Soon, the College Football Playoff will likely feature 12 teams and take up more of the existing bowl calendar. That change, assuming it passes, will reportedly come in time for the 2023 season at the earliest.
That means we’ll still have a pretty normal bowl season this fall, for better or worse. The four-team Playoff has taken a bit of the shine off of the normal bowls, something that an expansion may actually help. Still, a good bowl game between two fun teams is still must-see football.
In this year’s college football preview, Athlon rolled out its projections for the entire bowl slate, from the Bahamas Bowl to the College Football Playoff semifinals at the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl.
The playoff foursome they project is certainly realistic, if a bit chalky. Athlon has Clemson facing Oklahoma, a rematch of the 2015 semifinal at the Orange Bowl, in that exact same venue. On the other side, it projects a national title rematch at the Cotton Bowl: Ohio State vs. Alabama.
The rest of the projections feature some pretty intriguing 2021 bowl games. Here are some of the big matchups that Athlon picks, starting with the rest of the New Year’s Six games:
Peach Bowl: North Carolina vs. Florida
Sugar Bowl: Georgia vs. Iowa State
Rose Bowl: Wisconsin vs. Oregon
Fiesta Bowl: Cincinnati vs. Texas A&M
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Gator Bowl: Miami vs. Ole Miss
Outback Bowl: Penn State vs. Missouri
Music City Bowl: Michigan vs. Tennessee
Holiday Bowl: Florida State vs. Washington
Guaranteed Rate Bowl: Kansas State vs. Nebraska
Cheez-It Bowl: Texas vs. Notre Dame
Throw out the record books when the Longhorns and Fighting Irish battle it out for All The Cheez-Its.