College football Week 9 bowl projections: Georgia, Tennessee stay on two-SEC-team playoff path

Bill Bender

College football Week 9 bowl projections: Georgia, Tennessee stay on two-SEC-team playoff path image

What would it take for No. 1 Georgia and No. 3 Tennessee to make the College Football Playoff? 

Not as much as it seems. Sporting News left the Bulldogs and Volunteers in the CFP in our Week 9 bowl projections knowing that the two schools meet Nov. 5. A two-SEC-team playoff scenario isn’t all that far-fetched, even if No. 5 Clemson does not lose. 

It would require a loss for No. 7 TCU and the Pac-12 to cannibalize itself out of the playoff with a series of two-loss teams. The committee also would have to leave out the loser of the other huge divisional game that is coming in November between No. 2 Ohio State and No. 4 Michigan. This scenario also has the Bulldogs-Vols winner beating No. 7 Alabama in the SEC championship game.  All of that is possible, and that is why for now we have Georgia and Tennessee in the CFP for now. 

MORE: What a 12-team College Football Playoff field would look like after Week 8

In our latest bowl projections, UCLA dropped out and USC moved back in. 

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.

Week 8 College Football Bowl Projections

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

College football New Year's Day Six picks 

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

College Football Playoff championship pick 

DATE BOWL MATCHUP
Jan. 11 CFP championship game Ohio State 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.