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USA TODAY Sports currently projects Alabama to face Fresno State in the Peach Bowl

USA TODAY predicts Alabama to play Fresno State this bowl season

Despite a rocky start to the 2023 season, the Alabama Crimson Tide is still very much alive in the hopes of a national championship. The team looked poor in the first few games of the year, but they currently stand at 3-1 with a 1-0 record in the SEC. In other words, Alabama still controls its own destiny in regards to a playoff berth.

This year, people felt like the Rebels had a strong chance to compete in the division, but ultimately the Tide put a stop to that in Week 1 of conference play as they beat Ole Miss 24-10 this past Saturday. Alabama once again seems like the favorite to make the trip to Atlanta and compete for a tenth SEC Championship since Nick Saban took over.

While I still hold a lot of optimism for the Crimson Tide’s season, it’s not shared by everyone in the media. Erick Smith of USA TODAY predicts that Alabama will face Fresno State in the Peach Bowl. While a Peach Bowl certainly isn’t the worst thing in the world, I don’t think many Alabama fans would be too happy to see the Tide squaring off with Fresno State during bowl season when 2023 was filled with aspirations of a national title.

Smith projects that the four teams that will be competing in the playoff will be Georgia, Michigan, Texas and Florida State. It’s interesting to see that the PAC 12, widely regarded as the best conference in the country, does not have any representatives.

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USA TODAY Sports updated bowl projections for the Crimson Tide, CFP

Updated bowl projections for the Crimson Tide with the College Football Playoff out of the picture.

Since the inception of the college football playoffs in 2014, the Alabama Crimson Tide essentially had an annual invite. However, for only the second time since it began, the Tide will likely not be taking part. With the LSU victory over Arkansas this weekend the Tigers clinched the SEC West eliminating the Tide’s final path to the playoffs.

No two-loss team has ever qualified for the playoffs, and I don’t see that changing this year, but this Alabama team isn’t like other two-loss teams. Despite their flaws, the Tide still has the greatest coach to ever live, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback, and the only two losses came on the road against Tennessee and LSU, both of which are top-10 teams. So while it may not be a national title, Alabama will be playing in a meaningful bowl in January and aim for another ten-win season.

USA TODAY Sports has released its updated bowl and playoff projections ahead of Week 12. As things stand, the Crimson Tide are expected to meet the Clemson Tigers in the Orange Bowl on Dec. 30. This would be the fifth post-season meeting between the two sides since 2016, and some would even consider it to be a blooming rivalry.

The playoffs are currently predicted to be Georgia vs. TCU in the Peach Bowl and Ohio State vs. Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl. With rivalry weekend and conference championships coming in the following weeks, buckle up for a wild finish to the season.

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Alabama falls to No. 9 in most recent CFP rankings

CFP Week 2 rankings are out!

The second College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings were just released and the Alabama Crimson Tide has dropped to No. 9 after the upset loss to the LSU Tigers.

The loss led to a big hit to Alabama’s playoff chances as no team with two losses has ever qualified. It is worth noting that Alabama’s two losses both came on the road against No. 5 Tennessee and No. 7 LSU.

The Georgia Bulldogs earned the top spot after knocking off the former No. 1 Tennessee Volunteers who now drop to No. 5. Ohio State comes in at No. 2 and Michigan at No. 3 representing the Big Ten. To the surprise of many, the undefeated TCU Horned Frogs round out the top four.

The Crimson Tide travel to Oxford this weekend to take on the No. 11 Ole Miss Rebels. Ole Miss has one of the best running backs in the country in Zach Evans as well as former Alabama offensive coordinator, Lane Kiffin, calling the shots.

A win this weekend would be massive for the Tide’s morale, and maybe they’ll somehow find a way to sneak into the playoffs.

THE NEW CFP TOP 25 RANKINGS ARE HERE 🏈

We have movement in the top four 👀 pic.twitter.com/J7qB4Jk83k

— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) November 9, 2022

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Notre Dame bowl projections following Week 5

Where do you want the Irish to end up this bowl season?

A month into 2022 and Notre Dame is at a fork in the road for the season. After the unexpected loss to Marshall the Irish have bounced back to be 2-2 headed to the Shamrock Series game on Saturday against BYU.

Win this one over the ranked Cougars and all of a sudden 2022 seems like it could end up being a good amount of fun despite that awful start. Lose this one though and all of a sudden you’re looking at what probably at best ends up being a 7-5 season.

So where would any of those possible results leave Notre Dame at season’s end?

Here are what the expert outlets nationally see in terms of Notre Dame’s postseason destination as we make our way into Week 6 of the college football season.

Notre Dame bowl projections following week 3

Which makes the most sense?

Notre Dame avoided what would have been another disastrous loss on Saturday as they escaped their home stadium with a 24-17 victory over Cal. The win was Marcus Freeman’s first as head coach as the Irish are now 1-2 with a trip North Carolina approaching this weekend.

How did the win change where prognosticators have Notre Dame heading this bowl season? We’ve got a couple different baseball stadiums featured this week while one outlet continues to have the Irish missing a bowl entirely, and other outlets have the season ending in either Texas or Florida.

Here are eight different national projections as to what bowl game Notre Dame will play in this year:

Preseason bowl projections: Hurricane warning for Notre Dame?

It’s a U…of Notre Dame thing.

As the college football regular season inches closer and closer, we’ve been getting hit with more and more preseason predictions and projections for how just about every one of the 131 Football Bowl Subdivision programs will do. The latest is a set of bowl projections for every bowl game this season from veteran college football scribe Bill Bender of The Sporting News.

Bender sends Notre Dame to a bowl game we’ve seen several outlets project the Irish to already, but the opponent Bender projects is about as compelling a potential bowl opponent as there could be for the Irish, short of it being someone in the College Football Playoff.

Bill Bender’s Notre Dame Bowl Projection:

Orange Bowl – December 30, 2022
Notre Dame vs. Miami (FL)

If Notre Dame isn’t playing in the College Football Playoff (which I’m not sold on to be frank), then go ahead and sign me up for this one. The disaster that was the 2017 game at Miami, where the Irish were obliterated, 41-8, still leaves a bad taste in any Notre Dame fan’s mouth.

And whenever you put Notre Dame and Miami in the same sentence, the collective antenna of college football fans everywhere is raised.

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Notre Dame’s updated national bowl projections

Which opponent do you want Notre Dame to play this postseason and why?

No. 8 (CFP) Notre Dame got by Virginia last week and moved up one spot in the College Football Playoff rankings that were released Tuesday night. Although they still need a good amount of help to truly contend for a CFP spot, there is certainly a path to get there for the Irish.

That path isn’t the likeliest of things to play out however, at least according to those who project the college football postseason. Here are the latest national bowl projections for Notre Dame from a variety of different college football media outlets:

Updated national bowl projections for Notre Dame

Like for Peach, retweet/share for Fiesta

Notre Dame moved to 8-1 on the year with last Saturday’s 34-6 win over Navy. The one-loss Fighting Irish now travel to Virginia for what is likely to be their most difficult task the rest of the regular season.

However, even if Notre Dame does win out, it’d appear that getting to the College Football Playoff this season would be extremely difficult. A berth in a New Year’s Six Game would however be likely.

Here is the latest look around the nation at where different outlets have Notre Dame headed this bowl season, and who they have Notre Dame playing:

Blue bloods all over Notre Dame’s most recent bowl projections

Which blue blood would you want to play the most of these?

Notre Dame escaped Virginia Tech with an unlikely win last weekend as they had to call upon their benched starting quarterback to bail them out, which he stepped up and did.

Notre Dame now hits their bye week at 5-1 and as unimpressive as they’ve looked at times this year, they’ve still managed to get to 5-1. Will that be a solid start to a memorable year or will the second half go the same route as some previous duds like 2014 or 2009?

The majority of the experts out there seem to think good things are in store for Notre Dame in the second half based off the most recent national bowl projections. Five different outlets we found have Notre Dame going to three places and playing five different teams, four who would be included in college football’s group of blue bloods.

Here are the latest Notre Dame bowl projections:

USA TODAY bowl projections still not high on Notre Dame

Would any Notre Dame fan see this as anything but a major disappointment after starting 4-0?

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Despite running off 31-straight points to close the fourth quarter in a 41-13 win over then-18th ranked Wisconsin last week, Notre Dame isn’t getting much respect quite yet from the USA TODAY in terms of their latest bowl projections.

At 4-0 and with a schedule ahead of them that looks more favorable by the week, multiple outlets have Notre Dame projected for a New Year’s Six date at the Peach Bowl in Dallas.

The USA TODAY’s latest projections however call for the Irish to head to Orlando on December 29.

USA TODAY Notre Dame Bowl Projection (Sept. 28):

Bowl: Cheez-It Bowl
Opponent: Texas
Venue: Camping World Stadium, Orlando, Florida

I know the College Football Playoff might still be far-fetched for Notre Dame as offensive issues are clear, but falling short of the New Year’s Six would be an incredible disappointment after starting the year 4-0, even if the bowl game ultimately came against a name opponent in Texas.

Related:

Notre Dame all-time bowl history

ESPN FPI projects all eight remaining Notre Dame games

Notre Dame releases depth chart for test with No. 8 Cincinnati

5 things Luke Fickell said ahead of Notre Dame-Cincinnati