Another Week And More Changes
Hello everyone and welcome to our 2024 Week 11 Bowl Projections. A huge thank you to everyone who has been following along this year. The big news of the past week is we heard from the selection committee for the first time. As a result, we now have a better idea of how they see the college football landscape.
On the field, it was another wild Saturday as the previous favorites for the ACC and SEC (Miami and Georgia) both lost. For the SEC it sets up a wild scenario in which as many as six teams could play for the championship and make a case for the playoff. That situation likely plays itself out over the next couple of weeks but makes for good conversation. The ACC is a little more clear while a new team is in contention in the Big 12. With that out of the way let’s get to our 2024 Week 11 Bowl Projections. As always you can click here to see how things changed from last week.
How The Process Works
The playoff expanded 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. 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) Ohio State- Ashton Jeanty ran for 209 yards and three touchdowns in the Broncos closer than expected win over Nevada. The Buckeyes had no trouble with Purdue and travel to Northwestern before hosting Indiana in two weeks.
Saturday, December 21st- (9) Georgia at (8) Notre Dame- Maybe a bit of a controversial take but we still have the Bulldogs in after losing at Ole Miss. Assuming they beat Tennessee they’ll be in the playoff. The Fighting Irish had no trouble with Florida State 52-3.
Saturday, December 21st- (11) Indiana at (6) Tennessee- Curt Cignetti’s Hoosiers are 10-0 for the first time in school history after getting past Michigan. The Vols got a scare when Nico Iamaleava exited the win over Mississippi State with an injury. Coach Josh Heupel expects him to play on Saturday.
Saturday, December 21st- (10) Alabama at (7) Penn State– The Crimson Tide made easy work of LSU winning by 29. PSU had no trouble with Washington and should finish 11-1 but likely miss the Big Ten title game.
College Football Playoff Quarterfinals
VRBO Fiesta Bowl- Tuesday, December 31st- (5) Ohio State vs. (4) Miami- The Hurricanes have been playing with fire all year. Saturday it finally got them in a five-point loss to Georgia Tech. We still have them winning the ACC but SMU is right on their heels.
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl- Wednesday, January 1st- (6) Tennessee vs. (3) BYU- As a result of Miami’s loss the Cougars move up a spot. Lots of controversy at the end of the “Holy War” against Utah. At the end of the day, the Cougars are still undefeated and our Big 12 pick.
Rose Bowl- Wednesday, January 1st- (9) Georgia vs. (1) Oregon- We thought about moving Dillon Gabriel and the Ducks up to number one last week. Georgia’s loss made it much easier.
Allstate Sugar Bowl- Wednesday, January 1st- (10) Alabama vs. (2) Texas- Unless they meet in the SEC Championship game we’ve got a heck of a match up in New Orleans.
College Football Semi-Finals And Final
Capital One Orange Bowl- Thursday, January 9th- (6) Tennessee vs (2) Texas- An all-SEC semi-final of two teams who didn’t play this year.
Goodyear Cotton Bowl- Friday, January 10th- (5) Ohio State vs (1) Oregon- A possible third meeting is on the horizon if our projections play out.
College Football National Championship- Monday, January 20th- (2) Texas vs. (1) Oregon- These two teams have met six times in history. The Longhorns won the first four while the Ducks the last two.
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 11 Bowl Projections.
Filling The Void
A few things to consider as we go through the remainder of the games. Many of the old teams from the Pac-12 are eligible to fill those bowl slots. Those are the Alamo, Holiday Independence, L.A., 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 11 Bowl Projections.
One more thing, currently we have 53 bowl-eligible teams for 82 slots. However the ACC has six teams with five wins, the Big Ten five and the Big 12 three. Seeing which teams get to six wins over the next three weeks is going to be fascinating to watch. We still don’t believe there will be any 5-7 teams needed this year.
Games Around The New Year
TransPerfect Music City Bowl- December 30th Big Ten vs. SEC- Wisconsin vs. LSU
Reliaquest Bowl- December 31st- SEC vs. Big Ten- Texas A&M vs. Iowa
Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl- December 31st- ACC/Notre Dame vs. Pac-12- Pittsburgh vs. USC
Cheez-It Citrus Bowl- December 31st- Big Ten vs. SEC- Ole Miss vs. Illinois- Despite the win over Georgia we have the Rebels just outside the playoff. Since Iowa played in the Citrus Bowl last year we are putting in the Fighting Illini.
Texas Bowl- December 31st- Big 12 vs. SEC- Arkansas vs. Kansas State
TaxSlayer Gator Bowl- January 2nd- ACC/Notre Dame vs. SEC- Texas A&M 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- Louisville vs. Minnesota
Bahamas Bowl- January 4th- Conference USA vs. MAC- Jacksonville State vs. Western Michigan
Continuing with our 2024 Week 11 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- Texas Tech vs. Michigan- The Wolverines must beat Northwestern or upset Ohio State to get to six wins.
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. TCU
AutoZone Liberty Bowl- December 27th- Big 12 vs. SEC- Vanderbilt vs. West Virginia- By virtue of their win over Cincinnati the Mountaineers now head to Memphis.
SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl- December 27th- SEC vs. Pac-12- Missouri vs. Washington
DirecTV Holiday Bowl- December 27th- ACC vs. Pac-12- Duke vs. Arizona State
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 11 Bowl Projections.
A Huge Day Of Games
Wasabi Fenway Bowl- December 28th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. American- North Carolina 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- Colorado vs. SMU- It’s looking more likely the Big 12 title game will feature the Buffaloes and BYU. Just the way we all predicted back in August. The Mustangs are now in the driver’s seat for an ACC title game berth.
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- Georgia Tech vs. Navy
Valero Alamo Bowl- December 28th- Big 12 vs. Pac-12- Iowa State vs. Washington State
Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl- December 28th- American vs. Pac-12- Army vs. Cincinnati – The Black Knights got all they could handle before beating North Texas. We don’t have a Pac-12 (or a former league team available this week.) So we’re sending the Bearcats to Shreveport.
Let’s finish our 2024 Week 11 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. Cal
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. Virginia Tech
Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl- December 20th- ACC/SEC vs. Pool– North Texas 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- *East Carolina vs. Buffalo
Hawai’i Bowl- December 24th- Conference USA vs. Mountain West- *Memphis vs. Colorado State
*Denotes a replacement team for a conference with not enough bowl-eligible teams.
Games We Are Watching This Weekend
We’ve mentioned it a couple of times but the biggest matchup is Tennessee at Georgia. A couple of others to watch are Boise State at San Jose State and Missouri at South Carolina.
Thanks for checking out our 2024 Week 11 Bowl Projections.
