Week 10 Bowl Projections: Oklahoma State Sneaking Into More NY6 Games

Following Oklahoma State’s win over West Virginia in Morgantown and, more importantly, Iowa State’s win over TCU in Ames, Oklahoma State was predicted more heavily in NY6 bowls this week. Multiple outlets had them in the Peach Bowl and others had them in the Fiesta and/or Cotton.

Let’s take a look.

I’m intrigued by all the USC matchups. Obviously I’d rather Oklahoma State play them in the Fiesta Bowl than the Alamo Bowl, but a Rudolph-Darnold matchup for all the Tostitos (or muskets) would be tasty.

It’s going to be interesting to see what happens to either a 1-loss Big 12 title-winning Oklahoma State team or a 2-loss Oklahoma State team that finishes third in the conference behind, say, TCU, Iowa State or OU. Will the former make the CFP? Will the latter make a New Year’s Six bowl?

I think people are projecting OSU in the NY6 now because most think they’re just a better team than TCU and will lose fewer games from here on out despite already having lost to TCU.

This week, I swapped Virginia Tech in for the tightrope-walking Miami as the ACC’s Orange autobid. The top-ranked Big Ten/SEC/Notre Dame team gets the other spot in that game.

The other three bowls here are at-larges, based on rankings. I moved Oklahoma State in for TCU, despite the head-to-head. One spot in this group automatically goes to a mid-major champ, and UCF is running away with that race right now. [SB Nation]

The Peach Bowl against UCF would not exactly thrill, but I guess you take NY6 games whenever and wherever you can get them. Also, apropos of nothing, I thought this Georgia-Bama argument regarding both possibly getting in the CFP was fascinating.

Say Georgia’s No. 1 and Alabama’s No. 2 entering the SEC Championship. Say Bama wins, perhaps due to having a more battle-tested QB. Why should Georgia fall out of the top four? We already know you don’t need a conference title to make the Playoff, and UGA would at least have a division title. The Dawgs would have a more defensible loss than anybody in the country. They’d have a win at Notre Dame, which could very well be a road win over No. 5 (aka the second-best win by any contender, assuming Oklahoma drops another game), and six or so other wins over bowl teams, which would only be one or two behind the other contenders. They’ve also won big. [SB Nation]

Can you imagine a 12-1 OSU getting left out because two SEC teams also went 12-1. There would not be enough keyboards in the DFW Metroplex to handle all the thoughts I would have on that scenario.