginia. They are projected to go 11-1, but are passed over in favor of Penn State, Texas and LSU for BCS bowls. The Big East allows their bowl partners to choose Notre Dame over a Big East team if available, and the Gator Bowl would do just that. This relegates 11-1 West Virginia to the Texas Bowl. It also sends 10-2 Louisville to the Papajohns.com Bowl.
Non-BCS bowls:
Citrus: Ohio State vs. South Carolina
Outback: Wisconsin vs. Florida
Gator: Notre Dame vs. Florida State
Cotton: Missouri vs. Arkansas
Holiday: Nebraska vs. UCLA
Chick-fil-A: Clemson vs. Auburn
Insight: Iowa vs. Kansas
Sun: Cal vs. Texas Tech
Independence: Oregon State vs. South Florida (Neither the Big 12 nor the SEC will have enough bowl-eligible teams to fill these slots)
Alamo: Purdue vs. Texas A&M
Texas: West Virginia vs. Oklahoma State
Las Vegas: Arizona State vs. TCU
Emerald: Miami vs. Oregon
New Orleans: Troy vs. Houston
Liberty: Southern Miss vs. Alabama
Papajohns.com: Louisville vs. Memphis
New Mexico: Utah vs. East Carolina (WAC will be unable to fill this slot)
Armed Forces: UTEP vs. Cincinnati (Mountain West will be unable to fill this slot)
Champs Sports: Indiana vs. Georgia Tech
Music City: Maryland vs. Tennessee
Meineke Car Care: Wake Forest vs. Pittsburgh
Poinsettia: Navy vs. BYU
GMAC: Tulsa vs. Northern Illinois
Hawaii: Arizona vs. Fresno State
Humanitarian: Boise State vs. Boston College
Motor City: Toledo vs. Northwestern
International: Pittsburgh vs. Ohio
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2 comments:
Poor Toledo having to play in crummy DET again.
I'd love to see ASU v. TCU, but I think TCU will be in a better bowl game than that.
The only way TCU can get to a better bowl game is to make the BCS, unless the MWC pulls some major strings.
The MWC is tied to the Las Vegas, Poinsettia, New Mexico, and Armed Forces bowls. Pretty lame, worse than the Big East. Las Vegas gets first pick, and BYU went there last year. So, they'll pick TCU.
It really is BCS or bust for the Frogs.
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