With Selection Sunday only a few hours away, let’s take a look at one last College Football Playoff projection and the other four New Year’s Six bowls.
We are only hours away from the revealing of the final College Football Playoff rankings for the 2018 NCAA season. Four teams will be playing for a shot at a national title in the national semifinal games. Eight other teams will have the opportunity to play in meaningful New Year’s Six bowls.
Conference championship weekend saw several exciting finishes in Division I football. No. 11 Washington held on to beat No. 17 Utah 10-3 to win the underwhelming Pac-12 on Friday night. A pair of Red River rivals squared off once again to decide the Big 12. No. 5 Oklahoma bested No. 14 Texas to avenge its lone lose off the season to win the Big 12 for the fourth year in a row.
Over in The American, No. 8 UCF mounted a furious comeback to beat unranked Memphis for the second time this season. UCF has not lost a game in over two years. But in what was the most anticipated game of the weekend, No. 1 Alabama overcame a 14-point deficit to beat No. 4 Georgia to win the SEC Championship and stay undefeated.
With the Selection Committee revealing its final Top 25 in less than 24 hours, let’s take a look at the latest major bowl projections for the 2018 postseason. These projections will include all the New Year’s Six bowls, as well as the two that will be part of the College Football Playoff this winter.
New Year’s Six
Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl (Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, GA)
Florida Gators vs. Michigan Wolverines
Two at-large teams will be playing in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta. Florida will get its first opportunity to play in Mercedes-Benz Stadium as arguably the third best team in the SEC this season. Michigan will make a rare trip to Atlanta. Both programs definitely are heading in the right direction under head coaches Dan Mullen and Jim Harbaugh. Expect one of these teams to want this one more than the other. It’ll be interesting to discern all that out.
PlayStation Fiesta Bowl (State Farm Stadium, Glendale, AZ)
UCF Knights vs. LSU Tigers
UCF will get the Group of 5 bid to the New Year’s Six for the second straight season. The Knights were able to overcome a bad start to Memphis in the AAC Championship. Meeting them in the Valley of the Sun would be LSU, probably the fourth-best team in the SEC. Unlike UCF, LSU had spent time in the top-five this season. The Knights not having quarterback McKenzie Milton could see UCF’s impressive winning streak come to an end, assuming LSU is fired up to play in the Fiesta Bowl.
Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual (Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA)
Washington Huskies vs. Ohio State Buckeyes
The Rose Bowl will be its typical matchup of Big Ten winner versus Pac-12 winner. Washington won a bad Pac-12 this season and will likely face Big Ten champion Ohio State in Pasadena. Ohio Sate’s awful road loss to Purdue will have the Buckeyes as one of the first two teams out in the College Football Playoff. However, playing for a Rose Bowl would be a nice consolation prize for them, assuming they get it done versus Northwestern in the Big Ten Championship.
Allstate Sugar Bowl (Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans, LA)
Georgia Bulldogs vs. Texas Longhorns
Georgia lost yet another heartbreaker to Alabama. The Dawgs will be seen as the best two-loss team in the nation and will get to face a four-loss Big 12 runner-up in Texas. Tom Herman has the Longhorns playing better than they have in a decade. Georgia might be bitter about not getting into the Playoff, but playing in the Sugar Bowl is always a huge deal for an SEC team. Let’s just hope Kirby Smart’s bunch doesn’t stay pouty after its frustrating loss to Alabama in Atlanta.
College Football Playoff
Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic (AT&T Stadium, Arlington, TX)
No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide vs. No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners
Undefeated SEC Champion Alabama will be the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff this holiday season. Narrowly beating Georgia helps give the Crimson Tide confidence to go up against Kyler Murray and the high-flying Big 12 Champion Oklahoma offense. The Sooners have won the Big 12 for the fourth year in a row. This would be their third trip to the Playoff. Alabama will be making its fifth-straight trip to the Playoff, poised to go 15-0. The Cotton Bowl could be one for the ages.
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Capital One Orange Bowl (Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, FL)
No. 2 Clemson Tigers vs. No. 3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
A pair of undefeated teams will be meeting down in South Beach. Projected ACC Champion Clemson will be the No. 2 seed and will be favored over national independent No. 3 Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl. This would be Clemson’s fourth-straight ACC Championship and fourth-straight trip to the Playoff, assuming the get it done versus Pittsburgh. Notre Dame is poised to be the first independent team to crash the College Football Playoff party. Like the Cotton Bowl between Alabama and Oklahoma, this national semifinal could go down to the wire.