CBS Sports Projects WVU to Make a Bowl Game in 2025 and It’s Not One You’d Expect

A bowl game is a bowl game, but yikes...this would be a not-so intriguing matchup.

Kannon Katzer

Getting to six wins is usually not good enough at West Virginia, but in 2025, it would be a massive achievement, given the roster turnover and the difficulty of schedule they will be faced with.

That magic number of six, of course, gets you bowl eligible.

Over the years, the Mountaineers haven't performed too well in bowl games, unless it's on the big stage. They were a perfect 3-0 in BCS bowls during the BCS era (pre-college playoff), taking down the likes of Georgia in the Sugar, Oklahoma in the Fiesta, and Clemson in the Orange. Since that dominating 70-33 route of the Tigers, WVU is 3-7 in bowl games.

Winning the bowl game is great, as it gives you something to build on heading into the offseason, but more importantly, it creates more opportunities to develop your younger players. Those 15 extra practices can do a lot for those underclassmen who are still trying to figure things out.

As you're well aware, expectations for the Mountaineers nationally in 2025 are mighty low. Most don't even expect West Virginia to make it to a bowl game. CBS Sports does, however. They published their preseason bowl projections on Thursday and have WVU slated against Central Michigan in the 68 Ventures Bowl on December 17th in Mobile, Alabama.

You're probably wondering what in the heck the 68 Ventures Bowl is. The names of these lower-tier bowls change all the time, and this one in particular has seen quite the makeover. It's been previously named the Mobile Alabama Bowl (1999-2000), the GMAC Bowl (2001-2009), the GoDaddy.com Bowl (2010-2013), the GoDaddy Bowl (2014-2015), the Dollar General Bowl (2016-2018), and the LendingTree Bowl (2019-2022).

It's not a bowl game that has a direct tie-in with the Big 12, of course. It will typically feature teams from Conference USA, the Sun Belt, or the MAC.

Big 12 Bowl Ties

Valero Alamo Bowl

Pop-Tarts Bowl

Kinder's Texas Bowl

AutoZone Liberty Bowl

Rate Bowl

Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl

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