Hello everyone and welcome to our Last Word On College Football 2023 Week Nine Bowl Projections. It’s a big week because the selection committee releases its first rankings. After that, we’ll have a better idea of how things play out going forward.
Speaking of things playing out it was another exciting weekend of college football. Georgia showed no effects of missing Brock Bowers. Some of our top teams struggled or lost this week. In addition, the allegations of sign stealing against Michigan continued to grow. The Wolverines had the week off before hosting Purdue this Saturday. In addition, we had more bowl news we’ll get to as we go along. As always if you’d like to see how things changed from last week click here.
Last Projections Before The Selection Committee Speaks
College Football Playoff
Rose Bowl: January 1st- (2)- Michigan vs. (3)- Florida State- Will the off-the-field issues affect Jim Harbaugh’s club? Time will tell over the next few weeks. The Seminoles had no trouble on the road at Wake Forest winning 41-16.
Sugar Bowl: January 1st- (1)- Georgia vs. (4)- Washington- The Bulldogs easily handled Florida 43-20 in the yearly game in Jacksonville. For the second week in a row, the Huskies struggled with a team they were much better than. Michael Penix threw for 369 yards and four touchdowns as they held off Stanford 42-33.
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- Notre Dame vs. Texas- Following their 58-7 blowout over Pittsburgh the Fighting Irish roar back into our rankings. We think Marcus Freeman’s club will finish 10-2 and should be good enough for a New Year’s Six bid. It was no Quinn Ewers no problem for the Longhorns against BYU.
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl: December 30th- Alabama vs. Oklahoma- Despite their loss to Kansas we are keeping the Sooners in the selection committee games. Now if they lose to Oklahoma State this week then it’s a different story.
Capital One Orange Bowl: December 30th- Louisville vs. Ohio State– The Cardinals’ spectacular season continued with a 23-0 win over Duke. Ryan Day’s squad got a nice road win over Wisconsin.
VRBO Fiesta Bowl: January 1st- Air Force vs. Oregon- The Falcons are 8-0 for the first time since 1985. They remain our Group Of Five team. The Ducks had one of the most impressive wins of the week beating Utah 35-6.
Continuing with our 2023 Week Nine 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.
Last week we said we’d talk about the APR rankings and many of the Top 25 schools are already projected to be bowl eligible. However, some of the teams who aren’t are as follows. Northwestern (1), Wake Forest (8), and South Carolina (23). If any of those squads get to five wins they’ll be the first ones eligible. In fact, we have the Wildcats in this week as a potential five-win club.
Games Around the New Year
Cheez-It Citrus Bowl: January 1st- Big 10 vs. SEC- Ole Miss vs. Penn State- Notre Dame’s gain is Penn State’s loss as they drop down to Orlando this week.
ReliaQuest Bowl: January 1st- SEC vs. Big 10- LSU vs. Miami (Florida)- With Notre Dame moving up we’re still keeping an ACC team rather than the normal Big 10 squad.
TransPerfect Music City Bowl: December 30th- SEC vs. Big 10- Florida vs. Nebraska
Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl: December 30th- MAC vs. MWC– UNLV vs. Toledo
TaxSlayer Gator Bowl: December 29th- SEC vs. Big 10 or ACC/Notre Dame- North Carolina vs. Tennessee
Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl: December 29th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. Pac-12- Boston College vs. USC- The Trojans host Washington in arguably the biggest game of the weekend.
AutoZone Liberty Bowl: December 29th- Big 12 vs. SEC- Auburn vs. West Virginia
Post Christmas Games
Quick Lane Bowl: December 26th- Big 10 vs. MAC- Northwestern vs. Ohio
SERVPRO First Responder Bowl: December 26th- American/ACC/Big 12/ SEC- Iowa State vs. Rice
Guaranteed Rate Bowl: December 26th- Big 12 vs. Big 10- TCU vs. Minnesota
DirecTV Holiday Bowl: December 27th- ACC vs. Pac-12- Clemson vs. Oregon State- Sometimes these things write themselves. The new sponsor of the game in San Diego featuring a Pac-12 team is a television provider that doesn’t carry the Pac-12 Network.
Military Bowl: December 27th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. American- Georgia Tech vs. Navy
Duke’s Mayo Bowl: December 27th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. SEC- Missouri vs. North Carolina State
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- Syracuse 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- Kansas State vs. Utah
As we roll on with our 2023 Week Nine Bowl Projections let’s move to the set of games just before Christmas. That includes a whopping seven games on December 23rd.
Currently, we’re thinking there’s only going to be about 78 bowl-eligible teams. As a result, we have both James Madison and Jacksonville State 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.
Games Right Before Christmas
TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl December 23rd: American vs. SEC- Kentucky vs. South Florida- A month ago we had the Wildcats in line for a January 1st game. However, three straight losses leave them at the bottom of the SEC bowl pool.
Camellia Bowl- December 23rd: MAC vs. Sun Belt- Bowling Green vs. Coastal Carolina
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl: December 23rd- Big 12 vs. Pool- Maryland* vs. Mississippi State
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: December 23rd- MAC vs. MWC- Miami (Ohio) vs. San Jose State
68 Ventures Bowl: December 23rd- Pool vs. Sun Belt- Georgia Southern vs. Florida Atlantic
RS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl: December 23rd- Big 10 vs. Pac-12- Iowa vs. Arizona- The Wildcats are one of the hottest teams in the Pac-12 after back-to-back wins over Washington State and Oregon State.
Easy Post Hawai’i Bowl: December 23rd- Conference USA/MWC/American- SMU vs. Wyoming
Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl: December 22nd- American/ACC/Notre Dame/SEC- Memphis vs. James Madison*
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 Nine 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- We now know the site of this year’s Bahamas Bowl and it is…Charlotte. No really.
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. Liberty- There’s a chance the Flames could end up undefeated. If the Air Force were to stumble you could make the case for them being the group of five teams.
Duluth Trading Cure Bowl: December 16th- Group Of Five vs. Group Of Five- Jacksonville State vs. Louisiana
Isleta New Mexico Bowl: December 16th- C-USA vs. MWC- Boise State vs. Western Kentucky
LA Bowl Hosted By Gronk: December 16th- Pac-12 vs. Mountain West- UCLA vs. Fresno State- In case you hadn’t heard Rob Gronkowski is now the title sponsor of the game replacing Jimmy Kimmel.
Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl: December 16th-Big 12 vs. Pac-12- BYU vs. Washington State
Myrtle Beach Bowl: American/MAC/Sun Belt- December 18th- Northern Illinois vs. Troy
Frisco Bowl: December 19th-Group of Five vs. Group Of Five- Texas San-Antonio vs. Texas State
*Denotes a replacement team.
Thanks for checking out our Week Nine 2023 Bowl Projections here at Last Word On College Football.
