Bowl Predictions 2015: Projecting College Football Playoff Field After Week 8

Week 8 was supposed to be nothing more than a relaxing romp for the top teams in the country after one of the most chaotic weeks of football in history the Saturday before. But this season has done anything but adhere to expectations, and the results of Week 8 changed the landscape of college football.

Florida State fell in shocking fashion to Georgia Tech and its playoff hopes look to be on life support, while Utah was destroyed by USC and, while in a much better situation than the Seminoles, doesn’t look like the title favorite it had become in recent weeks.

There is still plenty of football left to play, and things are sure to take a few more unexpected turns, but with the initial playoff committee rankings right around the corner, let’s take a look at which teams are in line for New Year’s Six Bowls and a spot in the playoff.

Bowl	Matchup	Predicted Winner
Rose Bowl	Michigan State vs. Stanford	Stanford
Fiesta Bowl	Memphis vs. Oklahoma	Oklahoma
Peach Bowl	Florida vs. Iowa	Florida
Sugar Bowl	Baylor vs. Alabama	Alabama
Cotton Bowl/Playoff Semifinal	Clemson vs. LSU	Clemson
Orange Bowl/Playoff Semifinal	Ohio State vs. TCU	Ohio State

Notable Performances

Clemson

Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press

Nobody was really talking about Clemson being one of the title favorites heading into this weekend. The Tigers were undefeated, sporting one of college football’s best offenses led by one of the nation’s best quarterbacks and had a win over Notre Dame on their resume, but still the discussion revolved around teams like Ohio State, Utah and LSU instead.

But no more. Not after that performance on Saturday.

There were signs that Clemson was one of the nation’s top teams this year—the upset of the Fighting Irish and comfortable victories against Georgia Tech and Boston College—but no one could have predicted a 58-0 destruction of Miami in what turned out to be Al Golden’s final game as coach of the Hurricanes.

The Tigers finished with a mind-boggling 416 yards and six touchdowns rushing, leaving Deshaun Watson without a ton of work to do. With Utah losing Saturday against USC as well, Clemson jumped to No. 3 in the AP Poll and sets itself up well for a run to the playoff.

A loss by Florida State to Georgia Tech will damage the Tigers' resume, but as long as Clemson finishes undefeated, it shouldn’t matter, and Dabo Swinney’s team will find itself in this year’s iteration of the playoff.

Ohio State

Mel Evans/Associated Press

Ohio State has been, wire-to-wire this season, the No. 1 overall team in both major weekly polls. But despite this, there have been a lot of questions about the Buckeyes' validity as the favorites for the title.

From doubts in Ohio State’s strength of schedule being able to prove whether or not the champs deserved to be in the playoff to closer-than-anticipated games against Northern Illinois and Indiana, the Buckeyes have been the target of a good amount of criticism so far this season.

But heading into their bye week in Week 9, the Buckeyes did just about everything they could to silence the doubters with a big performance against Rutgers. Led by J.T. Barrett, who replaced Cardale Jones as the team’s starting quarterback, Ohio State put together their best performance of the season in a 49-7 win.

Ezekiel Elliott continues to surpass the 100-yard mark each week, and after a five-touchdown performance from Barrett, the Buckeyes quarterback situation looks to finally be ironed out.

Ohio State looks the closest it has this year to the team everyone expected them to be, and as long as the defense continues to perform as it did against Penn State, the Buckeyes should be able to coast until a mid-November matchup with undefeated Michigan State.

Oklahoma

Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press

Last season, the college football playoff was contested between one undefeated team and three programs with a single loss to their names. The title game had a 13-1 Oregon squad playing a 13-1 Ohio State squad.

Losses in college football are inarguably important, but they aren’t a death knell to a team’s chances of making it to the title. Both Alabama and Stanford are receiving a lot of attention as possible playoff crashers despite their losses, but one team no one is talking about is Oklahoma.

Since the embarrassing loss to Texas, the Sooners have taken down Kansas State and Texas Tech by a combined score of 118-27 and are playing some of the best football in America.

Bob Stoops’ team has a pair of wins against ranked opponents already this season in Tennessee and West Virginia and with Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma State still left to play there might not be a team better positioned to climb the rankings and impact the playoff than Oklahoma.

It is really hard to predict that the Sooners escape the three-game stretch against the Bears, Horned Frogs and Cowboys without a loss, but the Big 12 doesn’t look like a two-horse race anymore, and Oklahoma is quickly making us forget about the loss to Texas a few weeks ago.