Week 8 bowl projections: Georgia, Michigan lead midseason College Football Playoff picks

Bill Bender

Week 8 bowl projections: Georgia, Michigan lead midseason College Football Playoff picks image

The scramble for the College Football Playoff has reached the midway point. 

Sporting News' bowl projections are back, and our Week 8 playoff picks are a little different than the preseason prognostications. 

We are half right, so far. Georgia and Michigan remain No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the polls, and the Bulldogs and Wolverines might be on a collision course for a CFP championship matchup. 

Ohio State was another preseason pick, and the Buckeyes are still in position to challenge the Wolverines for the Big Ten championship game. We just are not sure there will be two Big Ten teams in the CFP again. Our other preseason pick – USC – took a hit when the Trojans lost 38-20 at Notre Dame in Week 7.

Who are our other teams? For now, we’ll go with Florida State – which beat LSU and Clemson in September and remains at the top of the ACC. Washington – which beat Oregon 36-33 in a Pac-12 thriller – is our pick to break a conference playoff drought that extends back to 2016. 

The College Football Playoff semifinals will be on Jan. 1, 2024. Those semifinals will be played at the Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena, Calif., and the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Those locations were the sites of the first four-team playoff in 2014. 

The College Football Playoff championship game is on Jan. 9 at NRG Stadium in Houston.

Colorado, which is sitting at 4-3 after a stunning loss to Stanford, projects out to 5-7 with a tough schedule down the stretch.

SN has projections for every bowl game here, and they will be updated each week for the remainder of the season:

MORE: CFB rankings from 1-133 | Week 8 picks for Top 25 games

Week 8 college football bowl predictions 

A look at Sporting News bowl projections heading into Week 8 of the 2023 college football season: 

DATE BOWL PROJECTED MATCHUP
Dec. 16 HomeTown Lenders Bahamas Bowl Northern Illinois vs. New Mexico State
Dec. 16 R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl Western Kentucky vs. Troy
Dec. 16 Cure Bowl Tulsa* vs. Texas State
Dec. 16 New Mexico Bowl Louisiana Tech vs. North Texas
Dec. 16 LA Bowl Arizona vs. Fresno State
Dec. 16 Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl West Virginia vs. Washington State
Dec. 18 Myrtle Beach Bowl South Florida vs. Georgia Southern
Dec. 19 Frisco Bowl Army vs. UTSA
Dec. 21 RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl Liberty vs. Georgia State
Dec. 22 Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl Auburn vs. Boston College
Dec. 23 Birmingham Bowl Mississippi State vs. Virginia Tech
Dec. 23 Camellia Bowl Ohio vs. South Alabama
Dec. 23 Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl BYU vs. Navy
Dec. 23 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl Eastern Michigan vs. Boise State
Dec. 23 68 Ventures Bowl Toledo vs. Marshall
Dec. 23 SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl Nebraska vs. UCLA
Dec. 23 Easypost Hawai'i Bowl Memphis vs. Wyoming
Dec. 26 Quick Lane Bowl Minnesota vs. Miami, Ohio
Dec. 26 Servpro First Responder Bowl Texas Tech vs. SMU
Dec. 26 Guaranteed Rate Bowl UNLV vs. Kansas
Dec. 27 Military Bowl Georgia Tech vs. FAU
Dec. 27 Duke's Mayo Bowl LSU vs. Miami
Dec. 27 TaxAct Texas Bowl Kansas State vs. Texas A&M
Dec. 28 Fenway Bowl NC State vs. Tulane
Dec. 28 Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl Rutgers vs. Syracuse
Dec. 28 San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl Oregon State vs. Notre Dame
Dec. 28 Pop-Tarts Bowl Iowa State vs. Duke
Dec. 28 Valero Alamo Bowl Oklahoma State vs. USC
Dec. 29 TaxSlayer Gator Bowl Kentucky vs. Clemson
Dec. 29 Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl Utah vs. Louisville
Dec. 29 AutoZone Liberty Bowl Tennessee vs. TCU
Dec. 30 Transperfect Music City Bowl Florida vs. Maryland
Dec. 30 Barstool Arizona Bowl Central Michigan vs. Colorado State
Jan. 1 Reliaquest Bowl Ole Miss vs. Wisconsin
Jan. 1 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl Missouri vs. Iowa

New Year's Day Six predictions 

A look at Sporting News' New Year's Day Six picks heading into Week 8 of the 2023 college football season: 

DATE BOWL PROJECTED MATCHUP
Dec. 29 Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic Oklahoma vs. Alabama
Dec. 30 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Texas vs. Ohio State
Dec. 30 Capital One Orange Bowl Penn State vs. North Carolina
Jan. 1 Vrbo Fiesta Bowl Air Force vs. Oregon

Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic: Oklahoma vs. Alabama 

The Sooners are atop the Big 12 and rank fourth in the FBS with 45.2 points per game. Alabama is grinding out victories in the SEC West, but a second straight trip to AT&T Stadium could be in the works. This will be an infomercial for Oklahoma's arrival in the SEC in 2024. 

Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl: Texas vs. Ohio State 

The Buckeyes and Longhorns have not met since the 2009 Fiesta Bowl, an instant classic Texas won 24-21. This would be the most glamorous matchup of the New Year’s Day Six bowls (non-CFP edition), and Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers would be the center of attention given he spent his freshman season with the Buckeyes. 

Capital One Orange Bowl: Penn State vs. North Carolina 

This would be the Tar Heels' second trip to the Orange Bowl in four seasons and a nod to the job Mack Brown has done in his second stint. This might feel more like a consolation prize for the Nittany Lions, who are trying to break through in the Big Ten East. Still, a fun quarterback matchup between Drake Maye and Drew Allar. 

Vrbo Fiesta Bowl: Air Force vs. Oregon 

The Falcons are the highest-ranked Group of 5 school and lead the FBS with 334.2 rushing yards per game. The Ducks also have a top-10 rushing attack with 221.7 yards per game. The contrast in styles between Oregon and Air Force would be amazing in this matchup – which would need extra commercials. 

College Football Playoff predictions 

DATE BOWL PROJECTED MATCHUP
Jan. 1 Rose Bowl Game (National semifinal) Michigan vs. Washington
Jan. 1 Allstate Sugar Bowl (National semifinal) Georgia vs. Florida State

Rose Bowl Game: No. 2 Michigan vs. No. 3 Washington 

Washington averages 543.7 yards per game and features Heisman Trophy frontrunner Michael Penix Jr. Michigan allows 233.1 yards per game and would be making its third straight CFP appearance. This would be the fifth Rose Bowl matchup between the future Big Ten rivals, too. 

Sugar Bowl: No. 1 Georgia vs. No. 4 Florida State 

The Bulldogs and Seminoles have not matched up since the 2003 Sugar Bowl, but this would be a fantastic ACC-SEC matchup at the Sugar Bowl. Florida State opened the season with a victory against SEC heavyweight LSU. Could they continue that run by knocking out No. 1? 

College Football Playoff championship pick 

DATE BOWL PROJECTED MATCHUP
Jan. 9 CFP championship game Georgia vs. Michigan

CFP championship game (Houston): Georgia vs. Michigan 

A rematch of the 2021 College Football Playoff semifinal which the Bulldogs won 34-11. There is still the second half of the season, but the two-time defending national champion Bulldogs would get a better shot from the Wolverines this time around. This would be a fitting end to the four-team College Football Playoff era.

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.