Some may say it is too early to talk about bowl games. Those people would be very, very wrong. You can never, ever talk about bowl games too early and you can never, ever have too many bowl games. Give us all the bowls!
Guessing who will be playing who in what bowl at this point of the year, a couple of weeks before Week 1 has even kicked off is another challenge.
But that hasn’t stopped CBS Sports from offering their final preseason 2024 bowl projections, which include the Iowa Hawkeyes.
CBS Sports has the Hawkeyes headed back to a familiar place. They are sending Iowa to the Reliaquest Bowl in Tampa, Florida on New Year’s Eve.
They have Iowa taking on the Missouri Tigers of the SEC on December 31 at 11:00 a.m. CT. Missouri finished last season 11-2 punctuated with a Cotton Bowl win over Ohio State. They start 2024 ranked as No. 11 in the country.
The Reliaquet Bowl is formerly known as the Outback Bowl and is one that the Hawkeyes are extremely familiar with. Iowa has played in the Outback Bowl in Tampa six times since 2004. They are 3-3, all against SEC opponents.
This projection obviously paints the picture that the Hawkeyes are on the outside looking in on the newly expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.
CBS Sports has projected that field, in order of No. 1 to No. 12, to be Georgia, Ohio State, Utah, Florida State, Texas, Oregon, Alabama, Texas A&M, Penn State, Miami (FL), Kansas State, and Boise State stealing the Group of Five bid.
Georiga, Ohio State, Utah, and Florida earn the byes while Texas hosts Boise State, Texas A&M hosts Penn State, Oregon hosts Kansas State, and Alabama hosts Miami (FL).
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