It’s a very telling indicator how deep my addiction to college football runs that I am predicting it’s end before it’s even begun.  It’s not like saying in August who you think will be in the Super Bowl, because there’s only one.  For the college football addict/prognosticator, there’s 40 different games to deal with.  If that weren’t complicated enough, it’s not simply a matter of taking the top 80 teams and seeding them tourney-style.

Not only are the vast majority of these games stand-alone events with no connections, but trying to understand the  process of picking the participants is like attempting to comprehend an M.C. Escher print after you’ve chugged a Sam’s Club-sized pack of NyQuil.

 

The recipe for getting to the Escher-esque dimension-warping that is the college football bowl selection process goes like this.  First, cherry-pick the four “best” teams off the top for the college football play-off.  Then, add a layer of conference-based contractual obligations, some of which are standings-based while others are “first-come, first serve.”

When the selections are left to individual bowl selection committees, you can bet they will ALWAYS pick the schools with the largest traveling fan bases and/or creating a match-up with local/regional interest. While ESPN created most of these games so it can populate the December sports doldrums with easy programming, the bowl selection committees are usually members of the local Chambers of Commerce who are looking to fill up their hotels and restaurants for a few days.

That all goes in the blender when conferences don’t produce enough bowl-eligible team to meet the aforementioned obligations.  After all that, this list of bowl predictions is based of Dubsism’s pre-season team rankings, which gives all of this an accuracy factor somewhere between your local weatherman and a Democratic campaign pollster.

All times U.S. Eastern

The Pre-New Year’s Bowls

Saturday, December 15th

New Mexico Bowl: Mountain West vs. Conference USA, Albuquerque, NM, ESPN, 2 p.m.

• #63 Colorado State vs. #97 Texas-San Antonio

Cure Bowl: American vs. Sun Belt, Orlando, FL, CBSSN, 2:30 p.m.

• #67 Temple vs. #96 Georgia State

Las Vegas Bowl: Mountain West vs. Pac-12, Las Vegas, NV, ABC, 3:30 p.m.

• #58 Arizona vs. #100 Nevada Las Vegas

Camellia Bowl: MAC vs. Sun Belt, Montgomery, AL, ESPN, 5:30 p.m.

• #81 Arkansas State vs. #85 Akron

New Orleans Bowl: Sun Belt vs. Conference USA, New Orleans, LA, ESPN, 9 p.m.

• #61 Troy vs. #86 Louisiana Tech

Tuesday, December 18th

Boca Raton Bowl: American/Conference USA/MAC, Boca Raton, FL, ESPN, 7 p.m.

• #60 Central Michigan vs. #73 Southern Mississippi

Wednesday, December 19th

Frisco Bowl: American vs. At-large, Frisco, TX, ESPN, 8 p.m.

• #40 Boston College vs. #48 Houston

Thursday, December 20th

Gasparilla Bowl: American vs. Conference USA, Tampa, FL, ESPN, 8 p.m.

• #22 South Florida vs. #75 Florida International

Friday, December 21st

Bahamas Bowl: MAC vs. Conference USA, Nassau, Bahamas, ESPN, 12:30 p.m.

• #57 Northern Illinois vs. #61 North Texas

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl: MAC vs. Mountain West, Boise, ID, ESPN, 4 p.m.

• #51 Ohio vs. #56 Wyoming

Saturday, December 22nd

Birmingham Bowl: SEC vs. American, Birmingham, AL, ESPN, noon

• #24 Memphis vs. #72 Vanderbilt

Armed Forces Bowl: Big 12 vs. American, Fort Worth, TX, ESPN, 3:30 p.m.

• #44 Army vs. #64 Texas Tech

Dollar General Bowl: MAC vs. Sun Belt, Mobile, AL, ESPN, 7 p.m.

• #26 Toledo vs. #47 Appalachian State

Hawaii Bowl: Conference USA vs. Mountain West, Honolulu, HI, ESPN, 10:30 p.m.

• #37 Fresno State vs. #62 Marshall

Wednesday, December 26th

First Responder Bowl: Big Ten vs. Conference, USA, Dallas, TX, ESPN, 1:30 pm.

• #38 Florida Atlantic vs.  #79 Minnesota

Quick Lane Bowl: ACC/Notre Dame vs. Big Ten, Detroit, MI, ESPN, 5:15 p.m.

• #42 Duke vs. #78 Indiana

Cheez-It Bowl: Big 12 vs. Pac-12, Phoenix, AZ, ESPN, 9 p.m.

• #45 Arizona State vs. #50 Georgia Tech*

*- Georgia Tech takes the Big 12 spot as it won’t have enough bowl-eligible teams to meet it’s obligations

Thursday, December 27th

Independence Bowl: ACC/Notre Dame vs. SEC, Shreveport, LA, ESPN, 1:30 p.m.

• #35 Lousiville vs. #70 Florida

Pinstripe Bowl: ACC/Notre Dame vs. Big Ten, New York, NY, ESPN, 5:15 p.m.

•  #36 Notre Dame vs. #54 Iowa

Texas Bowl: Big 12 vs. SEC, Houston, TX, ESPN, 9 p.m.

• #41 Texas vs. #55 Missouri

Friday, December, 28th

Music City Bowl: ACC/Big Ten/Notre Dame vs. SEC, Nashville, TN,ESPN, 1:30 p.m.

• #30 Wake Forest vs. #53 Kentucky

Camping World Bowl: ACC/Notre Dame vs. Big 12, Orlando, FL, ESPN, 5:15 p.m.

• #23 Virginia Tech vs. #39 Iowa State

Arizona Bowl: Mountain West vs. Sun Belt, Tucson, AZ, CBSSN, 5:30 p.m.

• #16 San Diego State vs. #90 New Mexico State

Alamo Bowl: Big 12 vs. Pac-12, San Antonio, TX, ESPN, 9 p.m.

• #34 Kansas State vs. #43 Utah

Saturday, December 29th

Peach Bowl: At-large vs. At-large, Atlanta, GA, ESPN, noon

• #15 Texas Christian vs. #18 Central Florida

Belk Bowl: ACC/Notre Dame vs. SEC, Charlotte, NC, ABC, noon

• #21 North Carolina State vs. #59 UCLA

*- UCLA takes the place of  #49 Mississippi which is on a self-imposed bowl ban.

Monday, Dec. 31st

Military Bowl: ACC/Notre Dame vs. American, Annapolis, MD, ESPN, noon

• #52 West Virginia vs.  #46 Navy

San Francisco Bowl: Big Ten vs. Pac-12, San Francisco. Fox, 3 p.m.

• #27 Washington State vs. #33 Purdue

Liberty Bowl: Big 12 vs. SEC, Memphis, TN, ESPN, 3:45 p.m.

• #13 Oklahoma State vs. #15 Texas A&M

Holiday Bowl: Big Ten vs. Pac-12, San Diego, CA, FS1, 7 p.m.

• #17 Stanford vs. #29 Michigan

Gator Bowl: ACC/Big Ten/Notre Dame vs. SEC, Jacksonville, FL, ESPN, 7:30 p.m.

• #19 Northwestern vs. #20 South Carolina

Sun Bowl: ACC/Notre Dame vs. Pac-12, El Paso, TX, CBS, TBA

• #20 Florida State vs. #14 Washington

New Year’s Day

Outback Bowl: Big Ten #3* vs. SEC #3, Tampa, FL, ESPN2, noon

• #10 Michigan State vs. #25 Mississppi State

* – The agreement for the Outback Bowl is is for five different teams in six years, they would prefer not selecting Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, or Northwestern.

Citrus Bowl: Big Ten #2* vs. SEC #2, Orlando, FL, ABC, 1 p.m.

• #6 Wisconsin vs. #12 Louisiana State

* – The agreement for the Citrus Bowl is for five different teams in six years, they would prefer not selecting either Minnesota or Michigan.

Fiesta Bowl: At-large vs. At-large, Phoenix, AZ, ESPN, 1 p.m.

• #11 Miami (FL) vs. #16 Boise State

Rose Bowl: Big Ten #1 vs. Pac-12 #1, Pasadena, CA ESPN, 5 p.m.

• #5 Ohio State vs. #9 Southern California

Sugar Bowl: Big 12 #1 vs. SEC #1, New Orleans, LA, ESPN, 8:30 p.m. ET

• #7 Oklahoma vs. #8 Auburn

The College Football Playoff

Saturday, December 29th

Cotton Bowl: College Football Playoff semifinals, Dallas, TX, ESPN, 4 or 8 p.m.

• #2 Clemson vs. #3 Penn State

Orange Bowl: College Football Playoff semifinals, Miami, FL, ESPN, 4 or 8 p.m.

• 1# Alabama vs. #4 Georgia

Monday, January 7th

College Football Playoff Championship Game: Semifinal winners, Santa Clara, CA, ESPN, 8 p.m. ET

• #1 Alabama vs. #3 Penn State

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