College football bowl projections: Oklahoma State hops into New Year’s Six as top teams tested in Week 5

It is not straightforward being king. Georgia is taking all people’s greatest shot and Missouri’s was nearly adequate on Saturday. The Bulldogs rallied with two fourth-quarter touchdowns to beat the Tigers and keep on the No. 1 spot on this week’s School Soccer Playoff projection.

Earlier within the day, projected No. 3 Alabama noticed reigning Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Younger injured within the first half at Arkansas. Backup quarterback Jalen Milroe got here off the bench to steer the Crimson Tide to an enormous win. Clemson additionally held on to its projected No. 4 seed after a 30-20 win over NC State. The Wolfpack are nonetheless projected to the ACC spot within the Orange Bowl. Ohio State was the one workforce in our CFP projection to have a straightforward time of issues. Rutgers was no match for the anticipated No. 2 seed Buckeyes in a 49-10 defeat.

School Soccer Playoff

The place the wheels appeared to come back off Saturday was for the Sooner Schooner. Oklahoma gave up 41 first-half factors in a 55-24 loss at TCU. The Sooners have fallen out of the New 12 months’s Six bowl projections solely and been changed by anticipated Large 12 champion Oklahoma State. The Cowboys picked up an enormous win at Baylor and now look like the favourite within the convention race.

The Pac-12 race for the Rose Bowl, or presumably the CFP, heats up within the subsequent few weeks. Favourite Utah is at undefeated UCLA subsequent Saturday; it turns round and hosts USC the next week. The Trojans face a troublesome Washington State workforce at residence upfront of that battle with the Utes. The Bruins have per week off after the Utah recreation to arrange for a visit to Oregon. The one matchup amongst these 4 groups that’s not being performed within the common season is USC vs. Oregon.

If a type of 4 emerges undefeated and earns a spot within the CFP, it’s potential that two of the others might play in New 12 months’s Six video games.

New 12 months’s Six bowl video games

There are nonetheless 4 groups with sub-.500 information on this week’s bowl projections, however solely three of them are 5-7. Military West Level remains to be projected end 5-6 and obtain a bowl placement regardless of a loss to Georgia State. The Black Knights are literally projected to complete 6-6 total, however with two wins over FCS opponents, solely a type of will finally depend towards bowl eligibility.

Some questions got here on this week about whether or not James Madison might turn into bowl eligible if there will not be sufficient groups to fill slots. Whereas there’s a comparatively new provision for a workforce transitioning to FBS to go to a bowl — if it will have been eligible in any other case and if there may be a gap — that solely applies to groups within the remaining 12 months of their transition to FBS. For James Madison, that might be subsequent season.

Do not see your workforce? Take a look at the remainder of Jerry Palm’s bowl projections after Week 5.