College Football enters Week 5 of the season, with conference play beginning in earnest around the country.
A lot is going to change across the college landscape over the next two months, but that doesn’t mean we can’t project how the expanded College Football Playoff and other bowl games around the country would look as things stand today.
Ahead of Week 5, Erick Smith and Paul Myerberg of USA TODAY put out College Football Playoff projections – which included two ACC teams – as well as non playoff bowl projections.
ACC draws pair of SEC battles in CFP
Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers snuck into the latest College Football Playoff projections, earning the No. 9 seed where they would face the No. 8 Tennessee Volunteers in Knoxville – with the winner taking on Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.
The ACC winner in these projections is the Miami Hurricanes, earning the No. 3 seed and a bye into the CFP quarterfinals, where they play the winner of the Alabama vs. Iowa State game in the Peach Bowl.
Other Bowl Games
In addition to Clemson and Miami, 10 other ACC programs were projected to play in bowl games this season. One of them, Cal, is taking a spot as the Pac-12 representative in the Independence Bowl, part of a rule agreement for legacy Pac-12 programs that extends through the 2025 season.
Here is a look at the other bowl projections and matchups for ACC schools:
NC State Wolfpack vs. Iowa Hawkeyes (Duke’s Mayo)
Pittsburgh Panthers vs. Washington Huskies (Sun)
Army Black Knights vs. California Golden Bears* (Independence)
North Carolina Tar Heels vs. Memphis Tigers (Military)
Louisville Cardinals vs. Oklahoma State Cowboys (Pop-Tarts)
Syracuse Orange vs. Wisconsin Badgers (Pinstripe)
SMU Mustangs vs. Tulane Green Wave (Fenway)
Duke Blue Devils vs. Washington State Cougars (Holiday)
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets vs. Kentucky Wildcats (Birmingham)
Virginia Tech Hokies vs. South Florida Bulls (Gasparilla)
Who missed the cut?
Easily the most surprising absence in the latest projections is Boston College, who is 3-1 to start the season with wins over Florida State and Michigan State and a six point loss to then No. 11 Missouri.
Boston College doesn’t have a challenging schedule, with road games at Virginia, Virginia Tech and SMU and only one ranked opponent, Louisville, remaining. The Eagles should end up bowl eligible, and it’s a surprise to not see them in these projections.
While it is less of a surprise now, tell anyone before the season that Florida State wouldn’t even be projected to make a bowl game by the end of September and they would think you were crazy. However, a 1-3 start and an uninspiring win over Cal has Mike Norvell’s team on the outside looking in as of now.
The three other non-bowl teams in the ACC are Virginia, Stanford, and Wake Forest. No surprises there.