Photo by Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
It's finally November, which means we have more than enough information from this college football season to project what the 2016-17 bowl lineup will look like.The bowl selection process has changed in the past three years, with the advent of the College Football Playoff and New Year's Six bowls, and conferences now have a greater say in the bowl pecking order than they did before.The top four teams go to the Playoff, regardless of conference, and the remaining New Year's Six bowls are filled out with conference tie-ins and at-large bids. All bowls have conference tie-ins, but those are broken when conferences can't fill all of their slots. Here's a good look at the tie-in and selection process. Teams have to be at least 6-6 to make a bowl, but if there aren't enough 6-6 teams to fill all of the slots, 5-7 teams are selected based on their Academic Progress Rate.I had Michigan replacing Ohio State in the Playoff a few weeks ago, which was apparently a good call, as Ohio State has since lost to Penn State and only narrowly defeated Northwestern this weekend, and Michigan remains undefeated after a rivalry game in East Lansing. The most intriguing projected matchups after this week: the entire Playoff, Ohio State vs. Washington State, Louisville vs. Wisconsin, and LSU vs. Western Michigan.
