College Football 2008 Bowl Predictions

The 2008 college football season will be an exciting one.  The SEC is the toughest conference in football, but balanced.  Other conferences try to play catch up this season.  Each BCS conference looks to send a team to the National Championship while a couple of non-BCS schools try to shake things up. 

Here is what the bowl schedule might look like at the end of the season:

Congressional Bowl (New)

Navy (Automatic Bid) vs. *UTEP (At-large)
*ACC loses bid with not enough teams, leaving the No. 9 spot vacant.  Nine teams are bowl eligible, but two of them are in BCS bowls.

St. Petersburg Bowl (New)

*Western Michigan (At-large) vs. East Carolina (C-USA No. 4)
*Big East loses bid with not enough teams.  Five bowl eligible teams already playing in other bowls.

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl

Utah (Mountain West No. 2) vs. UCLA (Pac-10 No. 7)

R & L Carriers New Orleans Bowl

Southern Miss (C-USA No. 5) vs. Florida Atlantic (Sun Belt Champ)

PapaJohns.com Bowl

*Nevada (At-large) vs. Troy (Sun Belt No. 2)
*SEC loses lowest bid with not enough teams.  Eight teams bowl eligible, but two of them are in BCS bowls.
Big East loses bid with not enough teams.  Sun Belt is bowl’s alternate conference affiliation.

New Mexico Bowl

Boise State (WAC No. 2) vs. New Mexico (Mountain West No. 4)

Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas Bowl

BYU (Mountain West Champ) vs. Washington (Pac-10 No. 6)

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl

Hawaii (Automatic Bid) vs. Arizona (Pac-10 No. 5)

Motor City Bowl

Central Michigan (MAC Champ) vs. Iowa (Big Ten No. 7)

Champs Sports Bowl

Miami(FL) (ACC No. 4) vs. Michigan State (Big Ten No. 5)

Texas Bowl

Colorado (Big 12 No. 8) vs. *Notre Dame (At-large)
*Big East loses bid with not enough teams.  All bowl eligible teams in other bowls.

Emerald Bowl

Georgia Tech (ACC No. 7) vs. California (Pac-10 No. 4)

Meineke Car Care Bowl

Boston College (ACC No. 6) vs. Pittsburgh (Big East No. 3)

AutoZone Liberty Bowl

Tulsa (C-USA Champ) vs. *Texas A&M (At-large)
*SEC loses bid with not enough teams.  All bowl eligible teams in other bowls.

Valero Alamo Bowl

Michigan (Big Ten No. 4) vs. Nebraska (Big 12 No. 5)

Petro Sun Independence Bowl

South Carolina (SEC No. 7) vs. Oklahoma State (Big 12 No. 6)

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl

Houston (C-USA No. 3) vs. TCU (Mountain West No. 3)

Brut Sun Bowl

Oregon (Pac-10 No. 3) vs. Cincinnati (Big East No. 4)

Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl

Maryland (ACC No. 8) vs. Fresno State (WAC Champ)

Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl

Kentucky (SEC No. 6) vs. Florida State (ACC No. 5)

Insight Bowl

Indiana (Big Ten No. 6) vs. Kansas (Big 12 No. 6)

International Bowl

Rutgers (Big East No. 5) vs. Bowling Green (MAC No. 2)

GMAC Bowl

UCF (C-USA No. 2) vs. Miami (OH) (MAC No. 3)

Pacific Life Holiday Bowl

Arizona State (Pac-10 No. 2) vs. Texas (Big 12 No. 3)

Chick-fil-A Bowl

Wake Forest (ACC No. 2) vs. Alabama (SEC No. 5)

Outback Bowl

Penn State (Big Ten No. 3) vs. LSU (SEC No. 4)

AT&T Cotton Bowl

Texas Tech (Big 12 No. 2) vs. Tennessee (SEC No. 3)

Gator Bowl

South Florida (Big East No. 2) vs. North Carolina (ACC No. 3)

Capital One Bowl

Illinois (Big Ten No. 2) vs. Florida (SEC No. 2)

Rose Bowl

Wisconsin (Big Ten, BCS) vs. USC (Pac-10, BCS)

FedEx Orange Bowl

Clemson (ACC, BCS) vs. West Virginia (Automatic Bid, BCS)

Allstate Sugar Bowl

Georgia (SEC, BCS) vs. *Virginia Tech (At-large, BCS)
*Gains bid by reaching ACC championship game while Wake Forest does not.  Also over Arizona State because Pac-10 has no championship game.

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl

Missouri (Big 12, BCS) vs. *Auburn (At-large, BCS)
*Gains bid by reaching SEC championship game while Florida does not.  Also over Arizona State.

BCS National Championship

Oklahoma (BCS No. 1) vs. Ohio State (BCS No. 2)