BOWL PROJECTIONS? AFTER WEEK 2?

Yeah, this happens every week. Quite obviously, these are mostly just wild guesses at this point, though there are at least a few spots we can feel pretty confident in.

Each week, I go through and update a board of projected winners for every FBS game, tally up records, and guess what the Playoff committee and bowl committees would do with the results. Things get closer and closer to eventual accuracy as Selection Sunday nears, but just as importantly, it’s a little weekly fun.

Below, projections for all 40 2018 bowl games. A lot of these will change dramatically over the next three months; if you don’t like where your team is listed, I bet a few wins on the field will change things!

The College Football Playoff

Cotton (Arlington, TX): No. 2 Clemson vs. No. 3 Ohio State

Orange (Miami): No. 1 Auburn vs. No. 4 TCU

You can pencil in Clemson and Ohio State already.

You can pencil in Alabama too, but y’all, it gets really boring to just project the same four obvious teams right up top every week. I think you and I both know the Tide are a likely Playoff team. So let’s rebel against the obvious and pick Auburn to win the football game. I’m also going with TCU until proven incorrect, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop me.

The rest of the New Year’s Six

Sugar (New Orleans): Oklahoma vs. Alabama

Rose (Pasadena, CA): Wisconsin vs. Washington

Peach (Atlanta): Miami vs. Georgia

Fiesta (Glendale, AZ): Boise State vs. Notre Dame

In this year’s rotation, most of these will be based on conference auto-bids, and then we’ll see whether the MWC or AAC champ takes the non-power spot. Due to geography, that’ll likely determine whether the mid-major goes to the Fiesta or Peach. And then there’ll only be a couple at-large spots.

Sure, there’s Mark Richt vs. his old team. Again, these bowl projections will always be slightly biased in the name of fun. (Miami has lost a game, yeah. That happens to virtually everybody.)

Everything else

Citrus (Orlando): Michigan vs. Mississippi State

Outback (Tampa): Penn State vs. LSU

Gator (Jacksonville): Nebraska vs. Missouri

Holiday (San Diego): Michigan State vs. Oregon

Liberty (Memphis): Baylor vs. Arkansas

Military (Annapolis, MD): Navy vs. Florida State

Sun (El Paso): Louisville vs. Utah

Belk (Charlotte): Wake Forest vs. South Carolina

Alamo (San Antonio): Texas vs. Stanford

Arizona (Tucson): Fresno State vs. Cal*

Camping World (Orlando): Virginia Tech vs. West Virginia

Music City (Nashville): NC State vs. Kentucky

Texas (Houston): Oklahoma State vs. Texas A&M

Pinstripe (New York City): Syracuse vs. Minnesota

Independence (Shreveport, LA): Pitt vs. Florida

Cheez-It (Phoenix): Iowa State vs. Arizona State

Quick Lane (Detroit): Georgia Tech vs. Indiana

SERVPRO (Dallas): Northwestern vs. North Texas

Foster Farms (Santa Clara, CA): Iowa vs. USC

Hawaii: Marshall vs. Hawaii

Dollar General (Mobile): Ohio vs. Appalachian State

Armed Forces (Fort Worth): Houston vs. Washington State*

Birmingham: UCF vs. Tennessee

Potato (Boise): EMU vs. Utah State

Bahamas: Southern Miss vs. Buffalo

Gasparilla (Tampa): USF vs. Boston College

Frisco (TX): Memphis vs. Toledo

Boca Raton: Cincinnati vs. FAU

New Orleans: Louisiana Tech vs. Troy

Camellia (Montgomery, AL): NIU vs. Arkansas State

Las Vegas: San Diego State vs. Colorado

Cure (Orlando): Maryland* vs. Georgia Southern

New Mexico (Albuquerque): UAB vs. UNLV

* = Taking another conference’s unfilled bid.

As always, remember bowl ties are not necessarily based on merit. A few conferences have rules that prevent bowls from taking teams with clearly lesser records over more deserving teams, but bowls care about one thing: putting butts in seats. If you beat a bigger program that’s closer to a bowl both of you want, then I have some bad news about who’ll likely get it.

Early on, it’s often hard to find space for everybody. This week, there was no room left over for Colorado State, MTSU, WMU, and Wyoming, but these things change quickly.