Michigan Football College Bowl Projection Roundup: Week 12

Somehow there are just two weeks remaining in the 2024 college football regular season. While Michigan’s season has been over for all intents and purposes for several weeks now, there’s still the matter of bowl eligibility to play for. A win over Northwestern on Saturday or against Ohio State will take the Wolverines to a bowl.

There’s been no consensus yet on where Michigan will land, but downstream ripples will be felt following the results of this weekend’s games. Specifically, most projections have four Big Ten teams in the playoff field, thought it will be fascinating to see how many are included once Ohio State and Indiana square off. If Indiana gets hosed by the committee, Michigan would be bumped down a peg because of it.

As a general reminder, here are the seven Big Ten bowl tie-ins:

• Cheez-It Citrus Bowl (vs. SEC)
• ReliaQuest Bowl (vs. SEC)
• Duke’s Mayo Bowl (vs. ACC)
• Music City Bowl (vs. SEC)
• Pinstripe Bowl (vs. ACC)
• Guaranteed Rate Bowl (vs. Big 12)
• Quick Lane Bowl (vs. MAC)

Also keep in mind that the four newest teams to the Big Ten are still eligible to play in the former Pac-12 tie-ins until a restructuring occurs. Nearly all projections nationally do have that scenario taking place.

Here’s where several outlets have the Wolverines headed.

CBS Sports (Jerry Palm): Music City Bowl vs. Missouri

Palm’s projection remained identical to last week with the Wolverines traveling to Nashville to take on Mizzou. Like most others, he has four Big Ten teams currently in the CFP field. Interestingly, Palm has Boise State receiving the No. 4 seed and getting a first-round bye as he has them ranked higher than his projected Big XII champion Colorado.

The Sporting News (Bill Bender): Las Vegas Bowl vs. Colorado

Bender goes off the board this week by having Michigan travel to Nevada for a bowl game that the Big Ten has no ties to. While this has happened occasionally historically, it would certainly come as a surprise. Even more surprisingly, Bender has two non-Big Ten schools in the Music City Bowl as he projects Duke and LSU to head to Nashville. If this were to happen, Michigan would take on an extremely disappointed Colorado team, as Bender has them missing the playoffs to projected Big 12 champion BYU.

Athlon Sports (Steven Lassan): Pinstripe Bowl vs. Duke

Similar to Palm at CBS Sports, Lassan didn’t change his projection for Michigan one bit from last week to this week. He again has the Wolverines facing off with Duke in Yankee Stadium. Also similar to last week, Athlon has Nebraska jumping over Michigan to receive the bid to the Music City Bowl. I would expect this to be shaken up next week, however, should Indiana fall to Ohio State as Lassan has the Hoosiers as the No. 11 seed and hanging on for dear life despite being undefeated.

247Sports (Brad Crawford): Pinstripe Bowl vs. Pitt

Crawford has Michigan falling down a rung on the bowl ladder this week by having the Wolverines headed to the Pinstripe Bowl to face Pitt. Last week, Crawford had Michigan in the Music City Bowl. The common theme amongst bowl projections is to have Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, and Indiana in the CFP while Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa are spread among the Citrus, ReliaQuest, and Mayo Bowl in some fashion. Michigan and Nebraska have typically been fighting for the Music City Bowl. Where 247 differs is they have Nebraska all the way up in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, relegating Minnesota to the Music City Bowl and Michigan to the Pinstripe Bowl.

The Action Network (Brett McMurphy): Duke’s Mayo Bowl vs. Duke

McMurphy paints the rosiest picture for Michigan to date as he has the Wolverines headed to Charlotte, North Carolina to take on Duke in a quasi-road game on January 3rd. Of the five projections we dug into, he’s the only one to have Michigan placed above Minnesota in the Big Ten pecking order. Interestingly, he also doesn’t have Nebraska reaching bowl eligibility. The Cornhuskers are currently 5-5 with Wisconsin and Iowa left on the schedule.