College Football 2017: New Year’s Six bowl projections entering Week 6
Orange Bowl
Capital One Orange Bowl: Miami (ACC) vs. Ohio State (Big Ten/SEC/Notre Dame)
Where: Hard Rock Stadium (Miami, Fla.)
When: Dec. 30 at 8:00 p.m. ET on ESPN
Last week’s projection: Virginia Tech vs. Penn State
Welcome to the ACC wheel of confusion (yes, again).
Last week, I talked about the craziness that the ACC could potentially offer. You know, the situation where Virginia Tech was in the Orange Bowl and there is a very good chance that if they lost to Clemson, Miami would slip into the ACC’s Orange Bowl spot this week. So, did it happen?
https://twitter.com/ClemsonFB/status/914333803912613888
Game. pic.twitter.com/q456GXUqf7
— Miami Hurricanes (@MiamiHurricanes) September 30, 2017
It did.
And you know what Miami’s prize is for making it to the Week 6 Orange Bowl projection? A trip to Tallahassee and facing off against Florida State. So, let’s just say Miami loses, who would take their place? It would be Louisville, at least this week. If Miami wins, the Canes stay in South Beach for an apparent home game come late December.
With the loss by USC, Penn State moves out of the Orange Bowl and now the new opponent for Miami is the Ohio State Buckeyes. Although the SEC and Notre Dame would also have a chance to be in this spot, for now, I would place Ohio State here since Georgia is locked into the Cotton Bowl for now.
Week 6 Impact: We already know about Miami traveling to Florida State and the impact it could have if Miami were to lose. Ohio State has a much more favorable matchup this week against a wounded and injured Maryland team. However, the next two games for Ohio State consist of a trip to Nebraska and hosting red hot Penn State. If Ohio State can win the next trio of games and get some help along the way, we may be talking about a one-loss Ohio State team possibly making a case to be in the playoff.