Upset Saturday Changes Our Playoff Picks
Hello everyone and welcome to our 2024 Week 10 Bowl Projections. Tuesday is a very important day across the country. Not only is the country choosing a new President but we’ll also get our first playoff rankings from the selection committee. On the field, we had several upsets on Saturday. As a result, there’s a great deal of movement in our playoff teams. How much did things change from last week? You can click here. It’s the time of year when we start looking at APR rankings for possible five-win teams. As it stands right now 45 teams already have six wins. In addition, there are 25 teams with five victories. It looks like we won’t need any 5-7 teams but as we get closer it’s something to watch.
How The Process Works
If you haven’t been following along the playoff is expanding to 12 teams this year. The process goes as follows; the winners of the four 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 matchups at the higher seed. In the past week, the committee announced that due to existing bowl deals the SEC champ will play its quarterfinal game in the Sugar Bowl. The ACC champ plays in the Peach Bowl, Big 12 in the Fiesta and Big Ten in the Rose. That doesn’t change anything with our projections because that’s what we’ve been doing all along.
College Football Playoff First Round
Friday, December 20th- (12) Boise State at (5) Texas- Ashton Jeanty ran for 149 yards and two touchdowns as the Broncos beat San Diego State 56-24. He remains our Heisman favorite. The Longhorns moved up on their off week due to Penn State losing.
Saturday, December 21st- (9) Penn State at (8) Notre Dame- As a result of the eighth straight loss to Ohio State James Franklin’s club not only drops in our projections but now plays on the road.
Saturday, December 21st- (11) Alabama at (6) Ohio State- Well, well look who’s back in the playoff. That’s right the Crimson Tide. The Buckeyes move up a couple of spots after knocking off Penn State.
Saturday, December 21st- (10) Indiana at (7) Tennessee– The Hoosiers trailed for the first time all year on Saturday down 10-0. However, they quickly righted the ship rolling off 47 unanswered in beating Michigan State. The Vols are back in after beating Kentucky by 10.
College Football Playoff Quarterfinals
VRBO Fiesta Bowl- Tuesday, December 31st- (5) Texas vs. (4) BYU- The Cougars had an off week but will head to Utah Saturday night. They remain our Big 12 Champion. Texas is another club that moved up after having an off week.
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl- Wednesday, January 1st- (6) Ohio State vs. (3) Miami (Florida)- Cam Ward and the Hurricanes got all they could handle before finally putting away Duke.
Rose Bowl- Wednesday, January 1st- (7) Tennessee vs. (2) Oregon- What a match-up this one would be. Dillon Gabriel and the Ducks had no trouble on the road at Michigan.
Allstate Sugar Bowl- Wednesday, January 1st- (8) Notre Dame vs. (1) Georgia- The Bulldogs trailed 13-6 at the half before outscoring Florida 28-7 in the second.
College Football Semi-Finals And Final
Capital One Orange Bowl- Thursday, January 9th- (5) Texas vs (1) Georgia- A possible SEC title game rematch in the semi-final.
Goodyear Cotton Bowl- Friday, January 10th- (3) Miami vs. (2) Oregon- These two teams played once back in 1958. The Hurricanes won by the score of 2-0.
College Football National Championship- Monday, January 20th- (2) Oregon vs. (1) Georgia- The Bulldogs lead the all-time series 2-0.
Yes, that’s four Big Ten and four SEC teams in the College Football Playoff. That’s the way we are seeing things today. That’s a lot to digest but we’ve still got a lot more to come. Let’s move on with the 2024 Week 10 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.
Let’s check out our next set of games with our 2024 Week 10 Bowl Projections.
Games Around The New Year
TransPerfect Music City Bowl- December 30th Big Ten vs. SEC- Michigan vs. South Carolina
Reliaquest Bowl- December 31st- SEC vs. Big Ten- Ole Miss vs. Iowa- Beat Georgia on Saturday and the Rebels could be back in playoff contention.
Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl- December 31st- ACC/Notre Dame vs. Pac-12- Louisville vs. Utah
Cheez-It Citrus Bowl- December 31st- Big Ten vs. SEC- Texas A&M vs. Illinois- Following their loss to South Carolina the Aggies drop out of the playoff.
Texas Bowl- December 31st- Big 12 vs. SEC- Arkansas vs. Texas Tech
TaxSlayer Gator Bowl- January 2nd- ACC/Notre Dame vs. SEC- LSU vs. Clemson
ServPro First Responder Bowl- January 3rd- American/ACC/Big 12- Baylor vs. Sam Houston State
Duke’s Mayo Bowl- January 3rd- ACC/Notre Dame vs. Big Ten- Pittsburgh vs. Minnesota- The SEC and Big Ten alternate every other year in this contest and 2024 it’s the Big Ten’s turn.
Bahamas Bowl- January 4th- Conference USA vs. MAC- Jacksonville State vs. Western Michigan
Continuing with our 2024 Week 10 Bowl Projections let’s move to the contests held just after Christmas.
After Christmas Bowl Games
GameAbove Sports Bowl- December 26th- Big Ten vs. MAC- Michigan State vs. Toledo- There’s a new sponsor for the game played in Detroit.
Rate Bowl- December 26th- Big 12 vs. Big Ten- TCU vs. Wisconsin- We got a name change in this game. The lending and financial services company Guaranteed Rate is now simply known as Rate.
68 Ventures Bowl- December 26th- Conference USA/MAC/Sun Belt- Ohio vs. Texas State
76 Birmingham Bowl- December 27th- ACC/SEC vs. Pool- North Carolina State vs. South Florida
AutoZone Liberty Bowl- December 27th- Big 12 vs. SEC- Vanderbilt vs. Cincinnati- The Commodores beat Auburn and are bowl-eligible for the first time since 2018.
SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl- December 27th- SEC vs. Pac-12- Missouri vs. Arizona State
DirecTV Holiday Bowl- December 27th- ACC vs. Pac-12- Duke vs. Colorado
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 10 Bowl Projections.
A Huge Day Of Games
Wasabi Fenway Bowl- December 28th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. American- Virginia Tech vs. Tulane
Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl- December 28th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. Big Ten- Syracuse 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- Iowa State vs. SMU- The Cyclones’ playoff hopes took a big hit after losing to Texas Tech. On the other side of the ball, the Mustangs blew out previously unbeaten Pittsburgh and are a dark horse playoff team.
Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl- December 28th- MAC vs. Mountain West- Fresno State vs. Bowling Green
Go Bowling Military Bowl- December 28th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. American- North Carolina vs. Navy
Valero Alamo Bowl- December 28th- Big 12 vs. Pac-12- Kansas State vs. Washington State
Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl- December 28th- American vs. Pac-12- Army vs. Oregon State- The Black Knights picked up a win over Air Force without star quarterback Bryson Daily. We are keeping them in this game this week. However, should Boise State falter an AAC title game match-up between Army and Tulane could decide the Group of Five team.
Let’s finish our 2024 Week 10 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. South Carolina State
IS4S Salute To Veterans Bowl- December 14th- MAC vs. Sun Belt- Coastal Carolina vs. Northern Illinois –The former Camellia Bowl is now sponsored by Integrated Solutions for Systems.
Boca Raton Bowl- December 17th- American/Conference USA/MAC/Mountain West/Sun Belt- Georgia Southern vs. Liberty
Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl- December 17th- Pool vs. Pool- Connecticut vs. Arkansas State
LA Bowl Presented By Gronk- December 18th- Pac-12 vs. Mountain West- UNLV vs. Washington- Following their win over USC the Huskies take the Trojans’ spot in this game.
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl- December 19th- Conference USA vs. Sun Belt- Louisiana vs. Western Kentucky
Staff DNA Cure Bowl- December 20th- Pool vs. Pool- James Madison vs. Georgia Tech
Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl- December 20th- ACC/SEC vs. Pool– South Alabama vs. Boston College
Myrtle Beach Bowl- December 23rd- American/MAC/Sun Belt- Marshall vs. Eastern Michigan
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl- December 23rd- MAC vs. Mountain West- Colorado State vs. Buffalo
Hawai’i Bowl- December 24th- Conference USA vs. Mountain West- *North Texas vs. San Diego State
*Denotes a replacement team for a conference with not enough bowl-eligible teams.
Games We Are Watching This Weekend
The two biggest games of the upcoming Week 11 are both in the SEC. As we mentioned earlier Georgia travels to Ole Miss while LSU hosts Alabama. In other games Indiana welcomes Michigan and Utah hosts BYU. Thanks for checking out our 2024 Week 10 Bowl Projections here at Last Word On College Football.
