Predictions for College Football Playoff and New Years Six bowl games

Cotton Bowl: No. 10 USC (-1.5) vs No. 16 Tulane (Jan. 2, 1 PM EST, ESPN)

Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams will lead USC into the Cotton Bowl against Tulane and there shouldn’t be a question of motivation for either team.

The Trojans haven’t been in a New Years Six bowl game since Sam Darnold was the quarterback and this is Tulane’s first trip to the New Years Six.

The Group of Five teams always treat this as more of a national championship and Tulane has already beaten Big 12 champion Kansas State on the road.

It’s basically a pick-em game but I’m going to go with Tulane. Group of Five teams tend to do well in their NY6 bowl game and it can be hard to recover after missing out on the College Football Playoff as USC just did.

People think of defense when they think of Tulane but Michael Pratt had 25 touchdown passes this season and I don’t really trust the Trojan defense all that much.

Tulane 31, USC 28  

Rose Bowl: No. 11 Penn State vs No. 8 Utah (-2.5) (Jan. 2, 5 PM EST, ESPN)

Outside of the College Football Playoff bowl games, this is probably the one bowl I’m looking forward to the most. The Rose Bowl is still the Rose Bowl and it will have a traditional Pac-12 vs Big Ten matchup as the Pac-12 champs will take on 10-2 Penn State.

Both teams should be motivated and there aren’t a bunch of opt-outs. Each team should be in the playoff — a 12-team playoff and if it were 2024, they would be.

Until then, they will have to settle for the Rose Bowl. But after losing the game to Ohio State a year ago, it would be a huge achievement for the Utes to win the Rose Bowl this year and you can feel how important it is. It also might push them toward a top-5 finish.

For Penn State, it would be the first Rose Bowl win since 1994. A victory would also quiet some of the criticism of head coach James Franklin in big games in addition to being a great way for Sean Clifford to finish off his career.

That being said, I’m taking Cam Rising and the Utes to pull out a thriller 34-31.