College Football Playoff, New Year’s Six Bowl projections after Week 8

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EUGENE, OR – OCTOBER 22: Puddles the Oregon Ducks mascot does cheers during the second half at Autzen Stadium on October 22, 2022 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Tom Hauck/Getty Images) /

Rose Bowl

Oregon v Michigan

For the fourth straight week, we hold firm on our projection for the 109th Rose Bowl Game.

Head coach Dan Lanning got his first statement win of his coaching career, as his now 8th ranked Oregon Ducks dominated UCLA in a top ten showdown.

The defense has continued to improve and held up against a great UCLA offense. It’s the offense, and the growth from week 1’s loss to Georgia 49-3, that has the Ducks thinking big. Bo Nix, the much-maligned quarterback, had one of the best games of the week in all of college football, going for over 300 total yards and five touchdowns in a big game.

The Ducks may not be the PAC-12’s best chance at making the playoffs, but they’re the frontrunners for representing the conference in the Rose Bowl in my eyes.

Meeting the Ducks in Pasadena are the Wolverines of Michigan. The Wolverines enjoyed a bye week, after making a statement last weekend, overwhelming a good Penn State team 41-17.

With their bye week behind them, the Wolverines will have three easy conference games before a brutal end to the season, taking on likely Big Ten West champs Illinois and then the epic matchup at Ohio State.

Here, we are projecting the Wolverines to fall short in the Big Game, but make their way to the Rose Bowl. Does Harbaugh finally get the big bowl win, or does Oregon win the granddaddy of them all in Dan Lanning’s first season?

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