The 2017 college football season is already upon us and it’s never too early to look at the New Year’s Six bowl projections.
Every place has to have a starting point and for the 2017-18 New Year’s Six bowl projections, this is where we begin. The following bowl projections are a starting point to what will be a wild and crazy college football season. Things could (and probably will) dramatically after the first week but like in seasons past, we just may end up at the same spot we were to start the season.
In the words of CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, “stand by for the following projection.”
Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic
Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic: Oklahoma (at-large) vs. Stanford (at-large)
Where: AT&T Stadium (Dallas, Texas)
When: Dec. 29 at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN
As of the season’s opening projection, I do not have the Big 12 making the playoff but these things can change as you know. With Oklahoma winning the Big 12, they will be headed to the Cotton Bowl based on location where they would face at-large participant Stanford. The Cardinal have a chance to move into a higher at-large spot taken by Wisconsin or fellow Pac-12 member Washington (spoiler alert). Oklahoma’s high flying offense against the pro style, run first offense of Stanford should be a fun contrast and would offer a nice opening game to the 2017 New Year’s Six schedule.
Path to the Cotton Bowl: For Oklahoma, seeing as they are the projected and defending Big 12 champion, if the conference does not get in the playoff this is where they would go. The Big 12 has always used the Cotton and Fiesta as landing spots for the league but with the Rose being a playoff game, the Fiesta gets a Big Ten.
Stanford, being in the non-champion pool at this point has a chance to move practically anywhere across the New Year’s Six map, this is just their starting point. It is very likely that a team with three teams in the New Year’s Six will find the lowest ranked of the group sitting here when it’s all said and done.
Teams to look out for: Oklahoma State, Kansas State, TCU, Washington, USC, UCLA, Utah