The college football regular season is basically done and with just a handful of games and conference championships still to come, it's perfect time for some BCS bowl predictions, picks and projections for the top games and some FBS teams that will be in the mix includes Florida State, Ohio State, Alabama, Auburn as well as Missouri and Baylor.
The main BCS bowl games includes the national championship at the Rose Bowl and of course the actual Rose Bowl game itself along with the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, Discover Orange Bowl and the Allstate Sugar Bowl. The sponsorships have become so linked with the games after all these years it's kind of sad that's how they are branded, but for teams like Florida State and Ohio State, all they want is to play in the national championship and right now things are looking likely that they will finish out in the top two spots.
The BCS National Championship game is in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl and the game will come on January 6 starting up at 8:30 pm on ESPN and the matchup right now has the Buckeyes taking on the Seminoles in the game. All season it appeared that it would be Alabama playing against Florida State to see if they could win a third championship in a row, but after losing to Auburn in the Iron Bowl, it would take a miracle for the team to get back into the game, as the Tigers now likely would be ahead of them anyway. Bama now will not play for the SEC championship and any hope for Auburn making it into the national title game must come from either Florida State or Ohio State losing in their conference title games.
The Buckeyes will play against the Michigan State Spartans in the Big Ten title game, while the Seminoles have a matchup against the surprising Duke Blue Devils and the biggest question for the team isn't whether or not they can beat Duke, they can, it's whether or not Jameis Winston will be playing for the team in the future, as he possibly could have a sexual assault charge coming his way very soon and that could have a big impact on the Heisman race as well as the national title picture.
OSU comes into the game after winning their big matchup against Michigan and that was closer than many expected, as the Wolverines ended up going for two near the end of the game with the lead before losing. Florida State looks very strong and other teams in the BCS mix for the other games includes Baylor, Alabama, UCF, Oklahoma State as well as Northern Illinois and Arizona State and Michigan State also could be in the bigger games.
It's hard to predict who will be where and how it will all shake out, but if either Ohio State or Florida State loses their conference championship games, it could mean bedlam for the BCS and it's funny that it's happening this season, as the playoff format comes in next year.
The schedule shakes out like this:
Rose Bowl: January 1, 5:00 pm on ESPN
Fiesta Bowl: January 1, 8:30 pm on ESPN
Sugar Bowl: January 2, 8:30 pm on ESPN
Orange Bowl, Miami: January 3, ESPN TBD time
BCS national championship, Rose Bowl: January 6, 2014 at 8:30 pm on ESPN