College Football Bowl Projections Week 10: Cincinnati hangs on to playoff berth

We’re inching closer and closer to bowl season, which means the College Football Playoff is approaching. With so much fluctuation throughout the weeks, teams continue to interchange in our College Football Bowl Projections. Georgia remains the only lock, meaning the stakes have never been higher for everyone else. That’s what makes it fun, though, and our latest projections feature some high-profile matchups.

College Football Bowl Projections | Week 10

Projecting bowl games is kind of like writing a mock draft — you can guess where teams will go, but for the most part, you don’t actually know where most of them will land. My wish for the future is for bowl games to be more like recruiting.

Specifically, let every bowl game have access to every team, remove the bowl tie-ins, and let intriguing matchups occur more often. I think that would create more excitement for fans, who currently assume they’ll face a team from a certain conference just because that’s how it’s always been done.

In these projections, we stuck with the conferences but also tried to create matchups against similar teams or against squads that could make for a legendary result. It’s not a permanent fix to the postseason — but it’s a start.

Bowl Projections

Analyzing the College Football Bowl Projections

There are so many great games in this group, but we’ll just talk about a few. North Carolina and Tennessee aren’t competing for conference championships, but Sam Howell squaring off with Hendon Hooker would result in a ton of points. Likewise, Carson Strong and Grayson McCall remain two of the best Group of Five quarterbacks who can light up a scoreboard like the best of them.

As long as Florida and Michigan aren’t in the College Football Playoff, it seems like they’re destined to meet in a bowl game. Clemson and Iowa can play elite defense, but neither has been explosive offensively as of late. Meanwhile, Oklahoma State faces Kentucky here in a matchup featuring two teams that don’t get talked about much anymore.

Ole Miss and Pitt both were riding high until this weekend. However, watching Kenny Pickett duel Matt Corral would be must-watch entertainment. Likewise, Virginia and Arizona State have experienced their fair share of frustrations this year. Lastly, UTSA gets a chance to finish their season undefeated against Appalachian State, giving them their best season in school history.

College Football’s New Year’s Six and playoff projections

These are the big ones. Most fans only care about their team, but many clubs don’t make it to these games. Consequently, these are the games that many fans watch outside of their own. Georgia remains the only lock at the top, while everyone else scrambles for the other three spots in the playoff. The New Year’s Six games continue to display volatility, and that trend doesn’t appear to be ending soon.

Ten teams remain in the playoff hunt. However, it feels as if we’re headed towards the same faces returning. Georgia, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Alabama, Notre Dame, Michigan State, and Oregon have all made the playoff in its seven-year history. But lately, it’s been those first four taking turns. Nevertheless, Baylor could avenge their 2014 snub by stunning the Sooners. Wake Forest remains undefeated, but a weak ACC appears to be holding them back.

We’ll stick with the delusion that keeps Cincinnati in the playoff — but only until Tuesday. Not because they don’t deserve to be in it (they do), but because the committee will somehow find a way to keep them out. There are teams behind the Bearcats that still deserve to make the playoff, so they need to keep winning.

Alabama would be a nightmare to face if they didn’t make the playoff, but players opting out of bowl games could become the big topic for Nick Saban’s squad. Baylor proved against Texas that they can handle an explosive offense. Thus, they’d be a good challenge for the Tide. Michigan State and Oregon are the perfect matchup, specifically due to their desire to run the football and play physically.

BYU is proving it can beat up the Pac-12 and the ACC, but what better way to end the season than to face another team who’s proving people wrong in Wake Forest? It’s not guaranteed that a Group of Five (or independent) team takes Cincinnati’s spot here, but BYU’s more than deserving. Meanwhile, Notre Dame hangs onto their one loss but faces a surprising SEC contender in Auburn.

At this point, no one appears worthy to compete with Georgia. The Bulldogs seem destined to win the National Championship, but there’s still time for other top-10 teams to show us something. Consequently, these College Football Bowl Projections continue to fluctuate right up to conference championship weekend. So sit back, and enjoy the chaos of the 2021 season.