College Football Bowl Projections 2018: Michigan falls out of playoff in Week 13
December 21
Makers Wanted Bahamas Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Marshall
12:30 pm ET, ESPN – Nassau, Bahamas
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: Utah State vs. Ohio
4 pm ET, ESPN – Boise, Idaho
December 22
Birmingham Bowl: Memphis vs. Vanderbilt
Noon ET, ESPN – Birmingham, Alabama
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl: Houston vs. TCU
3:30 pm ET, ESPN – Fort Worth, Texas
Dollar General Bowl: Georgia Southern vs. Northern Illinois
7 pm ET, ESPN – Mobile, Alabama
Hawai’i Bowl: Hawai’i vs. Southern Miss
10:30 pm ET, ESPN – Honolulu, Hawai’i
December 26
SERVPRO First Responder Bowl: North Texas vs. Wake Forest*
1:30 pm ET, ESPN – Dallas, Texas
Quick Lane Bowl: Purdue vs. Virginia
5:15 pm ET, ESPN – Detroit, Michigan
Cheez-It Bowl: Baylor vs. Nevada*
9 pm ET, ESPN – Phoenix, Arizona
The skinny
Memphis rolled past Houston on Black Friday to clinch a spot in the AAC Championship Game, earning a rematch with UCF. The Tigers gave the Knights their biggest scare of the season, leading for most of the way before succumbing by a single point. McKenzie Milton‘s injury certainly changes that matchup, but Memphis has proven that they can go punch-for-punch with a full-strength UCF, and they’d like nothing more than to end the Knights’ nation’s leading winning streak.
The pure joy displayed by Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason after leading the Commodores to a win over Tennessee to garner bowl eligibility is what it’s all about. It was a struggle to get there – at Vanderbilt it always is – but Mason and company eked out six wins. There were more to be had in Nashville as well as the ‘Dores lost by ten or less to Notre Dame, Florida, Kentucky, and Missouri.
A disappointing season in TCU was salvaged somewhat by Gary Patterson and company scraping out a bowl bid by winning three of their last four games. They beat Baylor and Oklahoma State by a touchdown each in the last two weeks to get the requisite six wins. Baylor also garnered a surprising sixth win by knocking off Texas Tech. Matt Rhule engineered a remarkable turnaround in Waco after last season’s 1-11 season.