College Football Bowl Projections 2019, Week 11: NY6 race intensifies

The race for the New Year’s Six, particularly among the Group of Five, has intensified in the latest version of the college football bowl projections.

The college football bowl projections continue to be fluid, though things continue to sort themselves out week-to-week. While upsets had reigned supreme across college football in recent weeks, with many of the top contenders having a bye week on the opening weekend of November, many things at the top stayed the same.

That did allow the Group of Five to take center stage, and several results had a big impact on the race for that elusive spot in the New Year’s Six. SMU was leading the pack, but Memphis ended the Mustangs’ perfect season on Saturday night in a thrilling contest at the Liberty Bowl that fully lived up to the hype surrounding it.

That game had the biggest impact on the race, but Appalachian State’s surprising home loss on Halloween to Georgia Southern eliminated another contender. The Mountaineers could have staked their claim as the only undefeated team left in the Group of Five, but the loss knocks them out of contention with so many other contenders in the AAC and Mountain West jockeying for position.

There’s a litany of one-loss contenders now. Memphis is probably out in front after the win over SMU, but fellow AAC contenders like Cincinnati, Navy, and SMU are far from out of the race. SMU’s loss was also big for Boise State as the Broncos are now firmly back in the Group of Five race, though the depth of the Mountain West could wear on Boise down the stretch.

While the slate of games this week paled in comparison to what we’ll see next week, the overall football was kind of perfect. We were treated to a delightful slate of close contests, and a few games had major impacts on the race for the top tier bowl games, even if the playoff race remained unaffected with the top four all having byes.

Let’s take a look at how the bowl projections shake out heading into Week 11: