BCS Bowl Projections: Predicting the BCS Bowls Pre-LSU/Alabama

Even though they haven’t even played for the first time yet, some people are calling for an LSU-Alabama rematch in the National Championship Game this year.

That won’t happen if I’m right about the game. I have Alabama beating LSU 27-16 because the Tide play better defense and the Tiger’s offense ranks 81st in the country in yards per game.

So assuming that my prediction holds up, what will the BCS Bowls look like at the end of the season? Here’s the way they would likely work out.

Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech vs. West Virginia

The Orange Bowl gets extremely lucky that this is the matchup because these two teams played a heated rivalry game up until 2006.

Virginia Tech upsets Clemson in the Orange Bowl because their offense has come leaps and bounds from the unit the Tigers saw earlier this season. The Hokies held Sammy Watkins and the Clemson offense to their lowest output all year by far and they’ll be looking for revenge.

West Virginia won on the road against an amped up Rutgers team which has been the biggest problem for the conference. They have to play at Cincinnati but the Mountaineers have the better football team so they should come out with a win in the de-facto Big East Championship.

Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma State vs. Stanford

In one of the biggest shootouts in BCS history, Oklahoma State takes on Stanford after each team loses one of their remaining games—for the record, I’m taking Texas Tech over the Cowboys in Lubbock and then the Pokes beat Oklahoma at home.

OSU’s defense gets turnovers better than almost anyone in the country but they give up way too many yards not to lose a game this year and thus miss out on the National Championship.

Stanford loses at home to Oregon in a high scoring affair so they get left out of the big game as well.

Sugar Bowl: LSU vs. Oklahoma

The Sooners will have two losses, but it will be too good of a matchup for Sugar Bowl executives to pass up considering how well both of these fan bases travel.

LSU rebounds from their loss to Alabama and runs the table the rest of the year and makes it an obvious choice for the Sugar Bowl after finishing third in the BCS.

Rose Bowl: Ohio State vs. Oregon

You probably think I’m crazy at this point but hear me out.

Ohio State’s defense has played phenomenally all season and with their win over Wisconsin, they hold the tiebreaker over them. They only have Penn State and Michigan as real challenges—the Nittany Lions can’t score and the Wolverines got completely shut down by the Buckeyes last season.

Then Penn State loses its final three games to Nebraska, Ohio State and Wisconsin thus knocking them out of contention. And even though the Buckeyes lost to Michigan State and Nebraska during the season, they didn’t have Dan Herron playing and he’s gotten 174 tough yards in the past two games so they should win the Big Ten Championship Game.

Oregon beats Stanford and then beats Arizona State at home for the second time this season.

National Championship: Alabama vs. Boise State

This will finally be the season that people get to see Boise State in the BCS National Championship game. They’re the only undefeated team outside of Alabama and LSU to play good defense and they should run through rest of their schedule undefeated as should the Tide.

What will happen is anyone’s guess, but if these two teams are the only undefeated ones remaining, they should get into the National Championship. It will be one crazy year for the BCS.