Bowl season is right around the corner with the New Year’s Six Bowls taking center stage, but who will come out on top?
The college football regular season wraps up this weekend with the annual Army vs Navy game and then comes the bowl games.
The first bowl games start on Dec. 16th with five games being played and then we roll on until we get to the CFP National Championship on Jan. 8th.
All bowls mean something to the teams, but all eyes will be on the New Year’s Six games. We already made our predictions for the CFP here and now we make our predictions for the other four games.
Ohio State vs Missouri – Cotton Bowl
December 29th at 8:00 p.m. ET
Ohio State was ranked as high as No. 1 in the CFP this season, but their perfect season and playoff hopes went up in smoke as they lost to Michigan 30-24 in the last game of the season. It was their third straight loss to the Wolverines and unlike last year, they couldn’t back into the playoffs.
The team will now look a lot different as starting quarterback Kyle McCord entered the transfer portal despite having a good year and they have also had a handful of other players join him.
The Buckeyes as constructed throughout the season are a better team than Missouri, but they have a ton of question marks heading into this game. It will be interesting to see how they perform and who will suit up.
The Tigers looked very good this year also as they finished the season 10-2, with their only losses coming against No. 23 LSU and No. 2 Georgia. They were in both of those games in the fourth quarter but ultimately came up short.
They do own wins against ranked teams in Kansas State and Tennessee, but is still searching for that to prove it win. They get that chance against Ohio State in the bowl game and will have a ton of motivation to get the win.
Missouri might have the better team on paper now that the Buckeyes have lost some guys, but Ohio State still seems to find ways to win these games.
Ohio State 24 Missouri 17
Penn State vs Ole Miss – Peach Bowl
December 30th at 12:00 p.m. ET
Penn State is back in a New Year’s Six game after finishing the season 10-2 for a second straight season. The Nittany Lions were once again undefeated against teams not named Michigan and Ohio State.
The Nittany Lions were led by a top-10 defense and mistake-free football on the offensive side of the ball. It wasn’t always pretty, but it got the job down. They are going to make life tough for the Rebels as this could be the best defense they have faced all year long.
Lane Kiffin has done a great job at Ole Miss and the Rebels finished the season 10-2. They had a similar season to the Nittany Lions in that they won all their games except against the top two teams in the SEC.
They lost 24-10 to Alabama and then were blown out by Georgia 52-17. The offense excelled against bad defenses but struggled against the best. It is going to be much of the same against Penn State as they will be looking to prove a point. The defense will win this game for the Nittany Lions.
Penn State 21 Ole Miss 13
Florida State at Georgia – Orange Bowl
December 30th at 4:00 p.m. ET
This a battle of two teams that don’t want to be here. Georgia was No. 1 almost all year, but a loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship game dropped them out of the CFP and gave them no shot to defend their two straight National titles.
Florida State, on the other hand, won all of their games this year but was still left out due to Jordan Travis breaking his leg and missing the rest of the season.
They both have every right to be made at the selection committee about being left out, but what will their motivation be for this game? The Seminoles will want to prove that they can compete with an SEC power without their quarterback, but will the Bulldogs care?
It wouldn’t be the first time Florida State has proven that, either, as the Seminoles have gone 5-0 against the SEC over the past two seasons if you count SEC-bound Oklahoma in last year’s Cheeze-It Bowl. If you don’t count that, their record against the SEC since 2022 falls to 4-0.
It will be interesting to see what teams come out to play in this one, but we go with the team that seems to have more motivation and pick the Seminoles to pull off the upset. The defense shuts down the Bulldogs and gets the ugly win.
Florida State 23 Georgia 17
Oregon vs Liberty – Fiesta Bowl
January 1st at 1:00 p.m. ET
The Ducks looked like one of the best teams in the country and had set themselves up to make the CFP. All they had to do was beat Washington in the Pac-12 Championship game, but they couldn’t get it done. They lost and now must settle for a Fiesta Bowl appearance against Liberty.
The offense has been great for the Ducks, but it will be interesting to see who will play in this game.
The Flames will have the tough task of slowing them down as they try and finish the season undefeated. The Flames won all 13 of their games this year to make their first New Year’s Six games, but there were still some arguments that SMU should have been ranked higher.
The Flames, though, don’t care about all of that and want to pull off the huge upset like Tulane did to USC last year.
The Flames are a good team, but Oregon is a lot better. Even if the Ducks are without some of their offensive starters it isn’t going to matter. The Ducks win this one easily and dash the Flames hope of an undefeated season.
Oregon 45 Liberty 17
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