TSHQ’s 1-Day Early Bowl Projections

Posted by on December 4th, 2011


National Championship Game: I said before this week that Oklahoma State’s only chance at the NCG was a blowout win over Oklahoma and Clemson beating Virginia Tech. Both of those happened, so I have to stick by my statement. Oklahoma State will be a consensus computer #2, so they will need to be withing 30 votes of Alabama in the Coaches’ Poll and 58 votes in the Harris. We will get a good indicator of if this will happen when the Coaches’ Poll debuts at around 12:30 Eastern on Sunday. But I think Oklahoma State made their statement and that fan and voter dislike of a rematch will move Oklahoma State into the game.
LSU vs. Oklahoma State

Rose Bowl: The Rose is the easiest bowl to predict. As long as no team is in the NCG, it’s the winner of the Big Ten against the Pac 12. That means it will be Oregon and Wisconsin this year.
Wisconsin vs. Oregon

Orange Bowl: The ACC champ is automatic, and Clemson earned their way in with their win in the ACC championship Game. The Orange Bowl has last pick of the at-larges, and since I don’t think that TCU will qualify that means that they are left with the Big East champion. The Big East rules for a 3-way tiebreaker in which each team is 1-1 against the others states that the highest-ranked BCS team will get the conference’s automatic bid. Barring any voter uprising to put Cincinnati in the game, that means that it will be West Virginia.
Clemson vs. West Virginia

Fiesta Bowl: Since we are projecting Oklahoma State to jump into the NCG, that means that the Sugar Bowl will get the first replacement team. The Fiesta will then get two straight picks. The Sugar Bowl will take Alabama. The Fiesta will take Michigan as one of their two picks. The Wolverines are just too valuable to pass up. I think that Michigan will be safe even if Baylor jumps them, as they will move ahead of Oklahoma after the Sooners’ blowout loss. The only other real candidates for BCS at-larges will be Stanford (who is guaranteed an at-large) and Boise State. I think that TCU will only rise to #17 in the BCS because I think they will get jumped from behind by Clemson. I think the pull of Andrew Luck will be too much to pass up, not to mention that a Big Ten vs. Pac 12 high-profile bowl matchup is always juicy.
Michigan vs. Stanford

Sugar Bowl: With Alabama not making it into the NCG, the Sugar will take #3 and SEC school Alabama as their first replacement pick. There really won’t be many options for their second pick. None of Kansas State, Virginia Tech, and Houston (and maybe Baylor if they crack the top 14) are particularly good draws and none will draw much interest against Alabama. I think that Boise State is really the only viable option that the Sugar has left. I’m sure that they would love a bigger draw, but there really isn’t one out there at the moment. Kansas state is the only real viable threat to Boise getting the bid at this point, but I think Boise is a more valuable draw (barely) at the moment.
Alabama vs. Boise State

Chik-Fil-A Bowl: Virginia Tech vs. Florida

Champ Sports Bowl: Florida State vs. Notre Dame

Sun Bowl: Georgia Tech vs. Utah

Belk Bowl: North Carolina State vs. Louisville

Music City Bowl: Virginia vs. Vanderbilt

Independence Bowl: North Carolina vs. Air Force

Military Bowl: Wake Forest vs. Iowa State

Pinstripe Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Texas A&M

Liberty Bowl: Rutgers vs. Mississippi State

Beef O’ Brady’s Bowl: Pittsburgh vs. FIU

Capital One Bowl: Michigan State vs. South Carolina

Outback Bowl: Georgia vs. Nebrasksa

Gator Bowl: Ohio State vs. Auburn

Insight Bowl: Iowa vs. Baylor

Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas: Penn State vs. Missouri

TicketCity Bowl: Purdue vs. Tulsa

Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl: Illinois vs. Toledo

Cotton Bowl Classic: Kansas State vs. Arkansas

Alamo Bowl: Oklahoma vs. Washington

Holiday Bowl: Texas vs. California

MAACO Bowl Las Vegas: Arizona State vs. TCU

Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl: UCLA vs. Northwestern

BBVA Compass Bowl: Southern Miss vs. Western Kentucky

Hawai’i Bowl: Marshall vs. Nevada

Armed Forces Bowl: Houston vs. BYU

New Orleans Bowl: SMU vs. Louisiana-Lafayette

GoDaddy.com Bowl: Northen Illinois vs. Arkansas State

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: Ohio vs. Utah State

Poinsettia Bowl: Wyoming vs. Louisiana Tech

New Mexico Bowl: San Diego State vs. Temple

If Alabama ends up in the NCG, I think the Fiesta will be Oklahoma State against Stanford and the Sugar will be Boise State against Michigan, with the Rose and the Orange being the same.

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