Bowl Projections – Page 2 – Syndication Server

Duke football draws former Pac-12 powerhouse in new USA TODAY Sports bowl projections

Ahead of the Week 8 college football schedule, USA TODAY Sports has the Duke Blue Devils penciled in for a bowl battle with Utah.

USA TODAY Sports’ Erick Smith updated his college football bowl projections on Tuesday, and he pitted the Blue Devils against a former heavyweight in the now-decimated Pac-12 Conference.

Smith put Duke in the Holiday Bowl alongside the Utah Utes, now a member of the Big 12.

With head coach Kyle Whittingham at the helm since 2005, Utah won the Pac-12 title game in 2021 and 2022 before joining its new conference. The Utes entered the 2024 season as the Big 12 favorites, but veteran starter Cam Rising continues to deal with injuries as he’s thrown just 66 passes. Utah lost its last two games to Arizona and Arizona State to fall behind the pace.

As has been the case for most of Smith’s projections this season, the Miami Hurricanes and Clemson Tigers are the only ACC teams in his College Football Playoff field. However, instead of rolling with the undefeated Hurricanes, Smith thinks Clemson will storm back to win the conference and clinch the first-round bye.

The North Carolina Tar Heels, now riding a four-game losing streak, were absent from Smith’s projected postseason field.

LSU jumps Alabama in new USA TODAY Sports College Football Playoff projection

Here’s what this USA TODAY Sports expert thinks of Alabama’s College Football Playoff chances entering Week 8.

After falling to the Vanderbilt Commodores in a stunning 40-35 upset in Week 6 and barely hanging on against the South Carolina Gamecocks in a sloppy 27-25 victory last Saturday, the Alabama Crimson Tide are no longer projected to make the College Football Playoff in the latest postseason projections from USA TODAY Sports.

Instead, it’s the LSU Tigers that have moved past Alabama in analyst Erick Smith’s updated playoff and bowl game forecast, released Tuesday. LSU came from behind to beat the Ole Miss Rebels in a thrilling 29-26 overtime victory in Tiger Stadium last Saturday.

The Tide and Tigers will meet Nov. 9 in Baton Rouge in what could be a de facto playoff elimination game — if Alabama can take care of business against both the Tennessee Vols in the annual Third Saturday in October clash, and a week later against Missouri.

Per Smith’s updated projections:

“Alabama won Saturday. But the Crimson Tide are losers this week after being knocked out of the projected College Football Playoff field following their close defeat of South Carolina. Kalen DeBoer’s team now faces the challenge of going to Tennessee in Week 8 and still has trips to LSU and Oklahoma along with a home date against Missouri. Getting through that and the Iron Bowl with just one loss seems optimistic given the performances the past two weeks. The turnaround needs to start in Knoxville.”

Other College Football Playoff projections this week were more optimistic about the Crimson Tide’s chances.

CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm still sees Alabama making the 12-team playoff. Palm projects the Tide to face Texas A&M in a first-round game in College Station. The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel also included Alabama in his playoff predictions ($), as did 247Sports’ Brad Crawford.

Alabama (5-1 overall, 2-1 SEC) is ranked No. 7 in both the US LBM Coaches Poll and AP Top 25 poll this week.

The Tide will face No. 10 Tennessee (5-1, 2-1) Saturday in Neyland Stadium at 2:30 p.m. The game will be televised on ABC.

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Where are the Oklahoma Sooners headed in USA TODAY Sports latest Bowl projections?

Are the Oklhoma Sooners still bowling in USA TODAY Sports latest Bowl Projections ?

Though the season isn’t looking promising after their 34-3 loss to Texas, the Oklahoma Sooners still have a chance to make a bowl this season. That may not be what’s expected at the University of Oklahoma, but with the way this season has gone, playing in a bowl game, might be all the Sooners can hope to accomplish.

Even after their loss to the Longhorns, USA TODAY Sports has the Sooners heading to the Texas Bowl to face the TCU Horned Frogs. The Texas Bowl will take place on New Year’s Eve in Houston, Texas at NRG Stadium, the home of the Houston Texans.

The Texas Bowl would be a far cry from what OU was hoping to accompish in 2024. However, with the offense floundering six games into the season, it’s looking like a tough ask to get to 6-6 on the season.

The Sooners still have a rough schedule ahead. OU plays South Carolina next. The Gamecocks nearly pulled off an upset of Alabama in Tuscaloosa on Saturday. A trip to Oxford to face Ole Miss follows. The Rebels will be fighting for their playoff lives the rest of the way after suffering their second loss of the season this past weekend. In the final month of the season, the Sooners will take on Missouri, Alabama, and LSU, three teams ranked in the top 16 of the latest US LBM Coaches Poll.

As for TCU, they’re not playing to expectation either. In their last outing, the Horned Frogs dropped a game to Houston, 30-19 to fall to 3-3 on the season.

With Brent Venables and Sonny Dykes at the helm, Oklahoma is 1-1 against the Horned Frogs. OU holds an 18-6 all-time record against the Horned Frogs, including an 11-2 record during their time as Big 12 conference mates.

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USA TODAY Sports projects bowl matchup against new ACC team for LSU

The Tigers are heading to the Gator Bowl in these latest bowl projections.

After dropping their season-opener against USC, LSU has responded with four straight wins to keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive.

The margin for error will be pretty limited down the stretch, however, with remaining games against the likes of Ole Miss, Alabama and Texas A&M. In his latest college football bowl projections, USA TODAY Sports’ Erick Smith has the Tigers missing out on a CFP bid.

Instead, he sends coach Brian Kelly’s team to the Gator Bowl, where it would match up against an ACC team. He projects an interesting matchup against an SMU team that’s off to a 5-1 start in its first season as a member of the power conference ranks.

While it would be a fun game, it’s certainly not the goal for a Tigers team still searching for its first CFP bid under Kelly.

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New bowl game projection sees Kentucky football facing storied program

The Kentucky Wildcats have never faced this team on the football field.

Back-to-back wins by the Kentucky Wildcats, including Week 5’s thrilling 20-17 road win at the previously fifth-ranked Ole Miss Rebels on Sept. 28 have improved bowl game hopes for Mark Stoops’ team.

Not including the 12-team College Football Playoff, there are 35 bowl games scheduled for FBS teams this year. Which one is Kentucky currently in line for?

In his updated weekly bowl projections, CBS Sports analyst Jerry Palm forecasts Kentucky to spend bowl season not too far from Lexington. Palm sees the Wildcats squaring off against the Nebraska Cornhuskers in this year’s Music City Bowl, Dec. 30 in Nashville.

The matchup, if it comes to fruition, would be a first in Kentucky football history. The Wildcats and Huskers have never met on the gridiron.

In other bowl projections following Week 6, USA TODAY Sports’ Erick Smith sees Kentucky spending bowl season in Tennessee, as well — although a few miles to the west in Memphis.

Smith sees the Wildcats playing in the Liberty Bowl on Dec. 27 against Mike Gundy and the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

Kentucky will look to improve its bowl stock this Saturday when the Wildcats welcome the Vanderbilt Commodores to Kroger Field. Kickoff is set for 7:45 p.m. ET. The game can be seen on SEC Network.

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CBS Sports bowl projections have the Blue Devils facing a service academy

According to the updated college football bowl projections from CBS Sports, Duke would face one of the service academies in the postseason.

With five wins through the first six games of the season, the Duke Blue Devils look like a shoo-in for the college football postseason. The only question that remains, seemingly, is which city they’ll play a bowl game in.

In the latest bowl projections from CBS Sports, first-year head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] and his players would take on the Army Black Knights in the Independence Bowl, which is scheduled for December 28 in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Army, for its part, has won all five of its games this season, and the Black Knights have done so in dominant fashion. With notable triumphs like a 49-7 blowout of Tulsa and a 42-14 victory over Rice, Army has outscored its opponents by an average of 29 points per game. None of the Black Knights’ opponents have finished with more than 14 points.

Just like the USA TODAY Sports and ESPN projections, the Miami Hurricanes and Clemson Tigers were the only two ACC teams to make the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff.

The undefeated Hurricanes took the No. 3 seed as the conference champion with Clemson, the No. 10 overall seed, taking an at-large bid.

ESPN’s bowl projections for Duke football include Navy and the Duke’s Mayo Bowl

Two ESPN college football analysts released their updated bowl projections on Sunday. Check out where they each put the Blue Devils here.

Could a trip to the Duke’s Mayo Bowl be in store for the Blue Devils?

ESPN college football analysts Mark Schlabach and Kyle Bonagura teamed up to share their bowl projections on Sunday, and each of their projected Duke football matchups contained plenty of intrigue.

Schlabach pitted first-year head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] against the Navy Midshipmen, also led by a relatively new coach. Brian Newberry, in his second season at the helm, has the Midshipmen rolling with a 5-0 record. Navy beat Memphis 56-44 in Week 4, one week after the Tigers took down the Florida State Seminoles in Tallahassee, and battered Air Force for a 34-7 win on Saturday.

Bonagura’s projected battle for the Blue Devils sounds even more fun. He dropped Duke into the Duke’s Mayo Bowl against the Nebraska Cornhuskers and true freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola.

Through his first six games of collegiate football, the former five-star prospect has thrown for 1,358 yards and nine touchdowns, completing 66.9% of his passes and averaging 8.0 yards per attempt.

Both Schlabach and Bonagura had the Miami Hurricanes earning the first-round bye in the College Football Playoffs as ACC champions, fitting in as the No. 3 seed in both brackets, and both had the Clemson Tigers earning an at-large bid.

Duke football draws new opponent in the latest USA TODAY Sports bowl projections

The Blue Devils reached the halfway point of their season on Saturday, see where they fell in the new USA TODAY Sports bowl projections here.

The Duke football team couldn’t clinch its spot in the college football postseason on Saturday, but even with the 24-14 loss to Georgia Tech, first-year head coach [autotag]Manny Diaz[/autotag] and his team still need just one more victory for a bowl berth.

ESPN’s Football Power Index thinks there’s a 96% chance that the Blue Devils pick up that sixth win somewhere down the line, so of course, when USA TODAY Sports writer Erick Smith released his updated bowl projections on Tuesday, Duke needed to be included.

Smith put Diaz and his team playing the Utah Utes in the Holiday Bowl, which is slated for December 27.

The Utes, in their first season as members of the Big 12, began the season as one of the favorites for the conference title. Head coach Kyle Whittingham has led his team to four victories in its first five games, but a 23-10 loss to Arizona in Week 5 seemed like a bad omen. Star quarterback Cam Rising continues to battle injuries as he’s only thrown 29 passes this year.

Smith also included an ACC shakeup at the top of his projections. The undefeated Miami Hurricanes overcame a 35-10 California lead on Saturday, but Smith thinks the Clemson Tigers will eventually win the conference and take the first-round bye.

The Hurricanes still reached the 12-team bracket as one of the at-large selections, but both ACC playoff teams lost in the first round of Smith’s bracket.

Where does Oklahoma land in latest CBS Sports bowl projections?

Where do the Oklahoma Sooners land in the latest bowl predictions from CBS Sports?

The Oklahoma Sooners have an opportunity to make a statement this week when they take on the archrival Texas Longhorns in the 2024 edition of the Red River Rivalry.

Texas is 5-0 and the No. 1 team in the country heading into Week 7. They’ll be looking for revenge after Oklahoma pulled off the 34-30 upset a year ago.

The game always has massive implications, and it will once again happen in 2024.

Most experts have placed OU in lower-tier bowls than they’re used to. A sluggish start to the season certainly didn’t help, nor did a tough loss against Tennessee or a heart-stopping win against Auburn. The chaos of week six in college football also didn’t move the needle much in Oklahoma’s favor.

CBS Sports college football writer Jerry Palm released his latest bowl projections after a wild week but still had OU headed for a below-expectation postseason destination.

Palm has the Sooners earning a bid to the Las Vegas Bowl. That game will be played on December 27th. The bowl typically pits the Big Ten against the Pac-12.

Smith predicts that the Sooners will match up against the Arizona Wildcats, the same team that defeated OU in the Alamo Bowl last year.

Arizona has a new coach this year, as Jedd Fisch was hired away by Washington after the Huskies lost Kalen DeBoer to Alabama when Nick Saban retired. The Wildcats responded by hiring San Jose State’s Brent Brennan to lead them into the Big 12.

Arizona is currently 3-2 and 1-1 in conference play. They concluded a very successful season last year by knocking off the Sooners 38-24 in San Antonio, dropping Oklahoma to 10-3 by forcing turnover after turnover. Arizona leads the all-time series between the teams 2-1, winning at home in 1989 after losing in Norman in 1988.

Being in the Las Vegas Bowl isn’t what Sooner Nation was hoping for to begin this season. But if that’s the way the year goes, OU could do a lot worse than getting a shot at revenge to cap off 2024.

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Where do Kentucky Wildcats land in latest USA TODAY Sports bowl projections?

Here’s what USA TODAY Sports experts think of Kentucky’s bowl aspirations following their 20-17 upset win at Ole Miss.

Things look a lot brighter for Kentucky football after the past two weeks.

After posting a 41-6 victory over the Ohio Bobcats in their Week 4 nonconference matchup, the Wildcats scored the biggest upset of a top-ranked team this year in their first road test of the season. Mark Stoops’ team took down then-No. 5 Ole Miss last Saturday at Vaught Hemingway Stadium in a stunning 20-17 victory.

It was Kentucky’s first win against a top 10 team on the road since 1977 when they defeated Joe Paterno and the Penn State Nittany Lions, 24-20, at Beaver Stadium in Happy Valley. It was also their first win in Oxford since 1978.

At 3-2 entering their bye week, Kentucky’s hopes of extending their streak of eight consecutive bowl games are also looking a little brighter. Earlier this week, USA TODAY Sports released its latest bowl projections entering Week 6.

Analyst Erick Smith sees Kentucky playing in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis against the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Dec. 27.

It’s a bowl game that the Wildcats have played in just once. That was back in January 2009 when Rich Brooks’ team defeated East Carolina, 25-19. The win capped a 7-6 season, one of four straight winning seasons for Brooks as head coach from 2006-2009.

As for Kentucky and Oklahoma State, the two programs have never met on the gridiron. Meetings between Kentucky and a Big 12 program are rare. The last time the Wildcats met a team from the Big 12 was all the way back in 1983 — when it still the Big Eight Conference. In a battle of ‘Cats, Kentucky defeated the Kansas State Wildcats, 31-12, at Commonwealth Stadium.

Kentucky has a bye this week before facing the Vanderbilt Commodores on Oct. 12 at Kroger Field. Kentucky-Vandy was announced earlier this week as a 7:45 p.m. ET kickoff. The game will be televised on SEC Network.

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