Where are the Oklahoma Sooners headed in ESPN’s latest Bowl Projections?

Where are the Oklahoma Sooners headed in ESPN’s latest bowl projections after Week 14?

The regular season has come to a close for the Oklahoma Sooners and now we wait. Wait for the Sooners to hire and offensive coordinator and wait for championship weekend to unfold to see where Oklahoma will play their bowl game.

Though the Sooners are just 6-6, they’ll be a popular choice for a variety of bowl venues due to the fan base’s willingness to travel and the eyes that they’ll draw on the broadcast.

For the team, the bowl game represents an opportunity to earn a payday, but just as important is the opportunity to give younger guys on the roster some snaps.

In ESPN’s latest bowl projections (ESPN+), college football analysts Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach are split on where they expect the Oklahoma Sooners to land in bowl season. Bonagura believes the Sooners will head to the Gasparilla Bowl in Tampa, Florida to play the N.C. State Wolfpack. N.C. State finished the season 6-6 and 3-5 in ACC play with wins over Cal, Stanford, and UNC in conference play.

Schlabach has the Sooners landing in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, facing former Big 12 foe, the TCU Horned Frogs. TCU went 8-4 and 6-3 in Big 12 play. The Horned Frogs are riding a three-game winning streak, beating Oklahoma State, Arizona, and Cincinnati to close the season. They also earned wins over Kansas and Utah during conference play.

Whichever bowl Oklahoma lands in, they’ll face a challenge as they try to formulate an offense that can be more efficient than what we’ve seen in SEC play.

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USA TODAY projects Florida football’s 2024 bowl game

Florida’s upset win over Ole Miss guaranteed the Gators a spot in a bowl game, and USA TODAY has a prediction for which one.

The Florida Gators are bowl-eligible with a chance to finish the regular season 7-5 pending a win on Saturday against the Florida State Seminoles.

USA TODAY is one of the many outlets projecting the 2024 bowl matchups, and college sports editor Erick Smith likes the Orange and Blue to land in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl against Kansas State.

Florida has never played in the Liberty Bowl, which takes place on Dec. 27 at 7 p.m. ET, but the game is one of several bowls with an automatic SEC tie-in. The Gators would face a Big 12 opponent, not necessarily Kansas State.

Billy Napier is 0-1 in bowl games as the Florida Gators head coach. Florida lost the 2022 Las Vegas Bowl, 30-3, against Oregon State during his first season with the program, and the Gators finished the 2023 season with only five wins — six wins are required for bowl eligibility.

Other Bowl Predictions

CBS Sports writer Jerry Palm projects Florida to face the West Virginia Mountaineers in the Gasparilla Bowl, while ESPN has the Gators playing in either the Birmingham Bowl against North Carolina State (Bonagura) or the AutoZone Liberty Bowl against TCU (Schlabach).

Coming up for Florida

The Gators will face the Seminoles inside Doak Campbell Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 30. The game will kick off at 7 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on ESPN 2.

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ESPN projects two potential bowl destinations, opponents for Florida football

The destinations might not be glamorous but the Florida Gators are bowl-game-bound, baby!

Billy Napier and the Florida Gators earned their sixth win of the 2024 campaign on Saturday against the Ole Miss Rebels inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. That gives the Orange and Blue a guaranteed .500 or better finish that also puts it in the postseason picture.

Many doubted this fall’s edition of Florida football, with the overall consensus calling for a four-win season that would give the Gators their first four-year losing streak since… well, basically forever ago. To be fair, Napier and Co. faced the toughest schedule in the country which has proven to be every bit as difficult as expected, but they survived the SEC pressure cooker gauntlet with a pair of upsets.

Now that the seal is broken and Florida is eligible for a bowl berth, ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach offered their predictions for potential December matchups. Neither of the options is particularly exciting, but when the bar for success was finishing with six wins, the Gators Nation will have to be happy with what it can get.

ESPN’s bowl predictions for Florida

Bonagura projects a Florida matchup against the North Carolina State Wolfpack in the Birmingham Bowl at Protective Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama. That game is scheduled to be played on Friday, Dec. 27 at either noon or 3:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on ESPN.

Schlabach foresees a trip to the AutoZone Liberty Bowl at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee, against the TCU Horned Frogs on that same day. ESPN will also broadcast that game and kickoff is set for 7 p.m ET.

Next up for Florida

The Gators wrap up the 2024 regular season schedule in Tallahassee for their annual rivalry game against the Florida State Seminoles. The game will take place inside Doak Campbell Stadium and will kick off at either 7 or 7:30 p.m. ET; broadcast details have yet to be determined.

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Former Notre Dame football coach Gerry Faust dies at age 89

Rest in peace, Coach.

Sad news for longtime Notre Dame football fans broke Monday. [autotag]Gerry Faust[/autotag], who coached the Irish from 1981 to 1985, has died at age 89.

Over his five seasons in South Bend, Faust accumulated a record of 30-26-1, good for a .535 winning percentage. Under his leadership, the Irish won the 1983 Liberty Bowl over Doug Flutie and Boston College. The following year, they lost the 1984 Aloha Bowl to SMU in its last game before it was handed the death penalty a few years later.

A disappointing 1985 season in which the Irish went 5-6 prompted Faust to announce that he would resign after the final game against a Miami team coached by Jimmy Johnson. The Irish lost that game, 58-7, and the university would go on to hire [autotag]Lou Holtz[/autotag] as Faust’s successor.

After his Irish tenure ended, Faust went to coach at Akron, where he did so for nine seasons and compiling a 43-53-3 record. But he never lost his love for the Irish no matter how much time passed:

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Faust family during this difficult time.

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The Athletic’s preseason prediction for Florida’s bowl game

Any bowl prediction is a good one for the Gators as it assumes at least a .500 regular-season finish.

Florida football faces one of the toughest schedules in recent memory this season which includes a gauntlet of top-25 teams. While some struggle to foresee a bowl appearance for the Gators this winter, others can squint hard enough to envision the Orange and Blue in the postseason.

The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman and Stewart Mandel put together their college football preseason bowl projections recently and the good news is that [autotag]Billy Napier[/autotag] and Co. earned a December berth — which assumes at least a .500 finish during the regular season.

Dochterman and Mandel picked Florida to face the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the Liberty Bowl held in Memphis, Tennessee, on Wednesday, Dec. 27 at 7 p.m. ET.

Other bowl predictions

USA TODAY Sports writer Erick Smith submitted his preseason bowl projections and foresees Florida making it into the Gasparilla Bowl against the Duke Blue Devils. That game is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 20, at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Florida’s season opener for 2024

The Florida Gators and No. 19 Miami Hurricanes square off on Aug. 31 in Gainesville, Florida to open their schedule for the 2024 season. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on ABC Sports.

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ESPN projects Florida to play in bowl game following Week 11 loss to LSU

Florida’s loss on Saturday puts the Gators record at 5-5 with two tough games left. Bowl eligibility is in doubt, but ESPN still believes.

Florida is currently 5-5 with two games left on the regular season schedule, both of which are against opponents ranked inside the top 15 on the US LBM Coaches Poll.

With the Gators one game shy of bowl eligibility, most have written off UF’s chances of playing a game in December, but not the folks at ESPN.

Well… Mark Schlabach appears to have accepted reality, but Kyle Bonagura still thinks the Gators will sneak into the AutoZone Liberty Bowl against Kansas. To make Bonagura’s vision come true, Florida needs to upset either No. 11 Missouri or No. 4 Florida State.

There’s a world where not enough teams reach bowl eligibility and a 5-7 team sneaks in. Given Billy Napier’s past at Florida, the Gators would likely accept an invite to get more practice in for the young guys.

Florida’s last appearance in a New Year’s Six Bowl came in 2020.

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CBS Sports still believes Florida football will make it to this bowl game

Jerry Palm included the Florida Gators among his field of postseason games following the Week 10 loss.

Florida football’s chances at playing in a bowl game are currently hanging by a thread after dropping a must-win game against Arkansas last weekend at home. Nonetheless, there are still a few members of the sports media who believe in the Orange and Blue despite the grueling gridiron schedule ahead.

While some like USA TODAY Sports’ Erick Smith omitted Billy Napier and Co. from their latest bowl projections, others like ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura still think the Gators will be playing in December. Also in agreement with the latter is CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm, who included Florida among his field of postseason games following Week 10.

According to Palm, Florida is lined up against the Kansas State Wildcats in the Liberty Bowl on Dec. 29 in Memphis, Tennessee. This is in contrast to last week’s prediction, which had the Gators facing the Duke Blue Devils in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.

Next up for Florida are the LSU Tigers, who ranked No. 16 on this list and host the Gators in Baton Rouge on Saturday, Nov. 11, inside Tiger Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 7:30 p.m. ET and can be watched on the SEC Network.

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Kansas vs. Arkansas, live stream, TV channel, time, how to watch Bowl games

The Kansas Jayhawks and Arkansas Razorbacks are set to face off in the Liberty Bowl on Wednesday night in Memphis.

Kansas is playing in its first bowl game in nearly 15 years under second-year coach Lance Leipold, after finishing 3-5 in Big 12 play. The Jayhawks’ dynamic wide-zone offense finished third in the Big 12 in scoring offense. As for Arkansas, they also boast a dynamic offense, but the Razorbacks finished in the middle of the pack in the SEC due to a number of major injuries, particularly at quarterback.

This will be a great game on Wednesday afternoon, here is everything you need to know to watch and stream the action.

Kansas vs. Arkansas

When: Wednesday, December 28
Time: 5:30 p.m. ET
TV Channel: ESPN
Live Stream: fuboTV (watch for free)

NCAA Football Odds and Betting Lines

NCAA odds courtesy of Tipico Sportsbook. Odds were updated at 2:40 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

Kansas vs. Arkansas (-2.5)

O/U: 69

Want some action on college football? Place your legal sports bets on this game or others in CO & NJ.

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Best bets for every bowl game, Pt. 2 (pre-New Year’s Six bowls)

Part 2 of our best bets for bowl season.

After a day off, bowl season picks right back up on Monday with the Quick Lane Bowl between New Mexico State and Bowling Green. That means its time for me to pick things up where I left off in Pt. 1 of my best bets for bowl season.

For those who tailed my previous picks, it’s been a good time. I’ve been picking a lot more winners than losers, and I hope to keep the good fortune on my side for 16 more bowl-game picks all the way up until the first NY6 bowl on Friday night.

Before we get into the picks, here’s a look at where things stand:

We asked ChatGPT to predict the outcomes of college bowl games and things got weird

Is Texas back? Is the Mayo bath good? Who wins the CFP? We asked ChatGPT to predict all the answers.

The second ChatGPT went viral, the obvious question for bettors was how to best use this to beat the sportsbook.

The answer is also pretty obvious: It can’t. At least not yet.

Among the listed limitations of the truly impressive artificial intelligence app are three that any bettor thinking of using it should be weary of:

May occasionally generate incorrect information
May occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content
Limited knowledge of world and events after 2021

Any one of those would be bad enough. All three are a recipe for disaster….right? Maybe we should just find out anyways. And while we’re at it, let’s ask the bot some of bowl season’s biggest questions.

Surely nothing can go wrong!