The penultimate release of the College Football Playoff Rankings has caused a change to the bowl projections, especially with regard to the College Football Playoff and other New Year's Six games.
The most important thing we learned from the committee is that it still likes Oklahoma over Ohio State. That was more likely to be true next week than this week because of the quality of each team's opponents in their respective conference championship games. Now, if all the favorites win this week, Oklahoma is the most likely fourth playoff team.
That moves Ohio State over to the Rose Bowl to face the Pac-12 champion. Washington is favored to beat Utah. It also means another Big 12 team is needed for the Sugar Bowl, and I expect that to be Texas, which is ahead of West Virginia this week.
Florida and LSU are still in the top 10 of the rankings, pretty much guaranteeing each of them a place in the New Year's Six if the favorites win this weekend. They still need to be split between the Peach and Fiesta Bowls. UCF is still in the Fiesta Bowl because the Peach has had the Group of Five team twice already, including last season. No. 7 Michigan lands the final spot in the Peach Bowl.
2019 College Football Playoff
| Date | Game / Loc. | Time / TV | Matchup | Prediction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Jan. 7 | National Championship | 8 p.m. | Title game | Semifinal winners |
Dec. 29 | Cotton Bowl | 4/8 p.m. | Semifinal | (1) Alabama vs. (4) Oklahoma |
Dec. 29 | Orange Bowl | 4/8 p.m. | Semifinal | (2) Clemson vs. (3) Notre Dame |
Selection committee bowl games
| Date | Bowl / Loc. | Time / TV | Matchup | Prediction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Jan. 1 | Sugar | 8:45 p.m. | SEC vs. Big 12 | Georgia vs. Texas |
Jan. 1 | Rose | 5 p.m. | Big Ten vs. Pac-12 | Ohio State vs. Washington |
Jan. 1 | Fiesta | 1 p.m. | At-large vs. At-large | LSU vs. UCF |
Dec. 29 | Peach | Noon | At-large vs. At-large | Florida vs. Michigan |
There are currently 82 teams projected for the 78 spots needed for the bowls. Because of primary and secondary agreements with the conferences, I do not have spots to place independents Army and BYU. Army could end up with 10 wins and left at home. Also, Wyoming and Louisiana-Monroe do not have spots in a bowl in these projections.
Check out Jerry Palm's updated college football bowl projections.
