The NCAA Football Bowl schedule is about to kick off and that means tons of college football for weeks and great matchups between BCS teams and other solid schools and with the dates coming up for the national championship, here are some predictions and projections for the biggest games with Florida State, Auburn, Ohio State and Alabama.
The VIZIO BCS National Championship has the chance to be the best game of the bowl season and that is not always the case, as evidenced by last year's huge win by Alabama over Notre Dame. This year the teams are fairly matched with Florida State and Auburn and after the way the Tigers played down the stretch, they look like they will be able to challenge the undefeated Seminoles in the title game this season. Jameis Winston is now a Heisman winner, but the Tigers have their own Heisman finalist in Tre Mason and if he runs like he did in the SEC championship game, it could be a very long day for the Seminoles.
Mason busted out with over 300 yards and four touchdowns against Missouri in the SEC title game and he will be the main focus on offense along with Nick Marshall and if Auburn can pass the ball successfully just a little bit, they may end up with the edge in the game. Florida State has one of the best defenses in the nation, but Auburn is loaded with talent as well and the Seminoles are coming off of a game in which they scored nearly 60 points against a top ranked team, while FSU only had to beat Duke to win the ACC championship. Much has been made about strength of schedule in the final season of the BCS and Auburn has proven that they are worth by defeating Alabama and a number of other top SEC teams.
While FSU did not have as tough of a schedule, they killed Clemson when they were high ranked and won every game on the schedule this season, even against the tougher opponents they played in the SEC. Auburn played in close games with Georgia and Alabama and ended up winning out on some fantastic finishes and while they almost lost those games, it gave the team experience in a close matchup, something Florida State has not done all season. If the Tigers can keep things close, FSU will be in the type of game it has not played in over a year and that could end up being a huge advantage for the team going forward.
Ohio State missed out on their chance to make it to the national championship game with a loss in the Big Ten title game to the Michigan State Spartans and now they will face off against Clemson in the Orange Bowl, where they likely will be the favorites after not losing a regular season game for two years. The Spartans will be in the Rose Bowl against Stanford and that could be a great matchup of hardnosed teams, while Alabama will be playing in the Sugar Bowl against Oklahoma and the Fiesta Bowl has Baylor playing against UCF. All these games could be great, but my money is on FSU and Auburn being the best.
Predictions:
Auburn wins over FSU
Baylor over UCF
Ohio State wins over Clemson
Stanford over Michigan State
Alabama wins over Oklahoma.
Check here for a full schedule from ESPN and more predictions and projections from SWR.
