The college football season is finally here and it's never too early for the first round of bowl projections.

There's 39 postseason contests on the docket this fall, beginning with a five-game appetizer four days before Christmas. The Fiesta and Peach bowls play host to the College Football Playoff semifinal showdowns on Dec. 28 with the national championship game slated a full two weeks later on Jan. 13.

Six games will have conference tie-in changes for the 2019 season, but none of the major bowls are affected. Those include the Hawaii Bowl, the Gasparilla Bowl, the First Responders Bowl, the Armed Forces Bowl, the Boca Raton Bowl and the Frisco Bowl.

Projecting postseason matchups five months out is more of an educated guess than anything else and is one of the more subjective content pieces we handle at 247Sports. They're more or less a reflection of where we think teams will finish in their respective conferences, then placed in matchups based on the bowl selection process with regards to 2019-20 specific tie-ins and league guidelines. There are specific rules to follow in every league.

As we do every year, we'll update our bowl projections at the conclusion of fall practice and then weekly throughout the season — something we've done since 2015. As teams jockey for position by the midseason point, we'll take a more accurate approach to our projections using insight and what we're hearing from sources close to several different bowl committees.

Here's a look at our preseason college football bowl projections for the 2019 season: