College Football Playoff Projections: Week 14 Rankings and Bowl Forecast
There are 79 bowl-eligible teams. Georgia Southern Eagles beat Appalachian State in double overtime to earn their way to a bowl game. Rice Owls and UNLV Rebels will play in a postseason. They will get in on Academic Progress Rate (APR) score. There are 82 spots in the bowl season field. Underlined teams have accepted invitations to the postseason bowl games. They are: Miami-Ohio, UAB, Buffalo, Crisp, UNL, Troy, New Mexico, Fresno State, Myrtle Beach, South Alabama, UTSA, Boca Raton, Toledo, Coastal Carolina, Western Kentucky, SMU, Marshall, Connecticut, Memphis, Hawaii, San Diego State and New Orleans.
Missouri Tigers moved up in the rankings after their 29-27 victory over Arkansas. Wake Forest went down after a disappointing season. The Deacs lost at Duke. They will play in either the Military or the Orange Bowl. They have allowed at least 30 points in five straight games. Their last victory came in 2014 Citrus Bowl against Florida.
Pitt Panthers beat Miami 42-16 to move up in the rankings. Iowa Hawkeyes lost to Nebraska 24-17 to fall out of the Big Ten championship race. Carolina Panthers are moving up. Carolina is moving down. Texas is coming up, while Liberty is going down, and so is Duke. There are also some games in Music City. The last game is in which Arkansas plays Maryland. It's a game between the 6-6 team. They are playing for a bowl spot.
Purdue Boilermakers are moving up after winning the Big Ten championship. Texas A&M is sliding down after losing to 4-7 Texas. LSU's season ended with losses to both current and former coach Jimbo Fisher's teams. The Tigers are not in the playoff conversation. They are in a New Year's Six bowl. The Aggies are expected to be in next year's preseason Top 25. Florida State is going to play Florida. South Carolina is playing South Dakota. Utah is against Utah.
There are three tiers of college football playoffs. The winner of the Orange, Sugar and Rose bowls will be announced on December 30th. There are also two conferences with playoff implications. If Georgia and Michigan hold serve in their conference championship games, Penn State will get the "wild card" spot in the Cotton Bowl. If LSU loses to Georgia, there will probably be an Alabama-Clemson Orange Bowl in January. It's also possible that there would be a marquee game between Alabama and Clemson.
There are only four games in the college football playoff this weekend. Georgia, USC, Michigan and TCU are playing for the championship. Ohio State, Alabama, Tennessee and Penn State are out. The future 12-team playoff format would be fun. Clemson and North Carolina could play for a spot in it. If the current format was adopted, Clemson could get a first-round bye. It would also force their current opponent to play an extra game.
The breakdown of bowl projections is listed alphabetically by conference. New Year's Six games are italicized and underlined. American Athletic has seven teams. Atlantic Coast has nine teams: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Louisville, North Carolina, NC State and Pittsburgh. Big 12 has eight teams, including Baylor, Kansas, Texas, TCU, and Texas Tech. Mid-American has six teams and the others are: Bowling Green, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Miami-Ohio, Ohio, Quick Lane, Utah, Wyoming and Washington State. Sun Belt has 7 teams including Coastal Carolina (New Orleans), Georgia Southern (Myrtle Beach), Louisiana-Lafayette (Camellia), Marshall (Armed Forces), South Alabama (Boca Raton), Southern Miss (Frisco), Troy (LendingTree)
