BCS 2014 Bowl Projections: Clemson and Ohio State To Orange, Alabama and Oregon to Sugar
By Ty Duffy
The season is over, barring Army vs. Navy. Now, it’s time to slot teams into the BCS. Here are our projections. The Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl select replacement teams. The Orange, Sugar and Fiesta to pick their three second teams in that order. Relative merit, beyond the teams meeting the minimum qualifications, has little to do with.
BCS Championship Game [Auburn vs. Florida State] No. 1 BCS vs. No. 2 BCS
Rose Bowl [Stanford vs. Michigan State] Pac 12 vs. Big 12. Straight-Forward.
Orange Bowl [Clemson vs. Ohio State] The Orange Bowl gets two of the first three picks. Their present and future partner is the ACC. They won’t ditch that relationship. One of the picks will be Clemson. The bowl will then choose the biggest draw left to pair them with, Ohio State.
Sugar Bowl [Alabama vs. Oregon] Alabama replaces the SEC Champion. The choice for the second team is either Oregon or Oklahoma. We’ll say Oregon gets the nod for the TV rating. Not sure how enthused anyone is to watch an average Oklahoma team get flattened.
Fiesta Bowl [Baylor vs. UCF] Baylor is the Big 12 anchor team. The Fiesta Bowl falls on the BCS grenade with UCF.
What a Four-Team Playoff Would Look Like: Florida State (1) vs. Alabama (4), Auburn (2) vs. Michigan State (3)
What an Eight-Team Playoff Would Look LIke: Florida State (1-ACC) vs. Missouri (8-AL) , Auburn (2-SEC) vs. Baylor (7-B12) , Alabama (3-AL) vs. Ohio State (6-AL) , Michigan State (4-B1G) vs. Stanford (5-PAC)
[Photo via USA Today Sports]