College Football Bowl Projections 2018: Chaos averted in Week 11
December 21
Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl: UAB vs. Cincinnati
12:30 pm ET, ESPN – Nassau, Bahamas
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: Boise State vs. Northern Illinois
4 pm ET, ESPN – Boise, Idaho
December 22
Birmingham Bowl: Memphis vs. Toledo*
Noon ET, ESPN – Birmingham, Alabama
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl: Houston vs. Army*
3:30 pm ET, ESPN – Fort Worth, Texas
Dollar General Bowl: Buffalo vs. Appalachian State
7 pm ET, ESPN – Mobile, Alabama
Hawai’i Bowl: MTSU vs. Hawai’i
10:30 pm ET, ESPN – Honolulu, Hawai’i
December 26
SERVPRO First Responder Bowl: North Texas vs. San Diego State*
1:30 pm ET, ESPN – Dallas, Texas
Quick Lane Bowl: Georgia Tech vs. Minnesota
5:15 pm ET, ESPN – Detroit, Michigan
Cheez-It Bowl: Arizona State vs. Baylor
9 pm ET, ESPN – Phoenix, Arizona
The skinny
Boise State has largely played uninspired football this season, looking far from the traditional murder smurf Broncos that have run roughshod over the group of five. They put it together on Friday night, however, as they rallied from a 17-3 deficit to knock off Fresno State 24-17. The win keeps Boise’s Mountain West championship hopes alive as the Mountain division still runs through their blue turf. In two weeks, Utah State will come to Boise for the division title, with the winner likely taking on Fresno State in the conference championship game, barring an unforeseen road loss to New Mexico next week.
Georgia Tech secured bowl eligibility this week by sending Miami further into despair. Paul Johnson‘s Yellow Jackets have quietly won five of their last six games after a 1-3 start, showing marked improvement from week-to-week. They take on Virginia next week, before getting the opportunity to be a major spoiler in Athens against bitter rival Georgia.
Arizona State clinched bowl eligibility by hanging on to a 31-28 win over UCLA for their third straight win. The Sun Devils have back-to-back road games against Oregon and Arizona to finish the regular season, and are very much alive in the PAC-12 South race. They’ll need a Utah loss to Colorado next week in order to overtake the Utes, but Herm Edwards has been far from the disaster in Tempe that most pundits expected him to be. Long-term success is still very much to be determined, but his first season back on the sidelines has been a moderate success.