Bowl Predictions 2016: Projecting College Football Playoff Field After Week 7

Another Saturday, another set of revelations about the College Football Playoff picture. What was once a fuzzy image is coming more into focus, though there is much football left to be played.

But below, we'll project how the season will play out, predicting which teams will reach the playoff and the top bowl games as well.

Bowl	Date	Projected Matchup
Orange Bowl	Dec. 30	Louisville vs. Florida
Fiesta Bowl (Playoff Semifinal)	Dec. 31	Ohio State vs. Clemson
Peach Bowl (Playoff Semifinal)	Dec. 31	Alabama vs. Washington
Cotton Bowl	Jan. 2	Boise State vs. Baylor
Rose Bowl	Jan. 2	MIchigan vs. Utah
Sugar Bowl	Jan. 2	Oklahoma vs. Texas A&M

At this point, Alabama looks like a safe bet to reach the College Football Playoff. Saturday's absolute demolition of Tennessee was another reminder of how good this year's version of the Crimson Tide can be. 

Yes, they have Texas A&M next, a game that will likely decide the SEC West winner and potentially one of the four playoff spots. But the Crimson Tide will be favored at home to get that win. From there, winnable contests against LSU and Auburn remain the toughest matchups before the SEC title game, where Florida now seems most likely to be awaiting. 

Washington seems to be Alabama's likely opponent in the playoff. The most difficult game remaining on its schedule is Utah, though a different Pac-12 team could spoil its fantastic season. But Washington has been dominant to this point, giving its fans little reason to believe it will slip up. 

Either Ohio State or Michigan seem all but assured to reach the playoff at this point, meanwhile. The Buckeyes still have tough matchups against Nebraska and, of course, Michigan, while the Wolverines' toughest remaining contest is that aforementioned matchup against the Buckeyes to close the season.

Whichever team wins that final contest will likely have a meeting with either Wisconsin or Nebraska to close the year. Either team can probably survive a loss—and both teams could still potentially get into the playoff depending on how the rest of the season shakes out in the other conferences—but at this point, it would be fairly shocking if neither Ohio State nor Michigan reached the playoff.

And then there's Clemson, which has now survived nail-biters against Louisville and North Carolina State, the latter of which missed a game-winning field goal as time expired on Saturday.

"There's something to be said for finding a way to win," Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney told the Associated Press after the game (h/t ESPN.com). "And there's something to be said for knowing how to win."

There's another way of looking at it, however, as Chuck Culpepper of the Washington Post wrote:

"

In truth, Clemson doesn’t look champion-like, with nine turnovers in its last two games, the 42-36 home escape of Louisville and Saturday’s 24-17 overtime home escape of N.C. State. But it does have champion knowhow, and it does have a coach, Dabo Swinney, who can quip, “Right now, we’ve beaten everybody but Clemson. We’re trying to beat Clemson, but we haven’t quite achieved that yet.”

"

Indeed, the Tigers are fortunate to be undefeated, and Florida State will test them in two weeks. On the other hand, the Tigers have the experience of reaching the College Football Playoff championship a year ago and have done what they needed to do to win this year. Their opponents have not. And so their high-wire act continues on unblemished.

The year's other bowls present an even more muddled forecast. Some projections in that regard are easier than others. If you believe Ohio State will win the Big Ten, it follows that Michigan will likely find its way to the Rose Bowl, where Utah seems the most likely to be awaiting.

If you are a believer in Louisville, meanwhile, you're likely to project a second loss on the season for Houston, meaning Boise State will likely earn the automatic bid from outside the Power Five conferences. At the moment, a school like Baylor or perhaps West Virginia, if it keeps up its winning ways, seems like a safe bet for the second at-large bid.

Louisville, meanwhile, will keep rooting for losses from Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, Washington, Michigan and Texas A&M so that it can climb back into the playoff picture, but if that doesn't happen, the Orange Bowl is in its future. If Florida can reach the SEC Championship (and beat Florida State before that), the Gators seem like a prime choice to be awaiting after Tennessee's second straight stumble.

Lastly, the Sugar Bowl will feature the Big 12 winner and the top remaining option from the SEC. Despite early losses to Houston and Ohio State, Oklahoma still looks like the class of the Big 12. And despite a projected loss to Alabama next week, Texas A&M will still end up being the most appealing SEC team for the Sugar Bowl.

But much will change between now and the bowl season. At least one of the top teams, if not several, will falter. There will be a crazy upset that none of us saw coming. Rivalry games will send what is currently a neat and tidy playoff picture into disarray. And once the official College Football Playoff rankings are revealed, a few teams might be shuffled in the pecking order.

In other words, expect the unexpected. This is college football, after all. Maintaining the status quo would just be too boring.

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.