2024 Week Five Bowl Projections

Big Changes At The Top

Hello everyone and welcome to our 2024 Week Five Bowl Projections. Once or twice a year you get a weekend featuring several upsets. As a result, it turns the picks into a giant Etch-A-Sketch. That was the case this past weekend as three top-ten teams lost. That means we have a new team at the top of the chart. In addition, there’s a lot of movement within our top 12.

How The Process Works

As you are probably aware the playoff expanded to 12 teams this year. The winners of the major conferences will be seeded 1-4 by the committee. The top Group Of Five squad gets a berth, leaving seven teams fighting for the other spots. Champions of the Power Four get a first-round bye while the other eight meet in games played at the higher seed. In addition, many of the New Year’s Six games are now playoff games. With all the backstory out of the way let’s get to our picks.

College Football Playoff First Round

Friday, December 20th- (12) Boise State at (5) Alabama- Ashton Jeanty continues to put up incredible numbers week after week. For now, we’re keeping them as our Group of Five teams over UNLV and James Madison. The Crimson Tide beat Georgia in one of the best games you’ll see. As a result, they move up to fifth.

Saturday, December 21st- (9) Georgia at (8) Penn State- The Bulldogs nearly pulled out an incredible comeback win. However, their loss drops them from not only the top spot but a visitor for the first round. The Nittany Lions move up a spot and now host a first-round game.

Saturday, December 21st- (11) Iowa State at (6) Tennessee- The Cyclones make their first appearance in our playoff. Currently 3-0 they have a real chance at 10-0 before playing Utah on the next to last week of the season. The Vols had the week off but moved up a spot as well.

Saturday, December 21st- (10) Clemson vs. (7) Oregon–The Ducks take Ole Miss’s spot after their loss to Kentucky. Dabo’s Tigers move up one after easily beating Stanford.

College Football Playoff Quarterfinals

VRBO Fiesta Bowl- Tuesday, December 31st- (5) Alabama at (4) BYU- As a result of Utah’s loss to Arizona we’re projecting the Cougars as our Big 12 Champion.

Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl- Wednesday, January 1st- (6) Tennessee vs. (3) Miami (Florida)- Was it a catch or was it incomplete? The end of the Miami-Virginia Tech game will be argued for a long time.

Rose Bowl- Wednesday, January 1st- (7) Oregon vs. (2) Ohio State- If this works out we get what would have been a traditional match-up in Pasadena.

Allstate Sugar Bowl- Wednesday, January 1st- (8) Penn State vs. (1) Texas- With Georgia’s loss the Longhorns move to the top spot this week.

College Football Semi-Finals And Final

Capital One Orange Bowl- Thursday, January 9th- (5) Alabama vs (1) Texas- A rematch of the SEC title game looks likely.

Goodyear Cotton Bowl- Friday, January 10th- (3) Miami vs. (2) Ohio State- The schools have met four times with each winning twice.

College Football National Championship- Atlanta, Georgia- Monday, January 20th- (2) Ohio State vs. (1) Texas- The Longhorns hold a 2-1 lead all-time. However, they haven’t met since 2009.

Well, that’s a lot to digest but we’ve still got a lot more to come. Let’s move on with the 2024 Week Five Bowl Projections.

Filling The Void

A few things to consider as we go through the remainder of the games. With the end of the Pac-12, many of the old teams from the league are eligible to fill those bowl slots. Those are the Alamo, Holiday Independence, LA, Las Vegas, and Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl. While Oregon State and Washington State are of course eligible don’t be surprised to see former Pac-12 schools as well.

In addition, bowls try to avoid teams playing in the same game in back-to-back years. However, with all the conference swapping madness duplicates are a definite possibility. One other thing you’ll notice is with five SEC schools in the playoff we had more games with league tie-ins than we had teams.

Let’s check out our next set of games with our 2024 Week Five Bowl Projections.

Games Around The New Year

TransPerfect Music City Bowl- December 30th Big Ten vs. SEC- Illinois vs. South Carolina

Reliaquest Bowl- December 31st- SEC vs. Big Ten- Ole Miss vs. Iowa- The Rebels fall out of the playoff after their loss to Kentucky. A fun match-up awaits with a great offense versus a great defense.

Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl- December 31st- ACC/Notre Dame vs. Pac-12- Boston College vs. California- This is an interesting one with Cal representing its old conference against its new one. However, these two don’t play during the season so why not?

Cheez-It Citrus Bowl- December 31st- Big Ten vs. SEC- Missouri vs. Michigan

Texas Bowl- December 31st- Big 12 vs. SEC- Oklahoma vs. Colorado- The 4-1 Buffaloes make their first appearance in our projections. Why not a battle of former Big 8 schools?

TaxSlayer Gator Bowl- January 2nd- ACC/Notre Dame vs. SEC- LSU vs. Louisville

ServPro First Responder Bowl- January 3rd- American/ACC/Big 12- Cincinnati vs. Sam Houston State

Duke’s Mayo Bowl- January 3rd- ACC/Notre Dame vs. Big Ten- Pittsburgh vs. Indiana- The SEC and Big Ten alternate every other year in this contest and in 2024 it’s the Big Ten’s turn.

Bahamas Bowl- January 4th- Conference USA vs. MAC- Florida International vs. Bowling Green– The game is back in its normal home this year. In addition, it’s moving from the first weekend to the last non-playoff bowl.

Continuing with our 2024 Week Five Bowl Projections let’s move to the contests held just after Christmas.

After Christmas Bowl Games

Detroit Bowl- December 26th- Big Ten vs. MAC- Wisconsin vs. Northern Illinois- The Huskies have dropped two in a row since beating Notre Dame.

Guaranteed Rate Bowl- December 26th- Big 12 vs. Big Ten- West Virginia vs. Rutgers

68 Ventures Bowl- December 26th- Conference USA/MAC/Sun Belt- Ohio vs. Texas State

76 Birmingham Bowl- December 27th- ACC/SEC/American- Syracuse vs. East Carolina

Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl- December 27th- Big 12 vs. Pool- South Alabama vs. Kansas State

AutoZone Liberty Bowl- December 27th- Big 12 vs. SEC- Texas A&M vs. Central Florida

SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl- December 27th- SEC vs. Pac-12- Kentucky vs. Washington State- With the Big Ten playing in the Mayo Bowl it’s the SEC’s turn to head to Las Vegas. The Wildcats upset Ole Miss on the road winning in Oxford for the first time since 1978.

DirecTV Holiday Bowl- December 27th- ACC vs. Pac-12- SMU vs. Arizona

The biggest date as far as the number of games is December 28th with eight bowls total. Let’s go through each of them with our 2024 Week Five Bowl Projections.

A Huge Day Of Games

Wasabi Fenway Bowl- December 28th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. American- Virginia Tech vs. South Florida

Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl- December 28th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. Big Ten- Duke Carolina vs. Nebraska

Isleta New Mexico Bowl- December 28th- Mountain West vs. American/Conference USA/MAC/Sun Belt- Louisiana-Monroe vs. San Jose State

Pop-Tarts Bowl- December 28th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. Big 12- Oklahoma State vs. Notre Dame

Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl- December 28th- MAC vs. Mountain West- Utah State vs. Central Michigan

Go Bowling Military Bowl- December 28th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. American- Maryland* vs. Navy- The Terrapins make the short trip as we have no American team available.

Valero Alamo Bowl- December 28th- Big 12 vs. Pac-12- Utah vs. USC

Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl- December 28th- Army/ American vs. Pac-12- Army vs. Arizona State

Army and Navy are both 4-0 and are well on their way to six wins. That’s important because they’ll need to get to six before meeting on December 14th. The reason is final bowl selections are the Sunday before.

Let’s finish up our 2024 Week Five Bowl Projections with a look at the first slate of contests.

Early Season Bowl Games

Cricket Celebration Bowl- December 14th- MEAC vs. SWAC- Jackson State vs. Howard

Camellia Bowl- December 14th- MAC vs. Sun Belt- Louisiana vs. Texas San-Antonio

Boca Raton Bowl- December 17th- American/Conference USA/MAC/Mountain West/Sun Belt- Georgia Southern vs. Western Kentucky

Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl- December 17th- American/Conference USA/MAC/Mountain West/Sun Belt- Georgia Tech vs. Texas Tech

LA Bowl Presented By Gronk- December 18th- Pac-12 vs. Mountain West- UNLV vs. Oregon State- Despite all the craziness around the Rebels program over the last week they had no trouble with Fresno State.

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl- December 19th- Conference USA vs. Sun Belt- Coastal Carolina vs. Liberty

Staff DNA Cure Bowl- December 20th American/Conference USA/MAC/Mountain West/Sun Belt- James Madison vs. North Texas- The Dukes again just missed being our Group Of Five team.

Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl- December 20th- American vs. ACC/SEC– Memphis vs. Michigan State *

Myrtle Beach Bowl- December 23rd- American/MAC/Sun Belt- Appalachian State vs. Toledo

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl- December 23rd- MAC vs. Mountain West- Colorado State vs. Buffalo

Hawai’i Bowl- December 24th- Conference USA vs. Mountain West- Fresno State vs. Tulane

*Denotes a replacement team for a conference without enough bowl-eligible teams.

Games We Are Watching This Weekend

While not as huge of a slate as this past weekend there are a few contests we are closely monitoring. Those include Missouri at Texas A&M, SMU at Louisville, and Ole Miss at South Carolina.

Thanks for checking out the 2024 Week Five Bowl Projections here at Last Word On College Football.