College Football Bowl Projections 2018: Michigan falls out of playoff in Week 13
December 27
Walk-On’s Independence Bowl: Duke vs. San Diego State*
1:30 pm ET, ESPN – Shreveport, Louisiana
New Era Pinstripe Bowl: Boston College vs. Wisconsin
5:15 pm ET, ESPN – New York, New York
Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl: Oklahoma State vs. Virginia Tech*
9 pm ET, ESPN – Houston, Texas
December 28
Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl: Miami (FL) vs. Auburn
1:30 pm ET, ESPN – Nashville, Tennessee
Camping World Bowl: West Virginia vs. Syracuse
5:15 pm ET, ESPN – Orlando, Florida
Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl: Fresno State vs. Louisiana
5:30 pm ET, CBSSN – Tuscon, Arizona
Valero Alamo Bowl: Texas vs. Utah
9 pm ET, ESPN – San Antonio, Texas
The skinny
Miami helped themselves in bowl positioning the last two weeks with consecutive wins over Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh led by their swarming defense. The Hurricanes still have little offense to speak of, but they haven’t needed much to subdue their last two opponents. The Music City Bowl is far from where the Hurricanes (or their projected opponent) wanted to be coming into this season, but the Music City Bowl is better than no bowl at all.
West Virginia came agonizingly close to knocking off Oklahoma, but two defensive touchdowns by the Sooners tilted the advantage in their favor. The loss, combined with their loss to Oklahoma State last week, knocked the Mountaineers out of the Big 12 Championship picture, and out of the New Year’s Six as well.
Syracuse has been the second best team in an ACC full of mediocrity. Six ACC teams finished 7-5, with Clemson being the only legitimate contender among them. Still, Dino Babers deserves a ton of praise for leading the Orange to a nine win season, with the opportunity to get a 10th in the bowl game.
Texas can capture the Big 12 title by knocking off Oklahoma for the second time this season. The Longhorns looked shaky, but ultimately came out on top at Kansas to clinch a spot in the conference championship game. Unfortunately for Texas, it’ll take winning the Big 12 to lift them into the New Year’s Six.