Week 8 bowl projections: Notre Dame still in line to face Alabama in Playoff

Bill Bender

Week 8 bowl projections: Notre Dame still in line to face Alabama in Playoff image

The 2018 college football schedule is halfway complete, meaning we're one week closer to the 40-game 2018 bowl season. Sporting News, of course, has projections for all of those bowls. 

It's Week 8, and Notre Dame remains in our projected College Football Playoff.  We have the Irish taking on Alabama in the Capital One Orange Bowl, while the matchup between Clemson and Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl stays the same. Michigan, Oregon and Oklahoma are part of the New Year's Day Six heading into the third week of October.

MORE: Do upsets hurt Playoff contenders? 

Here are our projections for every bowl game, with a familiar national championship game.

Week 8 College football bowl projections

BowlProjected teams
Gildan New Mexico BowlBoise State vs. Louisiana Tech
AutoNation Cure BowlArkansas State vs. USF
Las Vegas BowlUtah State vs. Utah
Raycom Media Camellia BowlGeorgia Southern vs. Colorado State*
New Orleans BowlLouisiana-Monroe vs. UAB
Cheribundi Tart Boca Raton BowlOhio vs. FIU
Frisco BowlWestern Michigan vs. Houston
Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla BowlFAU vs. Cincinnati
Bahamas BowlMarshall vs. Toledo
Potato BowlNorthern Illinois vs. San Diego State
Birmingham BowlMemphis vs. Arizona State*
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces BowlBYU* vs. Temple
Dollar General BowlAppalachian State vs. Buffalo
Hawai'i BowlHawaii vs. North Texas
First Responder BowlMiddle Tennessee St. vs. Purdue
Quick Lane BowlWake Forest vs. Indiana
Cheez-It BowlOklahoma State vs. Stanford
Walk-On's Independence Bowl Syracuse vs. Tennessee
New Era Pinstripe BowlVirginia vs. Maryland
Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas BowlIowa State vs. Auburn
Franklin American Mortgage Music City BowlBoston College vs. Vanderbilt
Camping World BowlTCU vs. Duke
Arizona BowlTroy vs. Fresno State
Valero Alamo BowlTexas Tech vs. Washington
Chick-Fil-A Peach BowlGeorgia vs. N.C. State
Belk BowlMiami (Fla.) vs. South Carolina
Military Bowl Army vs. Pitt
Hyundai Sun BowlVirginia Tech vs. Colorado
San Francisco BowlIowa vs. Washington State
AutoZone Liberty BowlWest Virginia vs. Mississippi State
Holiday BowlNorthwestern vs. USC
TaxSlayer Gator BowlWisconsin vs. Texas A&M
Outback BowlPenn State vs. Kentucky
Citrus BowlMichigan State vs. Florida
PlayStation Fiesta BowlUCF vs. Oklahoma
Rose Bowl GameMichigan vs. Oregon
AllState Sugar BowlTexas vs. LSU

MORE: SN's Week 8 Playoff picture

College Football Playoff predictions 

Dec. 29Capital One Orange BowlNotre Dame vs. Alabama
Dec. 29Goodyear Cotton Bowl ClassicClemson vs. Ohio State
Jan. 7College Football Playoff championshipAlabama vs. Ohio State

Bill Bender

Bill Bender graduated from Ohio University in 2002 and started at The Sporting News as a fantasy football writer in 2007. He has covered the College Football Playoff, NBA Finals and World Series for SN. Bender enjoys story-telling, awesomely-bad 80s movies and coaching youth sports.