Statement Week

Week 2 typically has some hugely anticipated match-ups. Unfortunately that is not the case this year. There is not one game that features 2 ranked teams. There are, however, some intriguing things to watch. Take a look at what we are watching here at collegebowlprojections.com:

The Pac-12

The Pac-12 conference has a lot to prove and a couple of wins against top 25 teams this week would go a long way to proving they can play with the big boys. The toughest match-up will be Washington heading to the Bayou to face LSU. We don’t expect a Husky win but if they can keep it somewhat close it would be a coup for the west coasters. There are 3 other games that are important for the conference; Nebraska @ UCLA, Wisconsin @ Oregon State and Oklahoma State @ Arizona. If the conference could somehow pull off 2 wins here it would catapult the Pac-12 into the upper echelon of conferences.

The SEC

We are interested to see how Texas A&M and Missouri will adapt to the SEC. The 2 newcomers have seemed extremely confident. There is a huge billboard in College Station proclaiming the Aggies as the best school in the conference. Missouri has been chirping claiming to be able to beat any team in the SEC. We will see this weekend if the SEC newbies are really ready to play in the best conference in America. We think both teams could be in for rough games.

Notre Dame 

Yes, Notre Dame scored 50 on Navy and looked good doing it… are they really any good? We will find out a lot this weekend as they face a much improved Purdue team. The Boilermakers want to take advantage of the Ohio State suspension and squeeze into the conference championship. They have to beat the Irish if they want to be taken seriously while Notre Dame could get their name into the BCS conversation with a win.

Depending on how these storylines play out we may be making big changes to the bowl predictions. Make sure to check back Sunday to see where your favorite team will be “bowling!”