Bowl Projections Update: Big-Name Opponent For UM, Florida Bowl For MSU
It wasn't a great weekend of college football for the state of Michigan's two biggest programs.
Michigan suffered a 29-point loss on national television to No. 2 Penn State, creating plenty of backlash towards the program and head coach Jim Harbaugh. The loss also dropped the Wolverines outside the AP Top 25 for the first time since early in Harbaugh's first season.
No. 16 Michigan State used a couple of late touchdowns to top upset-minded Indiana on Saturday. While the Spartans picked up the victory, they too did not look great and should feel fortunate to still be undefeated in the Big Ten.
With both the Wolverines and Spartans failing to impress this past weekend, it'll be interesting to see how the bowl projection experts slate them this week. Will they drop down a few pegs or remain where they were last week? Check out the latest projections below to see what impact this past weekend had.
Michigan – San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl vs. USC and Outback Bowl vs. Mississippi State
Michigan State – Outback Bowl vs. LSU and Citrus Bowl vs. Auburn
Michigan – Outback Bowl vs. LSU
Michigan State – Citrus Bowl vs. Auburn
Michigan – San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl vs. USC
Michigan State – Outback Bowl vs. South Carolina
Michigan – San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl vs. USC
Michigan State – Outback Bowl vs. Auburn
Michigan – San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl vs. USC
Michigan State – Outback Bowl vs. Texas A&M
To see how these bowl projections compare to last week, click here.
With neither team looking great this past week, there was not a whole lot of shakeup in the latest bowl projections.
After getting throttled by Penn State, you'd think that Michigan's bowl stock would take a hit but that really wasn't the case. The Wolverines actually moved up in one projection -- CBS Sports has Michigan in the Outback Bowl instead of Holiday Bowl now -- but other then that it remained the same for the big blue this week.
For another week the most common bowl choice was the Holiday Bowl, which isn't what most Michigan fans would have wanted entering the year. However, the projected opponent is USC so that would still be a matchup of two big-name programs.
For Michigan State it was also much of the same from last week. The projected opponents changed but the bowl did not for all six projections.
The Spartans appear to have hit their high-point in these projections and are most likely looking at the Citrus Bowl or Outback Bowl this year. The only thing that could raise Michigan State into a New Year's Six bowl is a 4-1 or better finish -- which means they'd need to beat either Penn State or Ohio State or both. The Spartans could still fall in these bowl projections as well if they drop a few games they shouldn't down the stretch.
