A Couple Of Changes This Week
Hello everyone and welcome back to everyone’s favorite time of the week. That’s right it’s the updated Last Word Bowl Projections. One of our playoff teams got a huge scare and two of our selection committee teams lost. As a result, we’ve got new teams crashing the party. Let’s get right to it with our 2022 Week Five Bowl Projections. As always you can see how things changed from last week follow along here.
College Football Playoff
Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl- December 31st- (1) Georgia vs. (4) Clemson- For two consecutive weeks, the Bulldogs haven’t played well. In fact, they had to rally to beat Missouri on the road 26-22. We thought about dropping them from the top line but we’re keeping Kirby Smart’s team at #1.
Clemson followed up its epic victory win over Wake Forest with another big win over North Carolina State. At this point, it seems like a given that Dabo Swinney’s club will win the ACC and they should hold onto a playoff berth.
Vrbo Fiesta Bowl- December 31st- (2) Ohio State vs. (3) Alabama- For a few moments on Saturday, it looked like Arkansas had a chance with the Crimson Tide. However faster than Jordan Peele could say “Nope” the Tide were on their way to a 49-26 win. Right now the biggest concern is the health of Bryce Young, who left with a shoulder injury.
Behind a massive game from Miyan Williams, the Buckeyes had probably the biggest win of the weekend beating Rutgers 49-10.
College Football Playoff- 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- ACC vs. SEC/Big 10/Notre Dame-
North Carolina State vs. Penn State- Even with the loss to Clemson we’re keeping the Wolfpack as the ACC representative. It wasn’t pretty but the Nittany Lions got a win over Northwestern.
Sugar Bowl- December 31st- SEC vs. Big 12
Tennessee vs. Oklahoma State- Kentucky’s loss is Tennessee’s gain. With the Wildcats losing to Ole Miss Hendon Hooker and the Vols move up to the Sugar Bowl.
The Cowboys got a very impressive win on the road at Baylor on Saturday. As a result, they head to New Orleans as the Big 12 representative.
Cotton Bowl- January 2nd- At Large vs. At Large
Cincinnati vs. Utah– At 5-0 there are some who think Coastal Carolina deserves the nod. However, we’ve stuck with the Bearcats since the beginning and they’re making us look good. The Utes had no trouble with Oregon State on Saturday but have a big game on Saturday at UCLA.
Rose Bowl- January 2nd-Big 10 vs. Pac 12
Michigan vs. USC- Jim Harbaugh’s club won at Iowa for the first time since 2005. The Trojans knocked off Arizona State on Saturday. This is the first match-up of these schools since the 2007 Rose Bowl.
Continuing our 2022 Week Five bowl projections we head to the games usually played on New Year’s Day. As we like to point out every week 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- ACC vs. Big 10-Duke vs. Purdue
Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl- December 30th- ACC vs. Pac 12- Florida State vs. Oregon State
TaxSlayer Gator Bowl- December 30th-Big 10 vs. SEC- Florida vs. Notre Dame
Arizona Bowl- December 30th- Mountain West vs. Mid-American- Boise State vs. Toledo
Music City Bowl- December 31st- Big 10 vs. SEC- Arkansas vs. Wisconsin- Following their big loss at home to Illinois the Badgers parted ways with Paul Chryst who went 67-26 in eight seasons. The Razorbacks drop down after back-to-back losses.
ReliaQuest Bowl- January 2nd- Big 10/ACC vs. SEC- Illinois vs. Kentucky- After Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State you could take the remaining Big 10 teams and pull them out of a hat. For this week we’re sending the Fighting Illini to Tampa.
Kentucky had numerous chances to beat Ole Miss. However two missed extra points, a missed field goal, and two late turnovers doomed the Wildcats. The two schools haven’t played since 1913.
Citrus Bowl- January 2nd-Big 10 vs. SEC- Minnesota vs. Ole Miss- Even with their loss to Purdue we have the Gophers heading south for the new year. As mentioned earlier Lane Kiffin’s squad handed Kentucky their first loss and make a big jump in this week’s picks.
Post Christmas Day Games
Quick Lane Bowl- December 26th–Big 10 vs. Mid-American- Central Michigan vs. Michigan State
Birmingham Bowl- December 27th- Pool vs. ACC/SEC- South Carolina vs. Tulane
Camellia Bowl- December 27th– Pool vs. Pool- Buffalo vs. Marshall
First Responder Bowl- December 27th- Big 10 vs. Pool- Rutgers vs. Texas
Guaranteed Rate Bowl- December 27th- Big 12 vs. Big 10- Maryland vs. Texas Tech
Military Bowl- December 28th-ACC vs. American- Central Florida vs. Miami (Florida)
Liberty Bowl- December 28th-Big 12 vs. SEC- Kansas State vs. Mississippi State
Holiday Bowl- December 28th- ACC vs. Pac 12- Wake Forest vs. Washington- Even with the Huskies’ loss to UCLA we’re keeping this very exciting match up for another week.
Texas Bowl- December 28th- SEC vs. Big 12- Kansas vs. Texas A&M
Pinstripe Bowl- December 29th- ACC vs. Big 10- Iowa vs. North Carolina
Cheez-It Bowl- December 29th- ACC vs. Big 12- Pittsburgh vs. Oklahoma
Alamo Bowl- December 29th- Big 12 vs. Pac 12- Baylor vs. Oregon
As we go through the final sets of games in our 2022 Week Five Bowl Projections you’ll find Coastal Carolina. They’re definitely a team to watch going forward the rest of the season.
Games Around Christmas
Myrtle Beach Bowl- December 19th- Pool vs. Pool- Coastal Carolina vs. Western Kentucky
Idaho Potato Bowl- December 20th-Mid-American vs. Mountain West-
Ball State vs. Wyoming
Boca Raton Bowl- December 20th- Pool vs. Pool- Miami (Ohio) vs. Rice
New Orleans Bowl- December 21st- Conference USA vs. Sun Belt
Louisiana vs. UAB
Armed Forces Bowl- December 22nd-American vs. Pool- BYU vs. TCU
Independence Bowl- December 23rd- American vs. Army- Army vs. SMU- We’re keeping Army here for now but they have to start winning games quickly.
Gasparilla Bowl- December 23rd- ACC/SEC vs. Pool
Houston vs. South Alabama- At this point, we’ve run out of ACC and SEC teams so we’re going with this match-up.
Hawai’i Bowl- December 24th-Mountain West vs. Conference USA
San Jose State vs. Texas-San Antonio
Time to wrap our 2022 Week Five Bowl Projections will the enormous slate of early season games. Of course that includes a whopping seven games on December 17th alone.
First Weekend Games
Bahamas Bowl- December 16th- Conference USA vs. Mid-American- UTEP vs. Western Michigan
Cure Bowl- December 16th- Pool vs. Pool- Liberty vs. Middle Tennessee
Fenway Bowl- December 17th- ACC vs. American- Memphis vs. Syracuse
Frisco Bowl- December 17th- Pool vs. Pool- Nevada vs. Tulsa
Celebration Bowl- December 17th- MEAC vs. SWAC- Jackson State vs. North Carolina Central
New Mexico Bowl- December 17th- Conference USA vs. Mountain West- Air Force vs. North Texas
Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl– December 17th- Mountain West vs. Pac-12- Fresno State vs. Washington State
Lending Tree Bowl- December 17th- Pool vs. Sun Belt- Appalachian State vs. Kent State
Las Vegas Bowl- December 17th- SEC vs. Pac-12- LSU vs. UCLA
Last Word On Sports Bowl- Date TBA- Georgia Southern vs. UNLV- If the San Francisco Bowl can’t be played this year ESPN has the right to create a new game to replace it. Since it doesn’t have a sponsor may we suggest Last Word On Sports?
Thanks for checking out our 2022 Week Four 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.
