Hello everyone and welcome to our 2023 Week Seven Bowl Projections. It was another crazy and exciting week in college football. Oregon and Washington gave us one of the best games of the year. Notre Dame picked up a big win and in the process spoiled USC’s title hopes. There’s late-breaking news affecting our top-ranked team. We’ll get to that shortly.
We’re only two weeks away from the first selection committee rankings. However, until then we’ll keep giving you our best ideas of where we think things will play out. As always if you’d like to see how things change from last week click here.
College Football Playoff
Rose Bowl: January 1st- (2)- Michigan vs. (3)- Florida State- Another week and another blowout for Jim Harbaugh’s squad. The Seminoles blew out Syracuse 41-3.
Sugar Bowl: January 1st- (1)- Georgia vs. (4)- Washington- The Bulldogs struggled against Vanderbilt before winning 37-20. However, they lost their Heisman candidate Brock Bowers to an ankle injury. He’s going to need surgery to stabilize it and is likely to miss a few weeks. The Bulldogs have their bye week before playing Florida in two weeks. We raised a few eyebrows when we had the Huskies as a playoff team in our very first projections of 2023. Fast forward a few months later and here we are. Michael Penix staked his claim to the Heisman after his performance on Saturday.
College Football National Championship: January 8th- (1)- Georgia vs. (2)- Michigan- Our title game remains the same as the last few weeks.
Selection Committee Games
Goodyear Cotton Bowl: December 29th- Ohio State vs. Texas- The Buckeyes got past a recent stumbling block by beating Purdue. Texas had the week off and hosts Houston on Saturday.
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl: December 30th- Alabama vs. Oklahoma– Nick Saban’s club jumped out to a big lead over Arkansas before holding on 24-21. The Sooners also had last week off and host Central Florida on Saturday.
Capital One Orange Bowl: December 30th- North Carolina vs. Penn State– The Tar Heels knocked off Miami and remain our ACC representative. James Franklin’s Nittany Lions play the biggest game of the upcoming week when they travel to Ohio State.
VRBO Fiesta Bowl: January 1st- Air Force vs. Oregon- At 6-0 and ranked in the Top 25 the Falcons are now our Group Of Five team. Even though they lost to Washington the Ducks move up and take USC’s place.
Continuing with our 2023 Week Seven Bowl Projections let’s roll through the games by date. One thing to note there are no games on December 24th or 31st so as to not go up against the NFL schedule.
We’ve spent the last few weeks talking about various conferences and today it’s the SEC. Right now it’s possible the league won’t fill all its slots this year. Auburn is 3-3, Arkansas is 2-5, Mississippi State is 3-3 and South Carolina is 2-4. In our current projections, we have Auburn and South Carolina still in.
Games Around the New Year
Cheez-It Citrus Bowl: January 1st- Big 10 vs. SEC- Tennessee vs. Iowa- With Deacon Hill in for the injured Cade McNamara the Hawkeyes have taken control of the Big 10 West.
ReliaQuest Bowl: January 1st- SEC vs. Big 10- LSU vs. Notre Dame- There’s a rarely used clause in this bowl’s contract stating an ACC team can be selected rather than a Big 10 squad. It hasn’t happened since Duke played in 1995. However, we’re invoking the clause this year to give everyone a very interesting match-up. Had the Fighting Irish not played in the Gator Bowl last year we’d put the game there.
TransPerfect Music City Bowl: December 30th- SEC vs. Big 10- Florida vs. Maryland
Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl: December 30th- MAC vs. MWC– UNLV vs. Toldeo
TaxSlayer Gator Bowl: December 29th- SEC vs. Big 10 or ACC/Notre Dame- Louisville vs. Ole Miss- The Cards followed up their big win over Notre Dame with a loss at Pittsburgh. Even so, they’ve still got a good chance at a 10-win season.
Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl: December 29th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. Pac-12- Syracuse vs. Utah
AutoZone Liberty Bowl: December 29th- Big 12 vs. SEC- Kentucky vs. Kansas State- The SEC Wildcats had more penalty yards (122) than passing (120). That tells you all you need to know about their bad loss to Missouri.
Post Christmas Games
Quick Lane Bowl: December 26th- Big 10 vs. MAC- Illinois vs. Ohio
SERVPRO First Responder Bowl: December 26th- American/ACC/Big 12/ SEC- Iowa State vs. Tulsa
Guaranteed Rate Bowl: December 26th- Big 12 vs. Big 10- TCU vs. Nebraska
Holiday Bowl: ACC vs. Pac-12- Clemson vs. Oregon State
Military Bowl: December 27th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. American- Navy vs. Georgia Tech
Duke’s Mayo Bowl: December 27th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. SEC- Missouri vs. Miami (Florida)
TaxAct Texas Bowl: December 27th- Big 12 vs. SEC- Oklahoma State vs. Texas A&M
Wasabi Fenway Bowl: December 28th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. American- North Carolina State vs. Tulane
Bad Boy Motors Pinstripe Bowl: December 28th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. Big 10- Virginia Tech vs. Rutgers
Pop Tarts Bowl- December 28th: ACC/Notre Dame vs. Big 12-Duke vs. Kansas
Valero Alamo Bowl: December 28th- Big 12 vs. Pac-12- West Virginia vs. USC- As a result of their loss to Notre Dame the Trojans drop down to San Antonio.
As we roll on with our 2023 Week Seven Bowl Projections let’s move to the set of games just before Christmas. That includes a whopping seven games on December 23rd.
Currently, we don’t have enough bowl-eligible teams from both Conference USA and the Mid-American. As a result, we have James Madison in our picks despite not being bowl-eligible. They can only get in if there aren’t enough six-win teams, which looks more and more likely with each passing week. Following their loss to Stanford, we don’t have Colorado in this week.
Games Right Before Christmas
TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl December 23rd: American vs. SEC- Auburn vs. Memphis
Camellia Bowl- December 23rd: MAC vs. Sun Belt- Eastern Michigan vs. Coastal Carolina
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl: December 23rd- American vs. C-USA- James Madison* vs. Texas San-Antonio
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: December 23rd- MAC vs. MWC- Miami (Ohio) vs. Fresno State
68 Ventures Bowl: December 23rd- MAC vs. Sun Belt- Georgia Southern vs. North Texas
SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl: December 23rd- Big 10 vs. Pac-12- Wisconsin vs. Arizona
Easy Post Hawai’i Bowl: December 23rd- Conference USA/MWC/American- Tulsa vs. Colorado State
Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl: December 22nd- American/ACC/Notre Dame/SEC- South Carolina vs. Florida Atlantic
RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl: December 21st- Group Of Five vs. Group Of Five- Appalachian State vs. New Mexico State
We wrap up our 2023 Week Seven Bowl Projections with the first set of bowls on the schedule. That includes a massive seven-game slate on December 16th alone.
First Weekend Games
HomeTown Lenders Bahamas Bowl: December 16th- Conference USA vs. MAC- Central Michigan vs. Marshall
Cricket Celebration Bowl: December 16th- MEAC vs. SWAC- Florida A&M vs. North Carolina Central
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl: December 16th- Conference USA vs. Sun Belt- Georgia State vs. Western Kentucky
Duluth Trading Cure Bowl: December 16th- Group Of Five vs. Group Of Five- Minnesota vs. Arkansas State
Isleta New Mexico Bowl: December 16th- C-USA vs. MWC- Boise State vs. Louisiana Tech
Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl: December 16th- Pac-12 vs. Mountain West- UCLA vs. Wyoming
Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl: December 16th-Big 12 vs. Pac-12- BYU vs. Washington State
Myrtle Beach Bowl: American/MAC/Sun Belt- December 18th- Rice vs. Troy
Frisco Bowl: December 19th-Group of Five vs. Group Of Five- SMU vs. Texas State
*Denotes a replacement team.
Thanks for checking out our Week Seven 2023 Bowl Projections here at Last Word On College Football.
