A Sea Of Calm After A Week Of Chaos
Hello everyone and welcome back to our latest installment of bowl projections. Following one of the crazier Week Two’s in memory things were mostly back to normal this week. It was a nice bounce-back week for the Pac-12 who’ve struggled in big games during the early season. With the introduction out of the way let’s get to our 2022 Week Three Bowl Projections. As always if you’d like to see how things changed from last week click here.
College Football Playoff
Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl- December 31st- (1) Georgia vs. (4) Oklahoma- There were some who thought South Carolina would give the Bulldogs a test. Unfortunately, those people were wrong as Stetson Bennett and company laid a 48-7 thumping on the Gamecocks.
If you read our projections from last week, and we know you did, we said Oklahoma hadn’t been tested. On Saturday they were, for about a quarter. Following a close opening stanza, the Sooners blew out Nebraska on the road 49-14.
Fiesta Bowl- December 31st- (2) Ohio State vs. (3) Alabama– The Buckeyes dismantled Toledo 77-21 behind a huge game from Heisman hopeful C.J. Stroud. On the other side of the ball, Bryce Young and the Crimson Tide bounced back from the near defeat at Texas with a 63-7 win over Louisiana-Monroe.
College Football National Championship- January 9th– (1) Georgia vs (2) Ohio State- If this match-up holds true this is only the second meeting of all time between the two schools. Georgia won the 1993 Citrus Bowl 21-14.
Selection Committee Games
Orange Bowl- December 30th- Clemson vs. Penn State- Leading only 13-6 at the half the Tigers broke open a close game in a 48-20 win over Louisiana Tech. We put the Nittany Lions in this spot last week and they repaid us by blowing out Auburn on the road.
Sugar Bowl- December 31st- Baylor vs. Kentucky- Mark Stoops‘ Wildcats followed their big win at Florida with a workmanlike victory over Youngstown State. The Bears host Oklahoma State on October 1st. With Baylor projected to win they get the trip to New Orleans over the Cowboys. The two schools are tied 2-2 in their series history with the Wildcats winning the last meeting all the way back in 1978.
Cotton Bowl- January 2nd- Cincinnati vs. Utah– You can make a great case for Appalachian State as the Group Of Five representative. However, we are sticking with the Bearcats. The Utes had no trouble with San Diego State.
Rose Bowl- January 2nd- Michigan vs. USC- Jim Harbaugh’s club scored over 50 points in their first three games for the first time in school history. The Trojans took care of business against Fresno State. This is the first match-up of these schools since the 2007 Rose Bowl.
Continuing our 2022 Week Three bowl projections we head to the games usually played on New Year’s Day. As mentioned earlier all of these games have been moved so they don’t compete with the NFL. Also of note, the Outback Bowl is no more, it is now the ReliaQuest Bowl.
Games Around The New Year
Duke’s Mayo Bowl- December 30th- Pittsburgh vs. Purdue
Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl- December 30th- Miami (Florida) vs. Oregon State
TaxSlayer Gator Bowl- December 30th- Arkansas vs. Notre Dame- The Irish finally got in the win column but had to withstand a “Hail Mary” from California.
Arizona Bowl- December 30th- Fresno State vs. Toledo
Music City Bowl- December 31st- Florida vs. Minnesota
ReliaQuest Bowl- January 2nd- Michigan State vs. Texas A&M
Citrus Bowl- January 2nd- Tennessee vs. Wisconsin- Josh Heupel‘s club is putting up numbers like yours truly playing Tecmo Bowl back in the day. On Saturday it was 63 against Akron. Mark October 29th on your calendar when the Vols host Kentucky. The winner likely has the inside track to the Sugar Bowl.
You’ll find one of our newcomers in our next slate of games as we continue with our 2022 Week Three Bowl Projections.
Post-Christmas Day Games
Quick Lane Bowl- December 26th– Central Michigan vs. Iowa
Birmingham Bowl- December 27th- South Carolina vs. Tulane
Camellia Bowl- December 27th– Marshall vs. Miami (Ohio)- As a result of their loss to Bowling Green the Thundering Herd’s chances of being the Group Of Five school as pretty much over.
First Responder Bowl- December 27th- California vs. Iowa State
Guaranteed Rate Bowl- December 27th- Maryland vs. Texas Tech
Military Bowl- December 28th- Florida State vs. Memphis- Mike Norvell’s coaching against his former team makes for an interesting game.
Liberty Bowl- December 28th- Kansas vs. Mississippi State- For the first time probably ever the Jayhawks are in our bowl projections. It’s certainly deserved with their 3-0 mark.
Holiday Bowl- December 28th- Wake Forest vs. Washington- The Demon Deacons got all they could handle on Saturday versus Liberty. Behind Michael Penix Jr. the Huskies took care of previously undefeated Michigan State.
Texas Bowl- December 28th- Ole Miss vs. TCU
Pinstripe Bowl- December 29th- Illinois vs. North Carolina
Cheez-It Bowl- December 29th- North Carolina State vs. Oklahoma State– This is a meeting of two schools who just miss the upper bowls and is one of the best of the whole season.
Alamo Bowl- December 29th- Texas vs. Oregon
As we go through the final sets of games in our 2022 Week Three Bowl Projections you’ll find a couple of more of the teams we talked about earlier as the “Group Of Five” school. Again with all the bowl tie-ins to the Power Five schools, it’s hard to find a bigger game for them.
Games Around Christmas
Myrtle Beach Bowl- December 19th- Coastal Carolina vs. Memphis
Idaho Potato Bowl- December 20th- Northern Illinois vs. Wyoming
Boca Raton Bowl- December 20th- Central Florida vs. South Alabama
New Orleans Bowl- December 21st- Louisiana vs. UAB
Armed Forces Bowl- December 22nd- Houston vs. TCU
Independence Bowl- December 23rd- Army vs. SMU
Gasparilla Bowl- December 23rd- Auburn vs. Duke
Hawai’i Bowl- December 24th- BYU vs. San Diego State- As a result of their loss at Oregon, the Cougars’ bowl hopes are not totally done but are definitely on life support.
First Weekend Games
Bahamas Bowl- December 16th- Florida Atlantic vs. Western Michigan
Cure Bowl- December 16th- Liberty vs. Western Kentucky
Fenway Bowl- December 17th- East Carolina vs. Syracuse
Celebration Bowl- December 17th- Jackson State vs. North Carolina Central
New Mexico Bowl- December 17th- Air Force vs. North Texas
Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl– December 17th- Boise State vs. Washington State
Lending Tree Bowl- December 17th- Appalachian State vs. Kent State- The amazing touchdown on the last play of the game kept the Mountaineers’ hopes of making the Cotton Bowl alive. However, for now, we’re leaving them in awesome Mobile, Alabama.
Las Vegas Bowl- December 17th- LSU vs. UCLA- A different match-up in this game than what we’d had previously.
Frisco Bowl- December 17th- Nevada vs. Tulsa
Random Insert Name Here Bowl- Date TBA- Indiana vs. Virginia- If the San Francisco Bowl can’t be played this year ESPN has the right to create a new game to replace it. We couldn’t find homes for these schools in other games so they end up here.
Thanks for checking out our 2022 Week Three Bowl Projections here at Last Word On College Football. We’ll be here next week and every week until the entire schedule is announced in December.
