A Change at the Top
Hello friends and welcome back to our 2024 Week Three Bowl Projections. The week’s big news is the Pac-12 rising from the dead like The Undertaker. Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, and San Diego State are leaving the Mountain West. They’ll officially be members in 2026. However, they still need two more teams to be formally recognized as a conference by the NCAA.
On the field, Florida State lost to Memphis and in the process became the first preseason top 10 team to start 0-3 losing each to unranked teams. To no surprise, the Seminoles are out of the picks this week. Top-ranked Georgia got all they could handle before beating Kentucky. Does that change their spot? Let’s get to our 2024 Week Three Bowl Projections.
How The Process Works
If you haven’t been following along the playoff is expanding to 12 teams this year. 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. In addition, many of the New Year’s Six games are now playoff games.
With all the backstory out of the way let’s get to our picks.
College Football Playoff First Round
Friday, December 20th- (12) Memphis at (5) Texas- The Tigers got a huge payday and beat their former coach. They are our Group of Five team. Quinn Ewers left due to an abdominal injury but the Longhorns turned to Arch Manning. He threw for four touchdowns in a 56-7 win over Texas San Antonio.
Saturday, December 21st- (9) USC at (8) Tennessee- The Trojans head to Ann Arbor for a huge one against Michigan. Tennessee rolled up 71 against Kent State and will travel to Oklahoma for the marquee game next week.
Saturday, December 21st- (11) Penn State at (6) Alabama- Jalen Milroe threw for three touchdowns as the Tide got a huge win at Wisconsin.
Saturday, December 21st- (10) Oregon vs. (7) Ole Miss– We swapped the Rebels and Crimson Tide from last week.
College Football Playoff Quarterfinals
VRBO Fiesta Bowl- Tuesday, December 31st- (5) Texas at (4) Kansas State- Following its big win over Arizona, KSU replaces Utah as our Big 12 representative.
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl- Wednesday, January 1st- (6) Alabama vs. (3) Miami (Florida)- These two schools have met 18 times in history with ‘Bama holding a 15-3 lead.
Rose Bowl- Wednesday, January 1st- (7) Ole Miss vs. (2) Ohio State- We’re trying to keep some tradition by sending the Big Ten Champ to Pasadena.
Allstate Sugar Bowl- Wednesday, January 1st- (8) Tennessee vs. (1) Georgia- Despite their struggles against Kentucky we’re keeping the Bulldogs as our top seed. They have a week off before a showdown with Alabama. The Crimson Tide are the last team to hand Georgia a regular season loss back in 2020.
College Football Semi-Finals And Final
Capital One Orange Bowl- Thursday, January 9th- (5) Texas vs. (1) Georgia– The Longhorns get past Kansas State setting up a battle versus the Bulldogs.
Goodyear Cotton Bowl- Friday, January 10th- (3) Miami vs. (2) Ohio State- The schools have met four times with each winning twice.
College Football National Championship- Atlanta, Georgia- Monday, January 20th- (2) Ohio State vs. (1) Georgia- The two best teams all year in college football meet in the title game.
Well, that’s a lot to digest but we’ve still got a lot more to come. Let’s move on with the 2024 Week Three Bowl Projections.
Filling The Void
A few things to consider as we go through the remainder of the games. With the end of the Pac-12, many of the old teams from the league are eligible to fill those bowl slots. Those are the Alamo, Holiday Independence, LA, 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. One other thing you’ll notice is with five SEC schools in the playoff we had more games with league tie-ins than we had teams.
Let’s check out our next set of games with our 2024 Week Three Bowl Projections.
Games Around The New Year
TransPerfect Music City Bowl- December 30th Big Ten vs. SEC- Nebraska vs. South Carolina
Reliaquest Bowl- December 31st- SEC vs. Big Ten- Oklahoma vs. Iowa
Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl- December 31st- ACC/Notre Dame vs. Pac-12- Boston College vs. California- This is an interesting one with Cal representing its old conference against its new one. However, these two don’t play during the season so why not?
Cheez-It Citrus Bowl- December 31st- Big Ten vs. SEC- Missouri vs. Michigan– The Tigers remain one of the first teams out of our playoff picks.
Texas Bowl- December 31st- Big 12 vs. SEC- Iowa State vs. Auburn
TaxSlayer Gator Bowl- January 2nd- ACC/Notre Dame vs. SEC- LSU vs. Louisville
ServPro First Responder Bowl- January 3rd- American/ACC/Big 12- Texas Tech vs. Sam Houston State
Duke’s Mayo Bowl- January 3rd- ACC/Notre Dame vs. Big Ten- Pittsburgh vs. Indiana- The SEC and Big Ten alternate every other year in this contest and in 2024 it’s the Big Ten’s turn.
Bahamas Bowl- January 4th- Conference USA vs. MAC- New Mexico State vs. Bowling Green– The game is back in its normal home this year. In addition, it’s moving from the first weekend to the last non-playoff bowl.
Continuing with our 2024 Week Three Bowl Projections let’s move to the contests held just after Christmas.
After Christmas Bowl Games
Detroit Bowl- December 26th- Big Ten vs. MAC- Rutgers vs. Northern Illinois- Could the Huskies end up as the Group of Five team? That’s certainly something worth watching going forward.
Guaranteed Rate Bowl- December 26th- Big 12 vs. Big Ten- Illinois vs. West Virginia
68 Ventures Bowl- December 26th- Conference USA/MAC/Sun Belt- Ohio vs. Texas State- The Bobcats had a chance for the Group of Five bid. However, they fell short against Arizona State.
76 Birmingham Bowl- December 27th- ACC/SEC/American- Syracuse vs. East Carolina
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl- December 27th- American vs. Conference USA- Air Force vs. BYU
AutoZone Liberty Bowl- December 27th- Big 12 vs. SEC- Kentucky vs. Central Florida- The Wildcats had their chances to shock Georgia but couldn’t get the job done. Gus Malzahn’s Knights rallied from 21 down to beat TCU 35-34.
SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl- December 27th- SEC vs. Pac-12- Texas A&M vs. Arizona- With the Big Ten playing in the Mayo Bowl it’s the SEC’s turn to head to Las Vegas.
DirecTV Holiday Bowl- December 27th- ACC vs. Pac-12- Clemson vs. Washington 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 Three Bowl Projections.
A Huge Day Of Games
Wasabi Fenway Bowl- December 28th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. American- Virginia Tech vs. South Florida
Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl- December 28th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. Big Ten- North Carolina vs. Wisconsin
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- Oklahoma State vs. Notre Dame
Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl- December 28th- MAC vs. Mountain West- Utah State vs. Western Michigan
Go Bowling Military Bowl- December 28th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. American- SMU vs. Navy- The Mustangs represent their new conference (ACC) vs. their old one (American)
Valero Alamo Bowl- December 28th- Big 12 vs. Pac-12- Utah vs. Washington
Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl- December 28th- Army/ American vs. Pac-12- Army vs. Arizona State
Let’s finish up our 2024 Week Three 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. Howard
Camellia Bowl- December 14th- MAC vs. Sun Belt- Louisiana vs. Texas San-Antonio
Boca Raton Bowl- December 17th- American/Conference USA/MAC/Mountain West/Sun Belt- Georgia Southern vs. Western Kentucky
Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl- December 17th- American/Conference USA/MAC/Mountain West/Sun Belt- Georgia Tech vs. TCU
LA Bowl Presented By Gronk- December 18th- Pac-12 vs. Mountain West- UNLV vs. Oregon State
R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl- December 19th- Conference USA vs. Sun Belt- Coastal Carolina vs. Liberty
Staff DNA Cure Bowl- December 20th American/Conference USA/MAC/Mountain West/Sun Belt- James Madison vs. Kansas
Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl- December 20th- American vs. ACC/SEC– Boise State * vs. Michigan State *
Myrtle Beach Bowl- December 23rd- American/MAC/Sun Belt- Appalachian State vs. Toledo
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl- December 23rd- MAC vs. Mountain West- Colorado State vs. Buffalo
Hawai’i Bowl- December 24th- Conference USA vs. Mountain West- Fresno State vs. Tulane
*Denotes a replacement team for a conference without enough bowl-eligible teams.
Games We Are Watching This Weekend
As mentioned earlier the two big games of the weekend are Tennessee at Oklahoma and USC at Michigan. However, there are several other big games in week four. Those include Illinois at Nebraska (Friday), North Carolina State at Clemson, and Utah at Oklahoma State.
That does it for our 2024 Week Three Bowl Projections here at Last Word On College Football. Don’t see your favorite team? Don’t worry, it’s still early in the season. We’ll be back in seven days with another round of bowl projections.
