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Bowl projections are always somewhat of a crap shoot before the season starts, but that doesn’t stop us from trying to predict what our New Year’s schedule will look like.
The SEC has won six national championships in a row. Will it be able to make it seven in a row? Or will somebody finally be able to knock it off? Let’s find out.
Gildan New Mexico Bowl: Fresno State vs. San Jose State
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: Utah State vs. Western Michigan
San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl: BYU vs. Nevada
Beef O’ Brady’s St. Petersburg Bowl: East Carolina vs. Bowling Green
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl: Tulsa vs. Louisiana Tech
MAACO Las Vegas Bowl: Boise State vs. Cal
Sheraton Hawaii Bowl: Wyoming vs. SMU
Little Caesars Pizza Bowl: Louisiana-Lafayette vs. Toledo
Military Bowl Presented By Northrop Grumman: Notre Dame vs. Miami (OH)
Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl: TCU vs. Washington
Belk Bowl: Pittsburgh vs. Wake Forest
AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl: Missouri vs. Miami (FL)
Russell Athletic Bowl: South Florida vs. Georgia Tech
Meineke Car Care of Texas Bowl: Kansas State vs. Northwestern
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl: Houston vs. Air Force
New Era Pinstripe Bowl: Rutgers vs. Texas Tech
Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl: Navy vs. UCLA
Valero Alamo Bowl: West Virginia vs. Stanford
Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl: Texas vs. Iowa
Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl: Tennessee vs. Virginia
Hyundai Sun Bowl: Utah vs. NC State
AutoZone Liberty Bowl: Mississippi State vs. Central Florida
Chik-fil-A Bowl: Virginia Tech vs. Florida
TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl: Illinois vs. Auburn
TicketCity Bowl: Purdue vs. Tulsa
Outback Bowl: South Carolina vs. Nebraska
Capital One Bowl: Michigan State vs. Georgia
BBVA Compass Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Texas A&M
GoDaddy.com Bowl: Arkansas State vs. Ohio
AT&T Cotton Bowl: Oklahoma State vs. Arkansas
BCS bowls
Discover BCS National Championship Game:LSU vs. Florida State. Florida State may not be one of the best two teams in the country, but its schedule is very soft and the Seminoles have 10 returning starters coming back to what was a very good defense a year ago. We all said last year, “imagine how good LSU could be if it had a quarterback!” Well now it does, and a pretty good one at that in Zach Mettenberger.
Tostitos Fiesta Bowl:USC vs. Oklahoma. USC has depth issues and it will have to beat Oregon twice to get to the national championship. I’m not buying the hype. The Sooners will live up to their tradition of always losing a game or two that they shouldn’t and end up once again in the desert.
Rose Bowl Game presented by Vizio:Oregon vs. Wisconsin. Wisconsin is a factory for offensive linemen, and it should produce yet another powerhouse to block for Heisman candidate Montee Ball. Oregon’s running attack matches up well with USC, and I expect the Ducks to beat the Trojans at least one time out of two to win the Pac-12.
Allstate Sugar Bowl:Alabama vs. Michigan. The Wolverines travel well, so they will get the second nod out of the Big Ten. Denard Robinson is always a wild card, so they could get to Pasadena, but right now I have them here. Bama has to replace too many defensive starters on a very complex defensive scheme. It will have to suffer a little bit from that.
Discover Orange Bowl:Louisville vs. Clemson. The Tigers bring back some great offense with Tajh Boyd and Sammy Watkins coming back. They would present an entertaining option for Miami. Louisville is a quality football team from the Big East, and a Charlie Strong defense matched up against the Clemson offense would be fun to watch.
For complete projected standings from each major conference, how I got to these bowl projections and many more predictions, visit BYUtahInsiders.com.
Trevor Amicone is the founder of BYUtahInsiders.com, which covers BYU, Utah and national college football with weekly polls and bowl projections, opinions and analysis. Follow its new Twitter page at @BYUtahInsiders and Trevor's: @TrevorAmicone
