Tag: erick smith

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For a second straight week, Michigan State is projected to head out west this holiday season.

The Spartans are still slated to play against West Virginia in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, according to the USA TODAY’s latest bowl projections by Erick Smith. There were no changes to this particular bowl prediction for Smith, with the Spartans and Mountaineers both projected to the Guaranteed Rate Bowl last week as well.

The Guaranteed Rate Bowl is scheduled to take place on Dec. 26 at Chase Field in Phoenix. Don’t be surprised if you don’t recognize the name of this bowl, as it was previously the Cactus Bowl before Guaranteed Rate, one of the largest retail mortgage lenders in the United States, became the title sponsor in late October.

It was announced last week that the Quick Lane Bowl will not occur this season, which eliminates yet another possible destination for the Spartans during the postseason. Going off of Smith’s latest projections, the Big Ten has six bowl tie-ins (not including the New Year’s Six bowls that are considered at-large bids) so it’ll be a battle for the Spartans to earn a bid this year. MSU will need to keep winning toss-up games — like this Saturday at Iowa — to remain in the hunt for a bowl this year with already a handful of games eliminated because of COVID-19.

Here’s where he has the rest of the Big Ten teams landing in his latest projections:

• Rose Bowl (College Football Playoff) – Ohio State vs. Clemson

• Fiesta Bowl (at-large bid) – Wisconsin vs. BYU

• Outback Bowl – Purdue vs. LSU

• Citrus Bowl – Penn State vs. Auburn

• Duke’s Mayo Bowl – Indiana vs. NC State

• Music City Bowl – Michigan vs. Tennessee 

• Pinstripe Bowl – Northwestern vs. Pitt
• Guaranteed Rate Bowl – Michigan State vs. West Virginia

Click here to check out the complete USA TODAY bowl projections.

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Could Michigan State football still go bowling this season? Many would say no after last week’s season-opening loss to Rutgers but Erick Smith of USA TODAY sees it differently in his latest release of bowl projections.

Smith has the Spartans facing off against the Mountaineers of West Virginia in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl in his latest projections that came out on Tuesday. For those not familliar with the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, it was formerly known as the Cheez-It Bowl the previous two years and once was the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl — which Michigan State won in 2012.

This year’s Guaranteed Rate Bowl’s date is still unknown and is set to take place in Phoenix. West Virginia is 3-2 on the season.

In last week’s projections, Smith had the Spartans playing against Buffalo in the Quick Lane Bowl. So what is puzzling to me is how could MSU move up the bowl pecking order — Guaranteed Rate Bowl is considered a higher ranked Big Ten bowl game than the Quick Lane Bowl — despite losing in embarassing fashion to Rutgers this past Saturday? It doesn’t make sense.

With teams not playing the typical 12 – 13 regular season games, bowl game restrictions have been thrown out the window for this year — which means a team like MSU could still play in the postseason despite a losing record. Of course, there’s still the uncertainity of any lower tier bowl games actually being played this year, with already a handful of bowls announcing they won’t take place. So we have to keep that in mind as well.

Click here to see where Smith has the rest of the Big Ten bowling this season in his complete bowl projections.

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