College football bowl projections for championship week: Michigan in, Ohio State first team out of CFP

Bill Bender

College football bowl projections for championship week: Michigan in, Ohio State first team out of CFP image

How much will conference championship weekend disrupt the College Football Playoff picture? 

That will be the question. No. 2 Michigan replaces No. 5 Ohio State in our playoff picks after a 45-23 victory against the Buckeyes. Now, Ohio State must hope for a loss from either No. 3 TCU or No. 4 USC to get into the CFP. 

No. 1 Georgia is a lock no matter what happens in the SEC championship game against No. 11 LSU. Playoff regulars Ohio State and No. 6 Alabama are the ones hoping for chaos on a championship weekend they will not participate in.

MORE: Michigan wrests control of rivalry | Ryan Day feeling heat

For now, our CFP picks consist of the three unbeatens plus USC. We have Georgia and USC in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and Michigan and TCU meeting in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl. No. 7 Penn State and No. 9 Washington moved into our New Year’s Day Six projections.

The College Football Playoff semifinals will be on Dec. 31 this season. Those semifinals will be played at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta and the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz. The College Football Playoff championship game is on Jan. 9 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.

College football bowl projections for championship week

DATE BOWL MATCHUP
Dec. 16 Bahamas Bowl UAB* vs. Miami, Ohio*
Dec. 16 Cure Bowl South Alabama vs. UConn
Dec. 17 Wasabi Fenway Bowl Cincinnati vs. Syracuse
Dec. 17 New Mexico Bowl BYU vs. Air Force
Dec. 17 Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl Boise State vs. Washington State
Dec. 17 Lending Tree Bowl Buffalo vs. Southern Miss
Dec. 17 Las Vegas Bowl UCLA vs. Missouri
Dec. 17 Frisco Bowl Utah State vs. East Carolina
Dec. 19 Myrtle Beach Bowl North Texas vs. Troy 
Dec. 20 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl Bowling Green vs. Fresno State
Dec. 20 Boca Raton Bowl UCF vs. Georgia Southern
Dec. 21 New Orleans Bowl Western Kentucky vs. Appalachian State
Dec. 22 Armed Forces Bowl Kansas vs. UTSA
Dec. 23 Independence Bowl Marshall* vs. New Mexico State
Dec. 23 Gasparilla Bowl Louisiana vs San Diego State
Dec. 24 Hawaii Bowl Middle Tennessee State vs. San Jose State
Dec. 26 Quick Lane Bowl Eastern Michigan vs. Wisconsin 
Dec. 27 Camellia Bowl Ohio vs. Coastal Carolina
Dec. 27 First Responder Bowl Louisville vs. SMU
Dec. 27 Birmingham Bowl Houston vs. Liberty
Dec. 27 Guaranteed Rate Bowl Baylor vs. Kentucky
Dec. 28 Military Bowl Wake Forest vs. Memphis
Dec. 28 Liberty Bowl Oklahoma vs. Arkansas
Dec. 28 Holiday Bowl  Oregon vs. Pitt
Dec. 28 Texas Bowl Texas Tech vs. Florida
Dec. 29 Pinstripe Bowl Maryland vs. Duke
Dec. 29 Cheez-It Bowl Oklahoma State vs. North Carolina
Dec. 29 Alamo Bowl Texas vs. Utah
Dec. 30 Duke's Mayo Bowl Minnesota vs. Florida State
Dec. 30 Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl NC State vs. Oregon State
Dec. 30 Gator Bowl Notre Dame vs. Ole Miss
Dec. 30 Arizona Bowl Toledo vs. Wyoming
Dec. 31 Music City Bowl Iowa vs. South Carolina
Jan. 2 ReliaQuest Bowl Illinois vs. Mississippi State
Jan. 2 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl Purdue vs. LSU

*Denotes accepted bowl bid

College football New Year's Day Six picks 

DATE BOWL MATCHUP
Dec. 30 Capital One Orange Bowl Clemson vs. Alabama
Dec. 31 Allstate Sugar Bowl Kansas State vs. Tennessee
Jan. 2 Goodyear Cotton Bowl Tulane vs. Penn State
Jan. 2 Rose Bowl Game Ohio State vs. Washington 
Dec. 31 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (semifinal) Georgia vs. USC
Dec. 31 Fiesta Bowl (semifinal) Michigan vs. TCU

College Football Playoff championship pick 

DATE BOWL MATCHUP
Jan. 11 CFP championship game Michigan vs. Georgia

 

Bill Bender

Bill Bender Photo

Bill Bender graduated from Ohio University in 2002 and started at The Sporting News as a fantasy football writer in 2007. He has covered the College Football Playoff, NBA Finals and World Series for SN. Bender enjoys story-telling, awesomely-bad 80s movies and coaching youth sports.