Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
It's the final week of October, which then leaves us basically November before we'll know for sure what the college football bowl lineup will look like. So, in the meantime, let's continue to project them out here.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 last week, which apparently was a good call, as Ohio State lost to Penn State and Michigan is still undefeated. The most intriguing projected matchups after this week: The entire Playoff, Ohio State vs. Washington State, OKLAHOMA VS. BOISE STATE ROUND TWO, Zombie LSU vs. West Virginia, and the very satisfying upcoming Navy win over Texas.
