College Football Playoff 2017: New Year’s Six Projections entering Week 9

Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl 

Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl: Washington (Group of Five) vs. Clemson (at-large)
Where: Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta, Ga.)
When: Jan. 1, 2018, at noon ET on ESPN
Last week’s projection: San Diego State vs. TCU

Washington and Clemson both suffered damaging losses and now are in the Peach Bowl and really feeling more like being on the outside looking in. With both teams losing games recently, they find themselves in the back of the line when it comes to the one loss teams. Clemson has a better chance to survive this holding stage of one loss teams while Washington’s fate lines in hoping other one loss teams fall and even then it might not be enough.

One thing that Washington struggled with aside from lack of offense at Arizona State is a seemingly weak schedule in and out of conference. That all changes over the next few weeks as they will face UCLA, Oregon, Stanford and Washington State in a game that could decide the Pac-12 North. The biggest key in all of those is hoping that the Huskies can actually win all of those game and will have to be impressive doing so because the stench of being a one loss team out west is much different from being in the SEC or even ACC.

Week 9 outlook

Clemson falls into the same category as an Ohio State but to a lesser extent. There is good chance that the Tigers may not be in this bowl slot next week but unlike Ohio State, their one loss is still somewhat fresh. Beating Georgia Tech under the lights in Death Valley still carries some weight after all the dust is settled on Saturday night. Washington has a golden opportunity to pick up quality wins and that starts with hosting a hungry UCLA team this week.