2017-2018 College Football Bowl Projections


College Football Bowl ProjectionsBelow are listed our most updated projections for the college football bowl games. This year, there are a total of 40 bowl games and teams must have a record of 6-6 or better to be eligible for a bowl game. If there are not enough teams that are eligible to qualify, teams that are 5-7 will be eligible based on which teams have the highest APR.

For our college football bowl projections, we place teams in the bowls using the same criteria that the bowl people use. For a full list of bowl affiliations, 2017-2018 College Football Bowl Tie-Ins For Each Conference is a great reference point. For all of our rankings on each of these teams, go to NCAA FBS Ratings.

It is important to note that these are forward looking projections of the current season. This means that the bowl projections are different than if the season ended today. We look ahead and project match ups in the future to help determine who is most likely to lock in the different bowl slots.

Below are a list of teams that are not projected to hit the minimum of six wins to become automatically eligible for a bowl game.

Note #1: ** means that the team has not ended their season and could still reach 6-6

Bowl Eligibility by APR

Team APR Wins Losses
Minnesota 992 5 7
Vanderbilt 992 5 7
Indiana 982 5 7
Georgia Tech 983 5 6
California 978 5 7
Colorado 968 5 7
Tulane 967 5 7
UNLV 943 5 7

As it stands, the bowls will not have to dip into the pool of five win teams this year.

Note #2: BOLD denotes that the team has accepted a bid to the bowl.

Originally published on 8/2/2017.

This blog is projecting where each team will end up in a bowl. Once bowl bids are announced, you can find our score projections for the bowl games at our game projections page.

College Football Bowl Projections

Date Bowl Location Team 1 Team 2
12/16/2017 Camelia Montgomery, AL C Michigan Georgia St
12/16/2017 Cure Orlando, FL SMU New Mexico St
12/16/2017 Las Vegas Las Vegas, NV Boise St Oregon
12/16/2017 New Mexico Albuquerque, NM UT San Antonio Fresno St
12/16/2017 New Orleans New Orleans, LA Troy Marshall
12/19/2017 Boca Raton Boca Raton, FL Temple FL Atlantic
12/20/2017 Frisco Frisco, TX Houston UCLA*
12/21/2017 Potato Boise, ID N Illinois San Diego St
12/21/2017 Gasparilla St. Petersburg, FL South Florida Florida Intl
12/22/2017 Bahamas Nassau, BS UAB Ohio
12/23/2017 Dollar General Mobile, AL Toledo Appalachian St
12/23/2017 Armed Forces Fort Worth, TX Army Akron*
12/23/2017 Birmingham Birmingham, AL Memphis WKU*
12/24/2017 Hawaii Honolulu, HI Louisiana Tech* Colorado St
12/26/2017 Quick Lane Detroit, MI Duke MTSU*
12/26/2017 Heart of Dallas Dallas, TX North Texas Texas Tech
12/26/2017 Military Annapolis, MD Virginia Navy
12/26/2017 Cactus Tempe, AZ Kansas St Arizona St
12/27/2017 Independence Shreveport, LA Florida St Southern Miss
12/27/2017 Holiday San Diego, CA Northwestern Washington St
12/27/2017 Pinstripe New York, NY Boston College Iowa
12/27/2017 Texas Houston, TX West Virginia Utah*
12/27/2017 Foster Farms Santa Clara, CA Michigan Stanford
12/28/2017 Camping World Orlando, FL Virginia Tech Iowa St
12/28/2017 Alamo San Antonio, TX Oklahoma St Washington
12/29/2017 Belk Charlotte, NC Wake Forest Texas A&M
12/29/2017 Sun El Paso, NM NC State Arizona
12/29/2017 Music City Nashville, TN Purdue Kentucky
12/30/2017 Arizona Tucson, AZ Arkansas St Wyoming
12/30/2017 Liberty Memphis, TN Texas Missouri
12/30/2017 TaxSlayer Jacksonville, FL Louisville Mississippi St
1/1/2018 Citrus Orlando, FL Notre Dame South Carolina
1/1/2018 Outback Tampa, FL Michigan St LSU

New Year’s Bowl Projections

Date Bowl Location Team 1 Team 2
12/29/2017 Cotton Arlington, TX Penn St TCU
12/30/2017 Orange Miami, FL Miami FL Wisconsin
12/30/2017 Fiesta Glendale, AZ USC Ohio St
1/1/2018 Peach Atlanta, GA UCF Auburn

The top-rated non Power-5 team is guaranteed a spot in one of the New Year’s big bowls. That recipient will be the UCF Knights.

National Championship Playoff Bowl Projections

Date Bowl Location Team 1 Team 2
1/1/2018 Rose Pasadena, CA Oklahoma Georgia
1/1/2018 Sugar New Orleans, LA Clemson Alabama

The CFP Selection Committee selects the top four teams to play for the National Championship. This year, the play-in games are the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. Our projections have the committee putting Clemson at 1, Oklahoma at 2, Georgia at 3 and Alabama at 4.

National Championship Bowl Projections

Date Bowl Location Team 1 Team 2
1/8/2018 Championship Atlanta, GA Clemson Oklahoma

Our rating system projects that Clemson would be favored against Alabama and Oklahoma would be favored over Georgia, thus pitting Clemson vs. Oklahoma in the National Championship.