CollegeBowlProjections.com

The Georgia Bulldogs ended the 2008 season with a 24-12 victory over Michigan State in the Capital One Bowl. They finished the season 10-3 and ranked 13th in the AP and coaches poll.

You would think this was a successful season but many Bulldog fans were disappointed since Georgia was the preseason #1 team in both the AP and coaches poll. The Bulldogs couldn’t overcome injuries during the year.

The Bulldogs embarrassing loss to Alabama in September finished off the Bulldogs season for the national title. They finished the season 4-2 at home, 5-0 on the road and 0-2 on a neutral field. Here were the Bulldogs results in 2008.

The Bulldogs lose their top quarterback(Matthew Stafford), top running back(Knowshon Moreno), and top receiver(Mohamed Massaquoi) for the 2009 season. Their replacements will need to mature immediately if the Bulldogs hope to fight for the SEC title.

The Bulldogs schedule is brutal this upcoming year as they will have one of the toughest schedules in the nation. Many top SEC teams play a weak out of conference schedule in 2009. You must give Georgia great respect for scheduling a Big 12(Oklahoma State) and Pac-10(Arizona State) team during the season. This doesn’t even include their showdown at Georgia Tech at the end of year.

The Bulldogs success will be determined by their road games. The Bulldogs play five very good teams away from Athens and this doesn’t include their Jacksonville match-up versus Florida.

If the young talent doesn’t gel immediately, this will be a down year for Georgia.

2009 Georgia Bulldogs Football Schedule:

Popularity: 6% [?]

The Florida Gators will be defending their title in the SEC and nation next year.  Before we look at their schedule for the upcoming season, let’s look at the 2008 schedule and the results. The Gators were 6-1 at home, 4-0 on the road, and 3-0 on a neutral field.  The Gators defeated their SEC rivals (outside of the Ole Miss defeat) by an average of 33 points.

Florida will play only four road games again this season with their traditional game in Jacksonville against Georgia.  They will play grueling opponents Charleston Southern, Troy and Florida International at home and avoid Alabama, Auburn and Ole Miss on the schedule.

The toughest road game appears to be at LSU.  However LSU will still be trying to resolve their QB issues and the Gators will get them early enough on the schedule to cause havoc in the LSU backfield.  The Gators will have plenty of time to prepare with a bye week before they enter Baton Rouge.  

This schedule would be perfect for a “rebuilding” year in Florida.  Instead the Gators return almost everyone and will breeze through this schedule.  Challenging title teams from other conferences better hope the Gators have another “Ole Miss” hiccup against Tennesee, Arkansas or Vanderbilt.

Expect Florida to win the SEC title in 2009 and visit Pasadena in 2010 for the national championship.

The 2009 Florida Gators Football Schedule:

Popularity: 8% [?]

The best conferences in bowl games:
Pac-10 5-0
SEC 6-2

The worst conferences in bowl games:
Mid-American 0-5
Big Ten 1-6

Great Defenses:
Florida holding Oklahoma to 14 points.

TCU holding Boise State to 16 points.  The last time Boise State was held under 20 points was September 8, 2007(Washington 24 Boise State 10)

Lousy Offenses:
Oregon State 3 Pittsburgh 0.  The Beavers had an excuse missing the Rodgers’ brothers for the game but Pitt needs to desperately find a quarterback for next season. Pitt quarterbacks completed 9 of 27 passes for a total of 89 yards, 0 touchdowns and 1 interception.  Can you imagine how many more yards LeSean McCoy could run for if they had a decent pass game?

We didn’t see that coming:
Notre Dame thumping Hawaii 49-21 in the Hawaii Bowl.  After all the debate about Charlie Weiss returning, the Irish gave the Warriors a whoopin on their home turf.  Casey Clausen went 22/26 401 yards and 5 touchdowns.

Ole Miss putting 47 points on Texas Tech in Texas at the Cotton Bowl.  We knew the Big 12 didn’t have the best defense but we didn’t see the Rebels giving Tech a bunch of their own medicine.

Utah 21 Alabama 0 after 11 minutes in the first quarter.  The Crimson Tide were blown away by a far better prepared team in the Sugar Bowl.

We saw that coming:
USC dominating another Big Ten team in the Rose Bowl.  Pete Carroll prepares his team as well as anyone for bowl season.

Virginia Tech winning the Orange Bowl.  The Cincinnati Bearcats are new to the BCS and showed they didn’t have the poise to defeat a young Hokie team.

Another BCS mess:
Why do we continue to deal with this terrible system?  Who is rolling in all the cash from the bowl systems that won’t allow a change?  Why aren’t the over 50 non-BCS schools not working together to destroy this system?

We endure another year with controversy about the number one team in the nation.  Florida, USC, Utah and Texas should all have a piece of the title this season until they fix this joke of a system.

Popularity: 3% [?]

We all know that several NCAA teams were robbed of the chance to win the National Championship due to the lack of a playoff. Were we also robbed of the chance to see some fantastic games? Collegebowlprojections.com ran a mock 16 team playoff just to see how the match-ups may have come down.

We used the BCS to determine the top 16 with the exception of the 16th seed, would have been BYU but we had to put in an ACC team because that conference would never be denied an enterant in the field. Here is how it went down:

This is how we see the playoff going down.

• A first round rematch between TCU and Utah. In the earlier game Utah pulled it out in a 13-10 defensive struggle.

• The high flying Texas Tech offense would have faced off against the fast, experienced Ohio State defense.

• Who wouldn’t have liked to see another SEC grudge match between Georgia and Florida?

• Nick Saban and Pete Carroll matching up in the second round would have been great. These 2 legendary programs would have drawn quite a buzz.

• We would have also may have had the opportunity to see what we thought the Fiesta Bowl should have been this year, Utah against Texas. The quicker Texas defense may have been too much for the Utes.

• We don’t need to comment on the final 4. Any of these 4 teams would have been deserving national champions after going through that rugged playoff schedule.

Popularity: 2% [?]

CollegeBowlProjections.com gives you the first bowl predictions for the upcoming NCAA college football 2009-2010 season. Find out where your team will go bowling next season. Give us your bowl projections in the comments section and see if you can top our predictions for the upcoming college football season.

2010 College Football Bowl Championship Series Rules:

The 2009-2010 college football national championship game will be held in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California on January 7th, 2010. The BCS selection process be as follows next year.

Conference champions for each BCS bowl game:

Atlantic Coast Conference-Orange Bowl
Big Ten Conference-Rose Bowl
Big 12 Conference-Fiesta Bowl
Pac-10 Conference-Rose Bowl
Southeastern Conference-Sugar Bowl

If any bowl game loses their conference champion to the national championship game, they will receive first chose for a replacement team.

The selection order for the 2010 BCS bowl games are:

1. Orange Bowl
2. Sugar Bowl
3. Fiesta Bowl

The Rose Bowl has first option to select the top Big Ten and Pac-10 teams remaining.

Stay update with the latest 2009 college football bowl predictions here.

Popularity: 62% [?]

Popularity: 8% [?]