SEC Shakeup Highlights The Week
Welcome to our 2025 Bowl Projections After Week 12. For the most part, it was a pretty status quo week. However, the one big exception was in the SEC. Texas A&M rallied from down 30-3 and got past South Carolina 31-30. That keeps them near the top of our ranking this week. One school that wasn’t as lucky was Alabama, which fell at home to Oklahoma. How far do the Crimson Tide drop after that loss, and is their big win enough to get Brent Venables’ Sooners into our top 12?
A little bit of housekeeping, we are now up to 64 teams with six wins and are bowl eligible. In addition, we have 25 squads with five wins. As a result, we don’t think we’re going to need the APR ratings this year. We’ll reserve the right to revisit it next week if needed. With the preliminaries out of the way, let’s get to our latest bowl projections. As always, if you’d like to see what changed from last week, click here.
College Football Playoff First Round
Friday, December 19th – (12) North Texas at (5) Texas Tech- The Mean Green took care of UAB 53-24 and remains our Group Of Five team. They should be favored in their last two games. On the other side of the ball, the Red Raiders continue to roll, blowing out Central Florida by 39. Joey McGuire’s club is off this week before finishing the regular season at West Virginia.
Saturday, December 20th- (11) Georgia Tech at (6) Ole Miss- For most of Saturday, our projection moving the Yellow Jackets back to our ACC Champion looked shaky at best. However, Haynes King rallied the troops for a 36-34 win over Boston College. Lane Kiffin’s future continues to be the talk of the coaching world. They also had to rally to beat Florida by 10.
Saturday, December 20th- (10) Alabama at (7) Oregon- The Crimson Tide takes the biggest tumble of the week, down six spots to 10th. Dante Moore and the Ducks had no problem with Rutgers. They host USC on Saturday in one of the weekend’s biggest games.
Saturday, December 20th- (9)- Notre Dame at (8) Oklahoma- The Fighting Irish blitzed Pittsburgh on the road and should be favored in their last two. As a result of their big win over Alabama, the Sooners re-enter our top 12 this week.
College Football Playoff Quarterfinals
Goodyear Cotton Bowl: Wednesday, December 31st- (5) Texas Tech vs. (4) Georgia- What a crazy atmosphere this would be if these two end up meeting. The Bulldogs move up a spot after dispatching Texas on Saturday.
Capital One Orange Bowl: Thursday, January 1st- (6) Ole Miss vs. (3) Indiana- Fernando Mendoza and the Hoosiers had no trouble with Wisconsin. These two schools have never met.
Rose Bowl Game: Thursday, January 1st– (9) Notre Dame vs. (1) Ohio State- We’re going with the Irish to get past Oklahoma and set up a battle with the top-seeded Buckeyes.
Allstate Sugar Bowl: Thursday, January 1st- (7) Oregon vs. (2) Texas A&M- As we mentioned earlier, it took the biggest comeback in school history to keep the Aggies unbeaten.
Semi-Finals and Final
VRBO Fiesta Bowl: Thursday, January 8th- (4) Georgia vs. (1) Ohio State- The Bulldogs lead the all-time series 2-0.
The Crimson Tide leads the all-time series 4-1.
Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl: Friday, January 9th- (3) Indiana vs. (2) Texas A&M- These two schools have never met on the gridiron.
College Football National Championship: Monday, January 19th- (3) Indiana vs. (1) Ohio State- We’re going with an all-Big Ten final this week.
That’s your breakdown of the playoff for this week. Continuing with our 2025 Bowl Projections After Week 12, let’s move to the games around the New Year.
Filling The Void
Once again, this season, legacy Pac-12 teams can be slotted to games featuring that league. However, that will change next year when the conference starts fresh. As always, we’ll try not to pair them with teams they’ve already played.
In addition, with it being 2025, the SEC plays in the Mayo Bowl while the Big Ten goes to the Las Vegas Bowl. Furthermore, for the second time in three years, the Bahamas Bowl won’t be played there. No word yet on what a replacement game might be called.
One other thing to note, with Oklahoma now in the playoff, we’ve got four fewer SEC bowl-eligible teams than bowls. However, we’re filling one of the slots this week with a new team.
Games Around The New Year
Music City Bowl: December 30th- Big Ten vs. SEC- Nebraska vs. LSU
Valero Alamo Bowl: December 30th- Big 12 vs. Pac-12- Houston vs. USC+-The Trojans go to San Antonio as a legacy Pac-12 member.
Radience Technologies Independence Bowl: December 30th- Big 12 vs. Conference USA- Kansas State vs. Kennesaw State
Reliaquest Bowl: December 31st- SEC vs. Big Ten- Tennessee vs. Illinois
Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl: December 31st- ACC/Notre Dame vs. Pac-12- SMU vs. Washington State
Cheez-It Citrus Bowl: December 31st- Big Ten vs. SEC- Michigan vs. Texas
SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl: December 31st- Big Ten vs. Pac-12- Iowa vs. Arizona State- *The Sun Devils go as a legacy Pac-12 team.
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl: January 2nd- Big 12 vs. American/Conference USA/Sun Belt- Army vs. New Mexico
Autozone Liberty Bowl: January 2nd- Big 12 vs. SEC- TCU vs. Clemson- With no SEC team available, we are sending the Tigers to Memphis.
Duke’s Mayo Bowl: January 2nd- ACC/Notre Dame vs. SEC- Kentucky vs. Pittsburgh- A rematch of the 2011 Birmingham Bowl, anyone? A month ago, the Wildcats’ season was thought to be over. However,
after three straight wins, Mark Stoops’ squad is on our list this week. They’ve still got work to do in the fact that they must beat either Vanderbilt or Louisville to get to six wins.
Holiday Bowl: January 2nd- ACC vs. Pac-12- Virginia vs. Utah+- The Utes go to San Diego as a legacy Pac-12 squad. This is the first time the game will be played in January.
Moving on with our 2025 Bowl Projections After Week 12, let’s look at the games right after the big holiday.
Post-Christmas Games
Game Above Sports Bowl: December 26th- Big Ten vs. MAC- Northwestern vs. Buffalo
Rate Bowl- December 26th: Big Ten vs. Big 12- Minnesota vs. Iowa State
SERVPRO First Responder Bowl: December 26th- AAC/ACC/Big 12- Arizona vs. Utah State
Go Bowling Military Bowl: December 27th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. American- Navy vs. Wake Forest
Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl: December 27th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. Big Ten- Duke vs. Rutgers
Wasabi Fenway Bowl: December 27th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. American- North Carolina State vs. Temple
Pop-Tarts Bowl: December 27th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. Big 12- Miami (Florida) vs. BYU- We’ve dropped the Cougars out of the playoff this week and are now headed to Orlando.
Snoop Dog Arizona Bowl: December 27th- MAC vs. Mountain West- Western Michigan vs. Fresno State
Isleta New Mexico Bowl: December 27th- Mountain West vs. American/Conference USA/MAC/Sun Belt- Boise State vs. Arkansas State
TaxSlayer Gator Bowl: December 27th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. SEC- Louisville vs. Vanderbilt
Kinder’s Texas Bowl: December 27th- Big 12 vs. SEC- Missouri vs. Cincinnati
JLab Birmingham Bowl: December 29th- American/ACC/SEC- Troy vs. East Carolina
Moving on with our 2025 Bowl Projections After Week 12, let’s move to the season’s initial games.
First Weekend Games
Cricket Celebration Bowl- December 13th- MEAC vs. SWAC- Delaware State vs. Jackson State
LA Bowl Hosted by Gronk: December 13th- Mountain West vs. Pac-12- San Diego State vs. Washington+ The Huskies go to LA as a legacy Pac-12 squad.
IS4S Salute To Veterans Bowl: December 16th- Mid-American vs. Sun Belt- Central Michigan vs. Coastal Carolina
68 Ventures Bowl: December 17th- Conference USA/Mid-American/Sun Belt- Toledo vs. Texas State
StaffDNA Cure Bowl: December 17th- American/Conference USA/Sun Belt- South Florida vs. UCONN
Myrtle Beach Bowl: December 19th- Conference USA/MAC/Sun Belt- Marshall vs. Jacksonville State
Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl: December 19th- American/ACC/Notre Dame/SEC- Memphis vs. California
Bowls Right Before Christmas
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: December 22nd- Mountain West vs. MAC- UNLV vs. Ohio
Boca Raton Bowl: December 23rd- American/Conference USA/MAC/Mountain West/Sun Belt- James Madison vs. Louisiana Tech. The Dukes are another team to watch down the stretch. Should one or more of the American teams falter, then they could grab the Group of Five bid.
New Orleans Bowl: December 23rd- Conference USA vs. Sun Belt– Western Kentucky vs. Southern Mississippi
Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl: December 23rd- AAC/CUSA/MAC/MWC/SBC- Texas San-Antonio vs. Old Dominion
Sheraton Hawai’i Bowl: December 24th- American vs. Mountain West- Tulane vs. Hawaii
To Be Announced Bowl Game-
Former Bahamas Bowl: Conference USA vs. MAC – Florida International vs. Miami (Ohio). We don’t know the title or where the game will be played, but we have a matchup.
What We’re Watching
For a lot of schools, the upcoming week is a bye week, or they are stepping out of conference for their games. However, there are a few big games. In addition to USC and Oregon, BYU travels to Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh heads to Georgia Tech. Thanks for checking out our bowl projections after Week 12 here at Last Word On College Football.
Main Image: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
