College Football Bowl Projections After Week 8: Florida, Clemson Miss Postseason

Parity across the sport has created matchups like Auburn and Florida State in the Mayo Bowl as big-name brands fail to meet expectations.

Clemson quarterback Christopher Vizzina passes against SMU. / Ken Ruinard-GREENVILLE NEWS-USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images

The 2007 college football season is held in high esteem as one of the wildest seasons of the past 25 years. Every week it felt like a top-five team was getting upset and the Top 10 was just a revolving door of surprising names like Cal, Boston College, Kansas and West Virginia. 

Maybe, just maybe, we’re getting a dose of that in 2025. That’s partly because there are no dominant teams (Ohio State and Indiana excepted, perhaps). It really feels like anybody can beat anybody on a given Saturday and you’re just a few games from thinking a winless season is on the table to wondering about a bowl game. That’s not good for the long-term outlook for some head coaches given such parity, but it makes sitting in front of your TV for 18 hours well worth the time investment.

dark. FREE. SI College Football Newsletter. Get SI's College Football Newsletter

There may not be a better example of the nature of this season than the latest bowl projections. There’s no Penn State or Clemson after both were ranked in the top five during the preseason. Texas appears closer to the Texas Bowl than the College Football Playoff. There’s no Florida in the postseason, fresh off firing its head coach, but Florida International is in. 

As a result of such chaos, we also get some compelling matchups. How fun would the Pop-Tarts Bowl be if Louisville and BYU narrowly missed out on the CFP? Auburn and Florida State meeting in the Mayo Bowl would not only be a reunion of the 2013 BCS title game, but a fitting conclusion to both teams’ downward trending year. The quarterback moxie levels at the ReliaQuest Bowl would be off the charts between Nebraska and Vanderbilt. Michigan and Tennessee can settle that Heisman debate from 1997 in the Citrus Bowl. That’s just a sampling of the fun.

Here is how Sports Illustrated sees all of the 35 bowl games coming together to form the postseason picture and which 70 FBS teams will wind up going bowling in 2025–26 after Week 8.

Bowl	Date	Matchup
L.A. Bowl	Dec. 13	Washington State vs. San Diego State
Salute to Veterans Bowl	Dec. 16	Troy vs. Jacksonville State
Cure Bowl	Dec. 17	North Texas vs. James Madison
68 Ventures Bowl	Dec. 17	Georgia Southern vs. Bowling Green
Myrtle Beach Bowl	Dec. 19	Old Dominion vs. Central Michigan
Gasparilla Bowl	Dec. 19	East Carolina vs. Appalachian State
Potato Bowl	Dec. 22	Ohio vs. Boise State
Boca Raton Bowl	Dec. 23	Buffalo vs. Marshall
New Orleans Bowl	Dec. 23	Louisiana Tech vs. Southern Miss
Frisco Bowl	Dec. 23	Kennesaw State vs. Utah State
Hawai‘i Bowl	Dec. 24	Western Kentucky vs. Hawai‘i
Sports Bowl	Dec. 26	Toledo vs. Temple
Rate Bowl	Dec. 26	TCU vs. Washington
First Responder Bowl	Dec. 26	Cal vs. Kansas
Military Bowl	Dec. 27	Navy vs. San Diego State
Pinstripe Bowl	Dec. 27	Duke vs. Minnesota
Fenway Bowl	Dec. 27	Wake Forest vs. Tulane
Pop-Tarts Bowl	Dec. 27	Louisville vs. BYU
Arizona Bowl	Dec. 27	Western Michigan vs. UNLV
New Mexico Bowl	Dec. 27	Fresno State vs. Texas State
Gator Bowl	Dec. 27	Virginia vs. Oklahoma
Texas Bowl	Dec. 27	Baylor vs. Texas
Birmingham Bowl	Dec. 29	Mississippi State vs. Memphis
Independence Bowl	Dec. 30	Kansas State vs. UConn
Music City Bowl	Dec. 30	Iowa vs. LSU
Alamo Bowl	Dec. 30	Houston vs. USC
ReliaQuest Bowl	Dec. 31	Nebraska vs. Vanderbilt
Sun Bowl	Dec. 31	SMU vs. Arizona
Citrus Bowl	Dec. 31	Michigan vs. Tennessee
Vegas Bowl	Dec. 31	Arizona State vs. Illinois
Armed Forces Bowl	Jan. 2	UTSA vs. Iowa State
Liberty Bowl	Jan. 2	Cincinnati vs. Missouri
Mayo Bowl	Jan. 2	Florida State vs. Auburn
Holiday Bowl	Jan. 2	Pitt vs. Utah
TBD/Bahamas Bowl	TBD	Florida International vs. Miami (Ohio)

---

More College Football on Sports Illustrated

Listen to SI’s new college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, below or on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s YouTube channel.

feed