Cardale Jones
Cardale Jones and Ohio State may have earned themselves a playoff spot with Saturday night's 59-0 win over Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
(Darron Cummings)
This weekend's conference championships and final regular-season games in the Big 12 may result in a little different look for the College Football Playoff and the New Year's Day bowls.
And so we offer one last revision to our bowl projections before the pairings are announced later today.
Ohio State made a strong case for the playoff with a 59-0 bludgeoning of Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game, good enough for a top four projection here and a semfinal date with Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. TCU drops out and into the Cotton, where Ole Miss awaits after moving up into a New Year's Day bowl slot with Wisconsin tumbling out and down to the Outback Bowl.
The Big Ten and SEC shuffling caused some changes further down the line, but Auburn remains ticketed for the Taxslayer Bowl in Jacksonville according to this projection.
You can find all the bowls' tie-ins here.
The guesswork will be over at 11:45 a.m., when the pairings for the inaugural playoffs are announced live on ESPN. The full Top 25 rankings and pairings for the other playoff committee bowls -- the Orange, Cotton, Fiesta and Peach bowls -- then will be announced at about 1:45 p.m., with announcements of other bowl pairings coming later this afternoon.
AL.com's final 2014-15 bowl projections:
College Football Playoff:
Sugar Bowl (Jan. 1): Alabama vs. Ohio State
Rose Bowl (Jan. 1): Oregon vs. Florida State
Selection Committee bowl games:
Cotton (Jan. 1): TCU vs. Ole Miss
Fiesta (Dec. 31): Boise State vs. Arizona
Orange (Dec. 31): Michigan State vs. Georgia Tech
Peach (Dec. 31): Baylor vs. Mississippi State
Other bowls:
GoDadddy (Jan. 4): Northern Illinois vs. Arkansas State*
Birmingham (Jan. 3): Memphis vs. South Carolina
Alamo (Jan. 2): Kansas State vs. UCLA
TaxSlayer.com Gator (Jan. 2): Auburn vs. Minnesota
Cactus (Jan. 2): Washington vs. Oklahoma State
Armed Forces (Jan. 2): Houston vs. Middle Tennessee
Citrus (Jan. 1): Missouri vs. Clemson
Outback (Jan. 1): Georgia vs. Wisconsin
Music City (Dec. 30): Texas A&M vs. Notre Dame
Belk (Dec. 30): Florida vs. North Carolina State
Foster Farms (Dec. 30): USC vs. Iowa
Russell Athletic (Dec. 29): Louisville vs. Oklahoma
Liberty (Dec. 29): Tennessee vs. West Virginia
Texas (Dec. 29): LSU vs. Texas
Holiday (Dec. 27): Nebraska vs. Arizona State
Pinstripe (Dec. 27): Boston College vs. Penn State
Independence (Dec. 27): Arkansas vs. Miami
Sun (Dec. 27): Duke vs. Utah
Military (Dec. 27): Central Florida vs. Virginia Tech
Bitcoin St. Petersburg (Dec. 26): Cincinnati vs. North Carolina
Heart of Dallas (Dec. 26): Rutgers vs. Rice
Quick Lane (Dec. 26): Pittsburgh vs. Maryland
Bahamas (Dec. 24): Marshall vs. Toledo
Hawaii (Dec. 24): Louisiana Tech vs. Utah State
Poinsettia (Dec. 23): San Diego State vs. Navy*
Boca Raton (Dec. 23): Western Kentucky vs. Western Michigan
Miami Beach (Dec. 23): East Carolina vs. BYU*
Camellia (Dec. 20): Bowling Green vs. South Alabama*
Idaho Potato (Dec. 20): Nevada vs. Central Michigan
New Mexico (Dec. 20): Air Force vs. UTEP
Royal Purple Las Vegas (Dec. 20): Colorado State vs. Stanford
New Orleans Bowl (Dec. 20): Louisiana Lafayette* vs. Fresno State
(* = have already accepted bid)