2025 Bowl Projections After Week Nine

Hello everyone, and welcome to our 2025 Bowl Projections After Week Nine. It was another week where off-the-field news made headlines. In case you hadn’t seen, LSU parted ways with Brian Kelly. The Tigers got off to a great start this year. However, they’ve stumbled recently, and after Texas A&M dominated them in Baton Rouge, even at 5-3, a change was made. If you are counting, that’s 12 head coaching jobs currently open for 2026. No word yet on whether either Lane Kiffin or Jon Sumrall is the leading candidate for every job.

On the field, our playoff teams stayed pretty much the same with one exception. You’ll see we have a new Group of Five squad this week. Otherwise, there’s some flipping of spots, but that’s about it. We are now up to 40 wins, which have reached the magical six-win plateau. In addition, there are 18 five-win squads. As always, if you’d like to see how things changed from last week, you can click here. 

Friday, December 19th – (12) Memphis at (5) Georgia Tech. The Tigers outscored South Florida 17-0 in the fourth quarter to knock off the Bulls 34-31. As a result, they become our Group of Five team. They still have games with Tulane and Navy, however, both are at home.

On the other side of the ball, the Yellow Jackets are 8-0 for the first time since 1966. Haynes King had five touchdowns in the win over Syracuse. They are our projected ACC Champ, but we don’t have them in the top four.

Saturday, December 20th- (11) Notre Dame at (6) Georgia. This game is unchanged from last week. We still have the Fighting Irish in as our last at-large team. The Bulldogs had the week off before playing Florida on Saturday.

Saturday, December 20th- (10) Miami at (7) Oregon. The Hurricanes struggled for part of the game before putting away Stanford. Dan Lanning’s Ducks won an ugly game against Wisconsin 21-7.

Saturday, December 20th- (9)- Texas Tech at (8) Ole Miss. The Red Raiders bounced back from the Arizona State loss by taking care of Oklahoma State. We still have them as our Big 12 pick, though. BYU is right there. Those two schools play next week in Lubbock. Lane Kiffin’s Rebels got a big road win at Oklahoma and now have a great shot at finishing 11-1.

Goodyear Cotton Bowl: Wednesday, December 31st- (5) Georgia Tech vs. (4) Texas A&M– As mentioned earlier, Mike Elko’s Aggies blew out LSU in the second half and remain fourth.

Capital One Orange Bowl: Thursday, January 1st- (6) Georgia vs. (3) Indiana- Again, the ACC champion isn’t slotted to the Orange Bowl. Instead, we’re sending the Hoosiers to Miami to face the Bulldogs. These two schools have never played.

Rose Bowl Game: Thursday, January 1st– (8) Ole Miss vs. (1) Ohio State– The Buckeyes host Penn State on Saturday and should win the next four, setting up the season finale with Michigan.

Allstate Sugar Bowl: Thursday, January 1st- (7) Oregon vs. (2) Alabama- The Crimson Tide’s miracle late-game comeback keeps them as our projected SEC Champion.

VRBO Fiesta Bowl: Thursday, January 8th- (4) Texas A&M  vs. (1) Ohio State- The Buckeyes are 4-0 all-time against the Aggies, with the last meeting coming in the 1999 Sugar Bowl.

Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl: Friday, January 9th- (3) Indiana vs. (2) Alabama- These two schools have never met on the gridiron.

College Football National Championship: Monday, January 19th- (2) Alabama vs. (1) Ohio State- We’re going out on a limb with the top two teams making the final.

That’s your breakdown of the playoff for this week. Continuing with our 2025 Bowl Projections After Week Nine, let’s move to the games around the New Year.

Once again, this season, legacy Pac-12 teams can be slotted to games featuring that league. However, that goes away next year when the conference starts fresh with new teams. As always, we’ll try not to pair them with teams they’ve already played.

In addition, with it being 2025, the SEC plays in the Mayo Bowl while the Big Ten goes to the Las Vegas Bowl. Furthermore, for the second time in three years, the Bahamas Bowl won’t be played there. No word yet on what a replacement game might be called.

One other thing to note, we’ve gone from having more SEC bowl-eligible teams than bowls to not having enough. Such is the life of playing in that league.

Music City Bowl: December 30th- Big Ten vs. SEC- Northwestern vs. Texas- The “Comeback Longhorns” did it again, rallying from a deficit to knock off Mississippi State in overtime.

Valero Alamo Bowl: December 30th- Big 12 vs. Pac-12- Arizona State vs. USC+–The Trojans go to San Antonio as a legacy Pac-12 member.

Reliaquest Bowl: December 31st- SEC vs. Big Ten- Vanderbilt vs. Nebraska- It might be somewhat controversial, but we are keeping the Commodores just out of the playoff this week.

Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl: December 31st- ACC/Notre Dame vs. Pac-12- California vs. Washington State- We have an honest-to-goodness Pac-12 squad heading to El Paso this week.

SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl: December 31st- Big Ten vs. Pac-12- Illinois vs. Iowa State *– With no legacy Pac-12 team available we are sending the Cyclones to Vegas.

Holiday Bowl: January 2nd- ACC vs. Pac-12- Virginia vs. Utah+– This will be the first time this game has ever been played in January. The Utes go as a legacy Pac-12 school.

Moving on with our 2025 Bowl Projections after Week Nine, let’s look at the games right after the big holiday.

Wasabi Fenway Bowl: December 27th- ACC/Notre Dame vs. American- Wake Forest vs. Tulane– The Demon Deacons handed SMU their first ACC regular season loss since joining the league. As a result, they’re moving on up in our bowl picks.

Moving on with our 2025 Bowl Projections After Week Nine, let’s move to the season’s initial games.

LA Bowl Hosted by Gronk: December 13th- Mountain West vs. Pac-12- Boise State vs. Washington+– The Huskies go to LA as a legacy Pac-12 squad.

StaffDNA Cure Bowl: December 17th- American/Conference USA/Sun Belt-  UCONN vs. Kansas State- The Wildcats are back on our bowl radar after their win at Kansas.

Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl: December 19th- American/ACC/Notre Dame/SEC- South Florida vs. North Carolina State– As a result of their loss to Memphis, the Bulls are basically staying home for their bowl.

Former Bahamas Bowl: Conference USA vs. MAC – Liberty vs. Miami (Ohio). We don’t know the title or where the game will be played, but we have a matchup.

While there aren’t as many high-profile games this weekend, there’s still a good slate of games. Not surprisingly, a couple of SEC games top the list. Those are Vanderbilt heading to Texas and Oklahoma at Tennessee. In addition, Miami travels to SMU, Utah hosts Cincinnati, and Penn State faces Ohio State. Of course, this game had a much higher profile a month ago. Thanks for checking out our bowl projections after week nine here at Last Word On College Football. We’ll be back at the same time next week for our updated picks.

Main Photo: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images