College Football Bowl Projections 2018: Chaos averted in Week 11
Week 11 did not bring chaos to the College Football Playoff picture, but there were shakeups in the midst of this week’s college football bowl projections.
2018 seemed to be headed toward all out chaos just a few short weeks ago, but the last few weeks have reaffirmed college football’s status quo as the same contenders remain at the top of the college football world.
Alabama and Clemson flexed their muscles once again against overmatched ranked foes, further separating themselves from the rest of the pack.
Week 11 has historically, at least in the playoff era, brought upsets and chaos to the ranks. In every year of the playoff up to this point, at least three top 10 teams have all gone down. This week, the Top 10 went a perfect 10-0. The biggest upsets of the week came with No. 11 Kentucky and No. 14 NC State dropping games to unranked opponents.
It’s looking likely now that we will have too many bowl eligible teams and not enough bowls. This week, projected six win teams UL Lafayette and Nevada are on the outside looking in. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was perusing the NCAA’s APR scores because I didn’t think there would be enough bowl eligible teams, but I underestimated how thoroughly middling so many teams would be this season.
One of the more interesting stories is that it seems likely that both Florida State and Virginia Tech, teams which boast the two longest bowl streaks in college football, seem likely to now miss a bowl game. At 4-6, the ‘Noles would have to beat both Boston College and Florida in order to garner eligibility.
At 4-5, Virginia Tech needs to beat both Miami and Virginia at home to get to a bowl game. The Hokies decided against trying to reschedule their cancelled game with ECU for hopes of playing in the ACC Championship game on the first weekend of December. That ship has long since sailed off into the distance, so don’t be surprised if they’re frantically working the phones now to try to find a willing partner to come to Blacksburg that weekend as they attempt to preserve their 25-year bowl streak.
There’s a minor change in this week’s New Year’s Six, as well as some matchup changes throughout the projections. Let’s take a look at this week’s bowl projections: