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Capital One Orange Bowl: Thursday, January 1st- (7) Texas A&M vs. (2) Ohio State- <\/strong>The Buckeyes’ loss to the Hoosiers only drops them one spot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
Rose Bowl Game: Thursday, January 1st\u2013 (9) Notre Dame vs. (1) Indiana-\u00a0<\/strong>The Hoosiers knocked off Ohio State and go to Pasadena as the Big Ten champion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nAllstate Sugar Bowl: Thursday, January 1st- (6) Ole Miss vs. (3) Georgia- <\/strong>The Bulldogs beat Alabama 28-7 and go to New Orleans as the SEC champs. This is a rematch of the epic game from earlier in the year.<\/p>\n\n
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Semi-Finals and Final<\/h3>\n\n
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VRBO Fiesta Bowl: Thursday, January 8th- (4) Texas Tech vs. (1) Indiana-\u00a0<\/strong>These two schools have never met before.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl: Friday, January 9th- (3) Georgia vs. (2) Ohio State-\u00a0<\/strong>Georgia leads the all-time series 2-0.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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College Football National Championship: Monday, January 19th- (2) Indiana vs. (1) Ohio State- <\/strong>We’re going with a Big Ten Championship game rematch in the title game.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
That\u2019s your breakdown of the playoff for this week. Continuing with our 2025 Final Bowl Projections, let\u2019s move to the games around the New Year.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Filling The Void<\/h3>\n\n
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\u2019ll try not to pair them with teams they\u2019ve already played.<\/div>\n
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In addition, in 2025, the SEC was supposed to play in the Mayo Bowl while the Big Ten goes to the Las Vegas Bowl. However, you’ll see no one from the SEC is playing in Charlotte. Furthermore, we finally got a name and a place for the former Bahamas Bowl.
\nOne other thing to note, we\u2019ve ended up with four fewer SEC bowl-eligible teams than bowls. That means we had to get creative with some of our picks.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Games Around The New Year<\/h3>\n\n
Music City Bowl: December 30th- Big Ten vs. SEC- Illinois vs. LSU<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Valero Alamo Bowl: December 30th- Big 12 vs. Pac-12- Houston vs. +USC- <\/strong>The\u00a0Trojans go to San Antonio as a legacy Pac-12 member.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Radience Technologies Independence Bowl: December 30th- Big 12 vs. Conference USA- Rice vs. Kennesaw State-\u00a0<\/strong>We had Kansas State playing in Shreveport. However, they reportedly declined a bowl bid, so Rice is the first 5-7 squad with their APR scores.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Reliaquest Bowl: December 31st- SEC vs. Big Ten- Vanderbilt vs. Iowa<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl: December 31st- ACC\/Notre Dame vs. Pac-12- Georgia Tech vs. +Arizona State- <\/strong>The Sun Devils go to El Paso as a legacy Pac-12 team.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Cheez-It Citrus Bowl: December 31st- Big Ten vs. SEC- Michigan vs. Texas<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl: December 31st- Big Ten vs. Pac-12- Nebraska vs. Utah- #<\/strong>The Utes go as a legacy Pac-12 team.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl: January 2nd- Big 12 vs. American\/Conference USA\/Sun Belt- Army vs. New Mexico<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Autozone Liberty Bowl: January 2nd- Big 12 vs. SEC- TCU vs. North Texas- <\/strong>With no SEC team available, we are sending the Mean Green to Memphis.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Duke\u2019s Mayo Bowl: January 2nd- ACC\/Notre Dame vs. SEC- vs. Duke vs. UCONN- <\/strong>With no SEC team available, we are sending the Huskies to Charlotte to face the Blue Devils.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Holiday Bowl: January 2nd- ACC vs. Pac-12- SMU vs. Arizona+- <\/strong>The Wildcats go to San Diego as a legacy Pac-12 squad. This is the first time the game will be played in January.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Moving on with our 2025 Final Bowl Projections, let\u2019s look at the games right after the big holiday.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Post-Christmas Games<\/h3>\n\n
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Game Above Sports Bowl: December 26th- Big Ten vs. MAC- Minnesota vs. Western Michigan<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Rate Bowl- December 26th: Big Ten vs. Big 12- Northwestern vs. Cincinnati\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
SERVPRO First Responder Bowl: December 26th- AAC\/ACC\/Big 12- Texas San-Antonio vs. Utah State<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Go Bowling Military Bowl: December 27th- ACC\/Notre Dame vs. American- Navy vs. Wake Forest<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl: December 27th- ACC\/Notre Dame vs. Big Ten- Clemson vs. Penn State<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Wasabi Fenway Bowl: December 27th- ACC\/Notre Dame vs. American- Pittsburgh vs. Memphis<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Pop-Tarts Bowl: December 27th- ACC\/Notre Dame vs. Big 12- Virginia vs. BYU<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Snoop Dog Arizona Bowl: December 27th- MAC vs. Mountain West- Toledo vs. Fresno State<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Isleta New Mexico Bowl: December 27th- Mountain West vs. American\/Conference USA\/MAC\/Sun Belt- UNLV vs. Washington State<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
TaxSlayer Gator Bowl: December 27th- ACC\/Notre Dame vs. SEC- Miami (Florida) vs. Tennessee<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Kinder\u2019s Texas Bowl: December 27th- Big 12 vs. SEC- Missouri vs. Iowa State<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
JLab Birmingham Bowl: December 29th- American\/ACC\/SEC- Troy vs. Florida International<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Moving on with our 2025 Final Bowl Projections, let\u2019s move to the season\u2019s initial games.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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First Weekend Games<\/h3>\nCricket Celebration Bowl- December 13th- MEAC vs. SWAC- Delaware State vs. Prairie View A&M-\u00a0<\/strong>The Panthers knocked off Jackson State and will face the Bulldogs.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Bucked Up LA Bowl Hosted by Gronk: December 13th- Mountain West vs. Pac-12-* Boise State vs. *Washington+-<\/strong> The Broncos took care of UNLV and won the Mountain West. As a result, they head to Los Angeles. The Huskies go to LA as a legacy Pac-12 squad. Both teams have accepted bids to this one.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
IS4S Salute To Veterans Bowl: December 16th- Mid-American vs. Sun Belt- Central Michigan vs. Coastal Carolina<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
68 Ventures Bowl: December 17th- Conference USA\/Mid-American\/Sun Belt- *Delaware vs. *Louisiana-\u00a0<\/strong>Both teams have accepted bids.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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StaffDNA Cure Bowl: December 17th- American\/Conference USA\/Sun Belt- *South Florida vs. *Old Dominion- <\/strong>Both teams have accepted bids to play in Orlando.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
XBox Bowl- December 18th- Conference USA vs. Sun Belt- *Missouri State vs. *Arkansas State-<\/strong> Earlier this week, we found out the name for the former Bahamas Bowl. It will be played in Frisco, Texas. In addition, we know who is playing as both teams have accepted bids already.<\/div>\n\n
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Myrtle Beach Bowl: December 19th- Conference USA\/MAC\/Sun Belt- Georgia Southern vs. Jacksonville State<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl: December 19th- American\/ACC\/Notre Dame\/SEC-\u00a0 Louisville vs. East Carolina<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Bowls Right Before Christmas<\/h3>\nFamous Idaho Potato Bowl: December 22nd- Mountain West vs. MAC- San Diego State vs. Ohio<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Bush\u2019s Boca Raton Bowl Of Beans: December 23rd- American\/Conference USA\/MAC\/Mountain West\/Sun Belt- Texas State vs. Louisiana Tech. <\/strong>It was announced that Bush\u2019s is now the corporate sponsor. No word on whether the winning coach gets a bunch of beans dumped on him.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
New Orleans Bowl: December 23rd- Conference USA vs. Sun Belt\u2013 Western Kentucky vs. Southern Mississippi<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Scooter\u2019s Coffee Frisco Bowl: December 23rd- AAC\/CUSA\/MAC\/MWC\/SBC- Washington State vs. North Carolina State- <\/strong>With no ACC playoff team, we had more teams than games. So we’re sending the Wolfpack to Texas.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Sheraton Hawai\u2019i Bowl: December 24th- American vs. Mountain West- *California vs. *Hawaii- <\/strong>Both teams have accepted bids to play in Hawaii.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Once again, thanks for checking out our 2025 Final Bowl Projections here at Last Word On College Football. We’ll be back during the summer for our way-too-early 2026 picks.<\/div>\n
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Main Image: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our Last Picks For The Year Hello everyone, and welcome back to our 2025 Final Bowl Projections. Once again, a huge thank you to everyone who’s followed along since the first picks back in the summer. Championship weekend has come and gone, and for the most part, things went according to plan. That’s until the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":877,"featured_media":52357,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6,5,2,17,3],"tags":[8945,9802],"class_list":["post-83494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acc","category-big12","category-bigten","category-featured","category-news","category-sec","tag-dante-moore","tag-will-stein"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/877"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83494"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83564,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83494\/revisions\/83564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}