College Football Bowl Game Projections Week 15: Three SEC Teams in New Year’s Six

We’re now down to Conference Championship Week and just a few regular season games left. And the bowl games are still not solved. There are so many teams that have made it yo 6-6 or 7-5 this year, and it looks like there will be enough bowl slots to fill them all.

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We still stand by the notion that far too many teams make bowl games, but we also understand that money drives everything. Right now, the New Year’s Six are still up for grabs in some spots, and it looks like we’ll have a few three-loss teams in there.

And for the rest of the games, we had to throw a few tie-ins out the window based on the number of teams from each conference that look like they’ll be going bowling. But we’re still taking location into account, so here are our Bowl Game Projections for Week 15 of the College Football Season.

Regular Bowl Games

As you can see, we had to add spots for the SEC because 12 teams made bowl games this year, including six from the SEC West. At the same time, only eight Pac-12 teams made bowl games when we thought three weeks ago that there would be 10 teams making it. And also, shockingly, there are 11 ACC teams now bowl eligible thanks to a late-season collapse by Miami.

Here is how the number of teams that made it in from different conferences affects our New Year’s Six Bowl Games.

New Year’s Six Bowl Games

College Football Playoff Match-Ups

Our College Football Playoff analysis for this week can be seen by clicking here. As you can see, when factoring in those games plus the New Year’s Six Games, we have three SEC teams, two ACC teams, two Pac-12 teams, two Big Ten teams, two Big 12 teams, and Boise State as the Group of Five team.

Starting with that, Boise State was the obvious choice to represent the Group of Five. The Broncos are 10-2, beat Colorado State, and Marshall lost. They also have a strength of schedule on par with the rest of the Power Five teams in college football, so playing TCU in the Cotton Bowl in a rematch of 2010 when both teams were undefeated would be a great match-up.

Inevitably, there are going to be three-loss teams in there, but we feel safe at least saying that Mississippi State and Michigan State are locks to get in but not make the College Football Playoff. They’re both 10-2, in the Top 10, and won’t fall this weekend. Meanwhile, Ole Miss has the toughest strength of schedule among any three-loss team in the country, so it’ll be well-deserved if they get in. Arizona, Wisconsin, and Georgia Tech will also get credit for making their conference championship games, even if they lose them.

And TCU and Baylor are both in if they win.

Baylor and Mississippi State meeting in the Peach Bowl would be a great match-up. Ole Miss meeting Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl would be amazing as well. And that leaves Georgia Tech and Michigan State to play each other in the Orange Bowl, which would be exciting.

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